So far, this novel has depicted Buck’s complete transformation from the Southland civilized dog, living in the peaceful society of Judge Miller’s estate in Chapter 1 into a dog that, through his strength and instinct and cunning, is quickly able to master the law of club and fang, and then in the middle chapter of the novel, we saw Buck becoming the master of the entire dogsled team. In contrast, in the last half of the novel, we have seen him almost destroyed by the incompetency and ineptness of three people of the Southland—Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. In the last chapter, we saw proof of how thoroughly Buck became a creature of deep loyalty and admiration to a man fully deserving this devotion. This final chapter, then, will present yet another view of Buck: his complete reversion to the primitive, or in the terms of this novel, his final surrender to the “call of the wild.”
Returning to the narrative, we realize anew that John Thornton is now in possession of sixteen hundred dollars. Thus, he and Pete and Hans are able to pay off their debts, which they do, and then the three of them take off in search of a fabled lost gold mine, a mine which many have heard of, and many have searched for, but most have died searching for it. Yet the legend of the lost mine persists: “Dying men had sworn to it . . . clinching their testimony with nuggets that were unlike any known grade of gold in the Northland.”
Even though the lost mine might be fictitious, or nonexistent, yet John Thornton and Buck are delighted to start out on a journey through “infinite wandering in strange places.” The search for the lost gold mine is a traditional search which fills many adventure novels of Western literature; likewise, the search for the fabled Fountain of Youth, as well as the search for the Holy Grail, are other quests well known in Western literature. In each search, the participants have to undergo many trials and tribulations, but it is the quest itself that is, ultimately, as important as the discovery. In this particular quest, Thornton, Hans, and Pete move farther and farther away from civilization, and thus they are immersed deeper and deeper into nature’s primordial conditions. Meanwhile, Buck devotedly follows his master in search of the lost gold mine, and, likewise, he is brought closer and closer to the primordial wilderness and its primitive existence.
As they travel, they almost always rely on their own ingenuity for food, and when food is scarce, they go without. There is no alternative. Months pass, and, as London says, they “twisted through the unchartered vastness where no men were.” Once they do find the shambles of an old hunting lodge, and there they find remnants that indicate that other men have been here before. Then, in the spring, they find the place where the large, legendary gold nuggets are supposed to be. The men pan for gold, and, in London’s words, “they heaped the treasure up. Buck spends many long hours close to the fire, and he remembers the “short-legged hairy man” who appeared in Chapter 3. The overwhelming memory which Buck has of this hairy man concerns Buck’s being constantly frightened and, along with the memory of this ape-like figure, is the call of the wild, a call which Buck constantly hears in the forest. It causes strange and unknown feelings to rise within him. He is aware of some kind of primitive yearnings which he cannot identify. Employing the philosophy of Naturalism, London is apparently trying to juxtapose the dream of the “ape man” as being symbolic of the primitive element in all humankind; thus, this figure represents a kind of primitive ancestor calling to Buck, imploring him to respond and to return to the call of the wild.
After his dream of the hairy man, Buck becomes ever more entranced by the call of the wild. It becomes, finally, almost irresistible. Sometimes, according to London, Buck springs up from sleeping with a start, and from the forest, he hears a long-drawn howl, “. . . unlike any noise made by a husky dog.” One time, he even follows the sound and comes upon an open place in a grove where he sees a lean timber wolf howling at the sky. Buck is much larger than this wolf, and so he chases the wolf into “one blind channel” after another, but he does so only to let the wolf know that he intends it no harm. Afterward, running through the woods with the wolf, Buck knows at last that he is answering “the call,” running side-by-side with his “wood brother.” It is almost as if he feels that he has done the same thing before—but in another world—”now only a dim memory.”
In the midst of his re-introduction and re-immersion into the wilderness, however, Buck suddenly stops and remembers John Thornton, and he retraces his steps back to the camp where he finds John Thornton amused by Buck’s actions. These scenes are, of course, showing Buck constantly fluctuating between being a part of civilization, as represented by Thornton, and concomitantly, showing the fascinating lure of the “call of the wild,” represented by the baying of wild wolves.
Buck fluctuates; he spends a couple of days in camp with John Thornton, and then suddenly he becomes restless, and once again, he takes to wandering in the woods. Then, more and more, he stays away from the camp for days at a time. In the wilderness, he wanders about seeking signs of his “wild brother”—the wolf. He fishes for salmon, and, at one point, he even kills a large black bear because feelings have been aroused in him which are latent remnants of the primitive and the ferocious.
