Author Information
Jack London (b. John Griffith London Jan. 12, l876, San Francisco - d. Nov. 22, 1916, Glen Ellen, Calif.)
London was a novelist and short-story writer, whose works deal romantically with harsh struggles for survival. He is one of the most extensively translated U.S. authors, having found a special popularity in the Soviet Union.
Deserted by his father, he was raised in Oakland, Calif., by his spiritualist mother and his stepfather, whose surname, London, he took.
At 14 he quit school to escape poverty and find adventure. He explored San Francisco Bay in his sloop, alternately stealing oysters or working for the government fish patrol. He went to Japan as a sailor and saw much of the U.S. as a hobo riding freight trains. An observation of depressed conditions, fortified by a prison term for vagrancy, turned him at age 18 into a militant Marxist Socialist (communist). Rebelling against becoming a "work beast," London educated himself at public libraries, where he studied the writings of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
At age 19 he crammed a four-year high school course into one year. He entered the University of California at Berkeley but after one year abandoned education to seek a fortune in the Klondike during the gold rush of 1897. Returning the next year, still poor and unable to find work, he decided to earn a living as a writer.
London trained for his literary career by studying literary magazines, and then set a gruelling daily schedule of writing sonnets, ballads, jokes, anecdotes, adventure stories, and horror stories. His aim was to steadily increase his output of writing.
Within two years of his Klondike adventure, he began to win acceptance because his stories though often crude were about a fresh subject matter, the Gold Rush. During the remainder of his life he produced steadily, completing 50 books in 17 years. Although he became the highest paid writer in the U.S., his earnings never matched his expenditures, and he was never freed from the urgency to keep writing to pay his debts.
After sailing a ketch to the South Pacific, he settled in 1910 on a ranch near Glen Ellen, California, where he built his grandiose "Wolf House." He remained a socialist to the end of his life and was a hero among revolutionaries.
His death from an overdose of drugs is usually regarded as a suicide. His reputation had declined in the 1920's when a brilliant new generation of post-war writers made pre-war writers like London seem lacking in sophistication. His wife, Charmian London, wrote a biography of his life called The Book of Jack London (1921), and his daughter, Joan London, wrote another biography called Jack London and His Times.
Other works by Jack London:
Martin Eden The Road
The Son of the Wolf John Barleycorn
Call of the Wild The Sea Wolf
White Fang The Iron Heel
Burning Daylight
Study Questions
Answer these study questions in complete sentences. Some questions will require more than one sentence to adequately answer the question. Some questions are actually groups of related questions. Your job is to answer every part of every question with as much detail as possible. The better you do on these questions, the better you will understand the novel.
1. Titles are used by authors to foreshadow coming events and to give the reader the proper mind-set for understanding the author's theme. Predict in two or three sentences what you believe that the title is foreshadowing to you as a reader.
2. Frequently authors also use chapter titles to foreshadow coming events within each subsection of the novel. Preview the chapter titles of this novel, and then in two or three sentences predict in more detail what you can expect to read about in this novel.
3. Authors create stories around the conflicts between major characters. However, minor characters are also very important to a story, and a true artist will never create a minor character without a reason. The reason is usually that this minor character will affect the life of a major character in some way. Keep a character chart for this novel. Divide it into three columns. In the first column, simply list the name of the character. If the name is short for a longer name, or if the name has a special meaning, list this information in the first column also. In the second column, describe the character. In the third column, tell how this character affects Buck's life. In other words, how does this character change Buck's life, Buck's attitudes, or Buck's character?
4. Why would being able to read a newspaper have helped Buck to avoid the trouble that was brewing?
5. Why do you think that London decided to name Buck's owner Judge Miller instead of Mr. Miller? Look back to the title of the novel and the titles of the chapters for a clue.
6. Write a thorough description of Buck which includes his age, his physical appearance, his parental heritage, his abilities, and most importantly his personality. Be sure that you do not copy sentences from the text, but instead that you summarize in your own words.
7. What circumstances made it possible for thieves to steal Buck away from his beloved home?
8. At this point in Buck's life, why does Buck trust man more than he trusts his own instincts?
9. What fatal flaw in Buck's character allowed him to be led into danger?
10. Buck was wounded by the men who kidnapped him, but more than being physically wounded, he was emotionally wounded. What part of Buck's emotions was wounded most by his brutal experiences?
11. Why did Buck give up storming and raging at the men in San Francisco who poked sticks at him?
12. On your map find the Santa Clara Valley, the valley just south of San Jose where Buck was born, and place a colored dot there. Then using dots and a ruler, follow Buck's travels northward and throughout the Klondike. Every time the author uses local color by listing place names, mark them on your map.
13. Buck never learns the names of many of the men who mistreat him. How does the author allow us to know each man distinctly without using names?
14. What is the first lesson that Buck learns during his travels north? How does this lesson relate to the chapter title?
15. What does it mean to be beaten but not broken?
16. How does Buck know that he will be going with the man called Perrault? What does this tell you about Buck?
17. Describe Perrault, and then explain whether you like the man based upon his description. Describe Francois and explain what "half-breed" means in his case.
18. On page 701 the author foreshadows the eventual outcome of Buck's story. Find and quote the sentence that tells what will eventually become of Buck.
19. How are Perrault and Francois different from the men that Buck has known since his kidnapping? How are they like his former owner, Judge Miller?
20. In literature the color white is usually a symbol of goodness and purity. How is the color of the dog from Spitzbergen ironic?
21. Buck decides that Francois is a fair man. What causes Buck to draw this conclusion?
22. When Buck first encounters snow, he tries to compare it to things with which he is familiar. He uses similes to understand what this new something is. What are the similes that he uses to understand his first snow?
23. The author says that Buck's first day on the Dyea Beach was like a nightmare. What is a nightmare like to Jack London?
24. Buck has a vicarious experience which teaches him his second lesson of the journey. Look up the word vicarious and define it. Then tell what the experience was and what lesson it taught to Buck.
25. Buck is shocked by the injustice and violence of the attack against Curly, but the dog from Spitzbergen, Spitz, has a different reaction. What is Spitz's reaction to Curly's tragedy, and why does Buck hate him for it?
26. What is the Law of Club? What is the Law of Fang?
27. Why did Buck resent hauling heavy loads? Why did he decide not to rebel against this hateful job?
28. What did Dave and Sol-leks have in common? What is the vital ambition that they share?
29. What do Perrault and Francois do for a living?
30. What is ironic about Dave and Sol-leks' reaction to being harnessed?
31. What lesson does Buck learn about hard work from Dave and Sol-leks?
32. What changes does Buck make in his eating habits? What lesson has he learned which is revealed through these changes?
33. What characteristic does Buck possess which the author says makes him fit to survive in a hostile environment? Does London believe that man also must possess this characteristic in order to survive in hostile surroundings?
34. In order for Buck to be fit to survive, he must give up another characteristic of his personality. What must he give up? Do you think that the author believes that man must also give up this characteristic in order to survive in hostile surroundings? Do you agree with the author?
35. What does the expression "Survival of the Fittest" mean?
36. What changes are occurring in Buck's physical nature which make him more and more fit to survive?
37. What habits does Buck develop which show that he is heeding the call of the wild?
38. What does London mean when he says that life is a puppet thing?
39. What is the ancient song that surged through Buck and allowed him to come into his own again? What does "come into his own" mean?
40. The word beast has a special symbolic meaning in literature. The word is usually associated with evil and the devil. The word primordial means the earliest starting point of something's existence. After watching the changes in Buck in the first two chapters, what does this title foreshadow about Buck's changing character?
41. What actions does Spitz commit which are finally too much for the patient Buck to bear?
42. Although Buck is terribly frightened by the attack of the wild huskies, he learns that he likes something about fighting. What is it?
43. Why is it important for a man to carry a long pole in the Yukon?
44. What kindnesses does Francois do for Buck? Why doesn't Buck ever learn to love Francois or Perrault despite his great respect for them?
45. Perrault says that Spitz is a devil, but Francois says that Buck is two devils. How do these names relate to the title of the chapter. Is it evil to be a devil in the Yukon? Explain your reasoning.
46. Buck has regained his lost pride since his arrival in the Yukon. What is he proud of now?
47. Why does Spitz's pride cause him to hate Buck?
48. Would Buck have attempted to take Spitz's place as leader of the team if Spitz had been friendly to him when Buck first arrived in the Yukon? Explain your reasoning.
49. Why is the old song that Buck sings in a minor key rather than a major key?
50. What characteristic in Buck allowed him to win against Spitz?
51. The author says that mercy is a thing reserved for gentler climates. If two men had been fighting one another, and one had beaten the other, do you think that the author would believe that it was right for the victor to kill the loser? Explain your reasoning.
52. How does Buck's refusal to go back to his old place in the harnesses indicate a change in the way that he feels about humans and their wisdom?
53. Jack London believed in the philosophy of atavism. This means that he believed that people revert back to their primitive heritage in times of great hardship and suffering, leaving all their civilized beliefs behind. Thus, Buck is a symbol of civilized man forced to return to his primordial beginnings. How do Buck's three dreams reveal his atavism? Pay attention to which dream is the strongest and occurs the most often.
54. Why did Dave refuse to be taken out of the traces so that he could rest?
55. How does Buck react to the death of Dave? How is this similar to his reaction to the departure of Perrault, who knelt and wept as he hugged Buck good-bye?
56. Why did the author fail to give a name to Buck's owner, the Scotch half-breed? Was this man less kind than Perrault or Francois? Explain your reasoning.
57. Why didn't Buck like Mercedes?
58. What does Buck do to get revenge on the "greenhorns?"
59. What character trait is leading the three newcomers to their destruction? This character trait seems to have kept Buck from his destruction. Or has it? What is the difference?
60. What things do the newcomers take pride in which a wiser person would know are foolish?
61. What did Buck observe in the newcomers which told him that they would never learn how to survive in the Yukon?
62. Hal beats the dogs with a club and the whip because he has a theory that one must get hardened in order to survive. If this is what he believes, why is his acceptance of Mercedes' behavior ironic?
63. Buck makes a decision at John Thornton's camp which is the turning point of his life. What decision does he make? What is Buck's new attitude toward man, and how will this new attitude determine his destiny?
64. How does Justice catch up with the three newcomers?
65. John calls Buck "You poor devil." Relate this name to other uses of the word devil in the novel.
66. Why did Buck love John Thornton, when he had never loved Judge Miller or his grandsons? Look at Thornton's qualities which Judge Miller and Buck's other owners did not possess.
67. Why doesn't Buck seek out Thornton's hand as Skeet and Nig do?
68. Thornton felt mercy for Buck when he saved him, but Buck has not regained his former feelings of mercy for others. Why does Buck decide that he can never again feel mercy?
69. Why does Buck's total devotion to Thornton make Thornton afraid?
70. Once again Buck is asked to pull an overloaded sled. What makes Buck more willing to pull this load than the other load? What made Buck willing to pull both loads?
71. Why does the primordial vision come to Buck more now that Thornton and his partners are occupied with mining gold?
72. The land of the Yukon has been an unfriendly enemy for Buck, but suddenly this changes when he meets his wild brother. London uses a personification to show the change. Find the personification which tells you that the land is no longer an enemy to Buck.
73. When Buck begins to sleep out at night and stays away from camp for days at a time, he is revealing that he is becoming wild. Why doesn't Thornton prevent him from becoming wild by encouraging Buck to sleep with him and giving Buck work which would keep him in camp?
74. What does Buck now take ultimate pride in?
75. The young bulls try to protect the wounded bull, but eventually they leave him to Buck. Why do they abandon one of their own? Does London believe that human beings should do this if the sacrifice of one would protect the many? Do you believe this?
76. Where did Buck learn the technique he used to hunt and kill the moose?
77. What was the only thing that caused Buck to forget the pain he felt at Thornton's death?
78. What final lesson does Buck learn about man in Thornton's camp?
79. What has caused a change in the timber wolves in the Yeehats' territory?
80. Who is the Ghost Dog who has cunning greater than man, steals from their camps in fierce winters, robs their traps, slays their dogs, and defies and kills their bravest hunters? What evidence tells you who this Ghost Dog is?
81. What other name have the Yeehats given to the Ghost Dog? How does this name relate to the names which Buck has been given throughout the novel?
82. Why does London describe a yellow stream that flows from rotted moose-hide sacks and sinks into the ground, with long grasses growing through it and vegetable mold overrunning it and hiding its yellow from the sun? Hint: What makes the stream yellow?
83. Why does Buck return to the valley each summer? What is the prevailing emotion of the scene when Buck returns? Does London consider Buck's transformation to a wild wolf good or evil, or neither?
84. How do you think that London would define the word evil? Do you agree with this definition or not? Explain your reasoning.
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