Jack London is a natural, a naturalist, a vivid writer. Author of Call of the Wild, White Fang, and others, his talent ensures his ability to make his readers both love and hate his main characters throughout the same novel.
Buck...poor, poor Buck.
Buck...mean, vicious Buck.
While I could see, and even relate (uh, oh!), to both sides of this dog's nature, I was surprised at my students who only wanted to see the first descriptor. Why?
No pun intended...but is it because they always go for the underdog? Because they innately want/need a hero? Maybe...just maybe...it's because London hooked them so vividly from the first sentence that, despite Buck's faults, they felt bound to cheer this dog on in all his many circumstances?
I, along with the majority of my students, read this novel for the first time. If you have not read this novelette, please do so! Take the journey of Buck, the journey all the way back to his ancestors. Connect with the kinship he feels towards those who become his family.
Along the way, enjoy the setting of the Klondike, a gold rush that made Jack London more money from writing about this rush for gold in Alaska than actually experiencing it first-hand, which he did, and therein lies the reason for such vivid writing!
Grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate...you have a lot of ice and snow ahead of you...and prepare to get to know man's best friend...or his worst enemy.
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