CALL OF THE WILD CH 1

1 The Call of the WildJack LondonTHE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIESA ccess EditionsSERIES EDITORR obert D. ShepherdEMC/Paradigm PublishingSt. Paul, MinnesotaStaff Credits:ForEMC/Paradigm Publishing,St. Paul, MinnesotaForPenobscot School Publishing, Inc.,Danvers, MassachusettsISBN 0 8219 1615 7 Copyright 1998 by EMC CorporationAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be adapted, reproduced,stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, elec-tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permis-sion from the by EMC/Paradigm Publishing875 Montreal WaySt. Paul, Minnesota 55102 Printed in the United States of 9 8 7 6 5 4 xxx 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Laurie SkibaEditorShannon O Donnell TaylorAssociate EditorEileen SlaterEditorial ConsultantEditorialRobert D.

2 ShepherdPresident, Executive EditorChristina KolbManaging EditorKim Leahy BeaudetEditorSara HyryEditorMarilyn Murphy ShepherdEditorSharon SalingerCopyeditorDesign and ProductionCharles Q. BentProduction ManagerSara DayArt DirectorTatiana CicutoCompositorTable of ContentsThe Life and Works of Jack London.. ivBiographical Time Line.. viHistorical Time Line .. viiIntroduction: Historical Overview .. viiiList of Characters .. xMap and Illustrations .. xiiChapter I .. Into the Primitive .. 1 Chapter II .. The Law of Club and Fang .. 16 Chapter III .. The Dominant Primordial Beast.. 29 Chapter IV .. Who Has Won to Mastership .. 48 Chapter V .. The Toil of Trace and Trail .. 61 Chapter VI .. For the Love of a Man .. 81 Chapter VII .. The Sounding of the Call .. 99 Plot Analysis ofThe Call of the Wild.

3 122 Creative Writing Activities .. 124 Critical Writing Activities .. 125 Projects .. 126 Glossary .. 128 Handbook of Literary Terms .. 135ivTHE CALL OF THE WILDTHE LIFE AND WORKS OFJack LondonJack London (1876-1916).London was born in SanFrancisco, california , to Flora Wellman Chaney. His fatherhad deserted the family before he was born. When Londonwas nine months old, his mother married John London, awidower with two daughters. Because of the family s severepoverty, Jack left school at the age of fourteen to work in acannery, and he experienced the colorful life of the SanFrancisco waterfront. By the age of sixteen, London had beenboth an oyster pirate and a member of the San Francisco BayFish Patrol. In 1893, at the age of seventeen, London joinedthe crew of a sealing schooner called theSophia Sutherlandand traveled on an eight-month expedition as far away asHawaii, Siberia, and Japan.

4 Based on this experience, Londonwrote the essay Story of a Typhoon off the Coast of Japan, which won a twenty-five-dollar first prize in a San Francisconewspaper contest. After his experience at sea, Londonworked as a coal heaver in the power plant of Oakland, california , shoveling coal for ten cents an hour. Then hejoined Kelly s Army, a group of unemployed men march-ing to Washington to protest poor economic leaving Kelly s Army and serving time in prison forvagrancy, London toured the East Coast and then returnedto the West Coast by train, traveling across Canada on a coalcar. He earned passage on a ship going from Vancouver toCalifornia by stoking his return to Oakland, London became determined tobecome a writer; he read voraciously and, at the age of nine-teen, continued his education at Oakland High School.

5 Afterone semester at the University of california , London joinedcountless others in the Klondike gold rush . He spent a win-ter on Split-Up Island, eight miles from the major communityof the Klondike Region, Dawson City. Ill with scurvy, hereturned to Oakland and began writing seriously, focusingon his Northland experiences. At the age of twenty-three,London made his literary breakthrough with the story AnOdyssey of the North, which was published by theAtlanticMonthlymagazine in 1899. Another notable piece publishedJack LondonTHE LIFE AND WORKS OF JACK LONDON vduring this time was To the Man on the Trail, whichappeared in theOverland Monthly. He also published abouttwenty other stories, essays, and wrote over two hundred short stories in the nexttwenty years.

6 During that time he also published twentynovels, more than four hundred nonfiction pieces, and threeplays. Despite the extraordinary variety of subjects exploredin his work, London s reputation as a writer was based largelyon his works about the great North Country. These worksincluded twenty-eight short stories, four novels, one play,and six nonfiction pieces. London s writings about the NorthCountry are, by and large, examples of Naturalism, a literarymovement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-turies that saw actions and events as arising inevitably fromforces in the environment. London s most famous novels setin the North areThe Call of the Wild(1903) andWhite Fang(1906). His other novels includeThe Sea-Wolf(1904),TheGame(1905),Martin Eden(1909),John Barleycorn(1913), andJerry of the Islands(1917).

7 His collections of short storiesincludeLove of Life(1907),Lost Face(1910), andOn theMakaloa Mat(1919).Sickness plagued London throughout his thirties. At agethirty-one, he contracted tropical sicknesses in the SolomonIslands. At age thirty-seven, he underwent surgery for appen-dicitis and doctors discovered that his kidneys were following year he hoped to report on the MexicanRevolution but was struck with dysentery. Two years later, atforty years of age, Jack London died of heart failure and apossible stroke. Despite this untimely death, London left awide body of works. The works of Jack London greatly influ-enced many modern writers, including George Orwell andErnest Hemingway. His works have been translated into overeighty languages and remain extremely popular CALL OF THE WILD187618781881189018921893189418951897 18991900190319041906191019131916 Biographical Time LineJack Griffith Chaney is born in San Francisco, california .

8 His father, WilliamHenry Chaney, deserts the family, but his mother marries a man named JohnLondon when Jack is nine months family moves to Oakland, california , where John runs a grocery family moves to a farm in Alameda, and Jack starts grade leaves school to work in a cannery. A few months later he pur-chases a boat and becomes an oyster pirate on San Francisco serves for nearly a year as a deputy fish patrolman in the FishPatrol of San Francisco sails to Japan and Siberia on a seal-hunting voyage. Based on thisexperience, he writes a prize-winning essay called Story of a Typhoon off theCoast of Japan, published in theSan Francisco Morning works as a coal-heaver in the power plant of Oakland. He joins agroup called Kelly s Army, travels around the Midwest and the East Coastprotesting poor economic conditions, and is arrested for vagrancy inNiagara decides to become a writer and returns to high school joins the gold rush to the Klondike, where he spends two search for gold is unsuccessful, but the setting inspires many of hismost successful novels and gets his first literary break: He publishes a story, An Odyssey ofthe North, in theAtlantic publishes a collection of stories,The Son of this time heis a popular and well-paid publishes the novelThe Call of the Wild,which confirms his sta-tus as a great American writer.

9 He also publishesThe People of the Abyss, abook influenced by the theory of Social publishes the novelThe publishes the novelWhite settles near Glen Ellen, california . He publishes the s house burns dies on November 22, at the age of TIME LINEvii187618771880188118841889189018921 8961897189819011902190419081910191219141 916 Historical Time LineColorado is admitted to the Union; Lieutenant George Custer and whitesoldiers are defeated by the Sioux in the Battle of Little Big B. Hayes becomes Abram Garfield is elected Garfield is assassinated. Chester Alan Arthur succeeds as Cleveland is elected president; Alaska becomes a district governedby the laws of the state of Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington are admitted tothe last major military battle between whites and Native Americans theBattle of Wounded Knee takes place in South Cleveland is elected to a second term as McKinley is elected president.

10 gold is discovered in the Klondikeregion of rush to stake claims in the Klondike. The United States Spanish-American War, a conflict between Spain and the UnitedStates, is fought in Cuba and the McKinley is assassinated. Theodore Roosevelt succeeds is discovered in the Fairbanks region of Roosevelt is Taft is elected National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) is Wilson is elected president. War I Wilson is CALL OF THE WILDINTRODUCTIONH istorical OverviewThe Klondike gold RushThe Call of the Wildis a novel inspired by Jack London sexperiences during the Klondike gold rush in the YukonTerritory of northwest Canada. Like many other Klondikegold-seekers, London was attracted to the Yukon Territorybecause of its promise of wealth, and because the ruggedarea, known to many as the Last Frontier, was an idealplace to test one s courage, adaptability, and Yukon Territory is bordered by the Arctic Ocean tothe north, the Northwest Territory to the east, BritishColumbia to the south, and Alaska to the west.