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.
When he returns to the remnants of the bear two days later, he discovers a dozen wolverines at the spoil. The wolverines scatter at Buck's arrival, except for two bold ones, which he kills. After this, Buck's "blood longing becomes stronger . . . . He was a killer, a thing that preyed . . . surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived." Because of Buck's Saint Bernard father, he had inherited a size and a weight far greater than that of the wolf, and from Buck's shepherd mother, he had inherited an intelligence and a cunning which became a "wolf cunning." Buck is almost transformed into a wild animal in the peak of condition — strong, powerful, cunning, vigorous, and alert. As John Thornton says, "Never was there such a dog."
