As the men gradually proceed to file off Judge Miller's heavy brass collar from Buck's neck, we realize that these men are filing off the last vestige of civilization. Afterward, Buck is thrown into a cage. It is ironic that in civilization, Buck was free to roam, but now, taken from his familiar surroundings, he is brutally flung into a cage. Buck's reaction is to become more and more ferocious, as he attempts time and again, unsuccessfully, to break out of the bars. For two days and two nights, Buck neither eats nor drinks; his eyes become bloodshot and, finally, he is "metamorphosed into a raging fiend." By the time that the train carrying Buck reaches Seattle, he is so changed, says London, that not even Judge Miller would recognize him.
At Seattle, Buck is delivered into the hands of a "stout man with a red sweater and a club." To this man, Buck seems to be hardly a dog; the man calls Buck a "truly red-eyed devil," and again and again, Buck attempts to attack the man in the red sweater; as a result, Buck is taught the first law of primitive society — that is, a man with a club in his hand is more powerful than a single dog. London refers to this "lesson" as the "law of the club." Significantly, the man in the red sweater finally admits that Buck is indeed a powerful and great adversary. Once Buck has learned that the "law of the club" is a law that he must obey, he allows the man in the red sweater to bring him water to drink and food to eat; he even eats the food from the man's hand. It is obvious that Buck knows that he is beaten, but, as London tells us, Buck is not broken: he was beaten (he knew that), "but he was not broken." To Buck, the man with the club, a kind of "cave man" figure, represents the potential for the primitive element in all of us. The red of his sweater hearkens us to recall Buck's blood-red eyes and also the blood which Buck is covered with after his beating, as well as the red blood of raw meat. Red, therefore, serves as a symbol of savagery.
Even though Buck recognizes that a man with a club is a master to be obeyed, yet Buck does not do what some dogs do — that is, he does not fawn upon the man-master, but then neither does Buck struggle for mastery for so long that he is killed in the struggle — as some dogs actually do. Buck is always able to judge just how far to resist before giving up. This is how he learns to deal with the man in the red sweater, and throughout the rest of the novel, Buck will always remember the man with the red sweater, for this is his introduction to the "law of the club" and to the laws of the primitive world.
