On Jack London’s The Call of the Wild From the Perspective of Ecocriticism

Ⅰ. Introduction

The Call of the Wild is one of Jack London’s famous novels about animals. This novel describes that a dog， called Buck， is involved in the wave of gold rush in Alaska and undergoes a set of thrilling misfortunes with the background of primitive wildness in North America. Finally， his memories of the ancient ancestors are aroused by the wolf cry and make him return to the nature. Although the protagonist of the story is a dog， the author gives him spirituality and intelligence to reveal the cold relationships among people and the fierce competition.

In the novel， he paid more attention to the ecological problems with the purpose of evoking more people to care for nature. His ecological view exactly provides a good point to study the novel from the perspective of ecocriticism. Ecocriticism originated from America in the 1970s. It is a new model of criticism. Under the ecologism， especially ecological holism guiding ideology， ecocriticism is a kind of literary criticism to discuss the relations between literature and nature. This paper will mainly analyze this novel from the unscrupulous behavior of human to advocate the establishment of a harmonious world.

II.The Unscrupulous Behaviors

2.1 Mistreating Animals

In The Call of the Wild， there is a lot of unscrupulous behaviors. Buck was an originally pampered strong pet dog of judge Miller’s house， however， then he lived a miserable life for a long time after he was stolen near the residence and resold by dealers for several times. For example， when “Buck crumpled up and went down， knocked utterly senseless”， he did not get others’ sympathy， but only spectator’s praise to groomer. Then he fully understood that he could not beat a person holding the stick. This gave him an important lesson which would not be forgotten in his whole life. It was for that very reason， Buck recognized human and forced himself to submit to human. In the story， the stick in the hands of red sweater man was the symbol of force. Under the thought of anthropocentrism at that time， Buck and other dogs had become the ultimate tools in people’s hands to meet their all kinds of greed. From the perspective of ecocriticism， the interests of mankind should not be gained at the expense of animals’ right. Animals are living creatures in the world， just like human， they are also worthy of respect. At any given time， human should be aware that all lives have equal states， that is the reason why caring for animals is care for ourselves.

2.2 Violating Natural Laws

Compared with mistreating animals， violating natural laws will cause worse consequence because animals just take a very small proportion in nature. One of Buck’s masters， a Scotch half-breed， worked hard for an ordinary life all the way. He was a law-abiding and self-supported citizen who treated every dog fairly. However， he ignored the true situation on purpose： it was obvious that sled dogs had to face heavy work day after day， after all， every hard trip was based on the cost of large physical strength. After a period of time， the weight of all dogs was reduced， they were in poor condition. However， the driver still encouraged these dogs to move on. Here， Jack London expressed such a notion： any life had its own significance and value； all beings in nature had their own beauty and rule of life. In Jack London’s eyes， many civilized noble people were actually impotent even contemptible. They were doomed to die when they attempted to control nature， look down upon the rule of nature and do whatever they want. This was also what the author wanted to convey that a hundred years ago when the industrial revolution had made a lot of achievements and all of people were in hubris.

2.3 Destroying Natural Environment

At the beginning of the novel， Jack London described that thousands of people entered the northern wasteland continuously by various means. For those who were full of desire on the way to get money， the wild northern land was the source of wealth. And there was only one idea on the mind of gold diggers： wealth was waiting for them and the more， the better. The limited resources made those men kill each other cruelly. Hal and his family did not care for environment； they could do anything at any moment during their traveling. They threw away the luggage at will. At last， they suffered the serious consequences by nature. Ecocriticism has a great effect on human society. It comes into being in an attempt to use literary and cultural power to avoid the ecological crisis and save the environment for human existence. In the face of the whole ecosystem， the endless actions of plundering natural resources will lead to desertification， the decrease of forest， and water pollution and so on. Protecting nature is beneficial to mankind. Or one day man will pay a heavy price for looking down upon nature.

III. Conclusion

In the novel， the author tried to convey his idea from the feel of animals， so Buck was dressed up into a man. By using his intelligence and perseverance Buck gradually got rid of the slavish life and ended with being the leader of wolves. Here revealed the wonderful dream of author， that was， casting off the shackles of society to lead a pure life.

The foregoing discussion demonstrates that The Call of the Wild contains the thought of ecocriticism. On the one hand， the idea of ecocriticism enriches the connotation and the ideas of the novel. On the other hand， it has far-reaching significance for cultivating people’s ecological consciousness to achieve the harmonious relationship among man， nature and society. Therefore， the most realistic significance of ecocriticism is to awake people’s ecological consciousness in the process of reflection and criticism. It gives many warning to human behavior and the traditional anthropocentric view that the destruction to nature has been endangering the survival of mankind.