In the book The Call of the Wild the main character is a Saint Bernard and Scotch Shepard mix, whose name is Buck. During the book, I found out that Buck could be faithful and reliable to his master, if his master was faithful to him. Buck could also turn easily into an angry beast if something angered him that way.
Buck was raised at a large house in the Santa Clara Valley in California; called Judge Millers Place. At this house, Buck was the leader to all the dogs there. Buck and Judge Miller were inseparable companions until one day, a man name Manuel, who was a gardener at Judge Millers Place, stole Buck in his sleep and took him away from Judge Miller. He did this in order to cover his Chinese lottery debts. Buck was taken to a flag station where Manuel and a man exchanged money. Manuel then tied a rope around Bucks neck so tight it made him black out. When Buck awoke, he opened his eyes to see the kidnapper reaching for his throat but Buck bites him, which makes the man put him in a crate and lock him up without food or water for two days and two nights. This only angers Buck more.
When the train finally got to the flag station in Seattle, a man with a club and a hatchet begins to break open the crate. Buck decided that this man was his next victim and starts growling and attacks the man. The man then beats him with the club until he is too weak to continue. Then two men named Perrault and Francois pick him up and they put him on a ship called the Narwhal. The Narwhal was a ship that took him to Yukon to be trained to be a sled dog. In a short matter of time, Buck became a very good sled dog. He joins up with two other sled dogs, Spitz and Dave, on their journey northward. He later comes to hate Spitz because he killed one of Bucks friends. Unfortunately, Buck realizes that the weather is growing colder and he has never seen snow before. The first day up north for Buck is rough and unpleasant. He is cold and doesnt like how violent the dogs and the men around him are. Seeing all the fighting, Buck realizes that to survive in this world, he will have to make sure that he never goes down in a fight.
By the next day, there were nine dogs on the team. The team works with mail carriers for the Canadian government, who travel an average of forty miles a day. This is good experience for Buck because is the future he is going to have to be traveling many more hours. During the time he worked with this team, he learned to eat his food fast so that no one could take it from him. The morals that he had learned at Judge Millers Place slowly slipped away and old urges begin to come through.
Over time, Buck learns more and more about being out in the wild and defending himself. He tries to stay away from fights but his enemy, Spitz, becomes more of a rival and tries to start fights with Buck. One night the team spots a rabbit and they all chase it and when Spitz takes a shortcut and cuts off Buck and the rest of the team, Buck is infuriated. After Buck was covered in blood, he tricks Spitz and attacks him and breaks his leg and then takes care of him from there. The next day when they were getting harnessed up, Francois does not notice but Buck takes Spitz spot as leader and tried to put Sol-leks in this spot. Well, Buck is sure that he is able to do this job and so he scares away Sol-leks and keeps his place. Francois goes and gets the club, which scares Buck from the leading position, but still he refused to return to his normal spot in line. Finally Francois realizes that Buck will not settle for anything less and decides that he has earned the job as the leader anyways.
As the days past, Francois and Perrault made the trip to Dawson. By the time they got there, most of the dogs were severely injured. Some of them had broken legs and some of them were just very sick. The dog that was in best condition was Buck, although he had many wounds and bruises. When Francois and Perrault got to Dawson, Buck was traded to a family who knew absolutely nothing about managing a sled team. The new family loaded up the sled only to find out that it was too heavy to be pulled. After a rough time, between the amounts of food to the weight of the load, the team was exhausted and some even died, leaving five dogs in the team. Eventually the team reaches John Thorntons camp where they are told that the ice was melting and they should not go across it or it may fall through. Hal, the new master, ignores this and pushes the dogs to go on. Buck sensed danger and refused to get up. After getting beaten to the point of not feeling it anymore, John stands up for Buck and threatens to kill Hal if he hits Buck again. Buck is then cut from the traces and the rest of the team goes on without him. Just a few seconds later, John sees the back end on the sled fall through the ice and the dogs and the humans disappear into the dark cold water.
After the mistreatment Buck went through with Hal, he slowly recovered with John Thornton. Buck experienced love for the first time with Thornton. He was the man that saved his life and he respected him greatly for it and obeyed everything he said. Buck saves Thorntons life a couple times also. One time Thornton was thrown out of a boat and into fierce rapids and Buck swam out to save him. After a couple attempts he finally saves him and they were both safe and unharmed.
John Thornton with 2 friends and his team of sled dogs, head off to find a lost mine that was said to make a man rich. They live in and off the wilderness for some time until they find the lost mine and get thousands of dollars in gold. Buck is bored with waiting around while his master finds gold, so he goes out one night and meets a friend. They become good friends and they do everything together for a couple days. Then one night, Buck went back to camp where his owners were and couldnt find his friend after that.
One day while Buck was walking though the woods, he got a feeling that something was different but he couldnt figure out what it was until he found the dogs dead as well has Thorntons friends and his master, Thornton. Buck finds out that the Indians did it and he goes and kills the Indians. While morning his masters death, he was also proud that he killed the Indians. Later that night he hears the cry of his friend and his pack and follows it until he finds them and Buck joins along and fits in great.
Buck was always a leader his whole life. He showed this in many different ways though out the story. He was always fighting for mastery and in the end that is what he had won.
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