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erin_penn 's review for:
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London
adventurous
dark
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Call of the Wild by Jack London was released in 1903 and it shows. Read it for history.
Speaking of history, I was given this book at age 8, about fifty years ago (more or less) and it has been in my TBR pile ever since! I finally got to it!!! (Yes, the rest of my TBR, there is still hope for you yet.)
Action-packed, exotic location, and a dog's story - there is a reason why this classic is still a classic.
No good representation of women, not even as other dogs; the anti-civilization - need to "be a man" Darwin-type politics (On the Origin of Species was published in 1859 and the theory of evolution was still hotly investigated by the scientific community) mixing in with toxic masculinity; and animal abuse because they were property, not team members. All these are part of the reason why this classic is getting to the point it shouldn't be read except by those that understand cultures shift and how they shifted, or part of the discussion to teach such things.
The indigenous culture representation is horrible ... complete for bow and arrow?!? Feathered arrows everywhere??. The landscape is breathtaking and brutal. Buck's ongoing hallucination of traveling with a solitary frightened Neanderthal-like male is just weird (and part of that Darwinist type cultural mind-set of the time) doesn't match present science of dog domesticated at the absolute earliest about 26,000 years ago and Neanderthals going extinct 40,000 years ago (Homo Sapiens reared their heads about 300,000 years ago - there is lots of disagreements on where and how still).
As a snapshot of the Yukon gold-rush through the lens of a wilderness-is-best nineteen-century man's-man colonist-white-male writing from a dog's perspective, The Call of the Wild holds up over time. But you notice a lot of caveats there. Would I give this to a 21st century child with a world population of 8 billion (1.6 billion in 1900 - a population increase of 5 times) who needs a modern understanding of respect for other cultures, treatment of animals, and science? Absolutely not.
Trigger warning: Animal abuse.
Speaking of history, I was given this book at age 8, about fifty years ago (more or less) and it has been in my TBR pile ever since! I finally got to it!!! (Yes, the rest of my TBR, there is still hope for you yet.)
Action-packed, exotic location, and a dog's story - there is a reason why this classic is still a classic.
No good representation of women, not even as other dogs; the anti-civilization - need to "be a man" Darwin-type politics (On the Origin of Species was published in 1859 and the theory of evolution was still hotly investigated by the scientific community) mixing in with toxic masculinity; and animal abuse because they were property, not team members. All these are part of the reason why this classic is getting to the point it shouldn't be read except by those that understand cultures shift and how they shifted, or part of the discussion to teach such things.
The indigenous culture representation is horrible ... complete for bow and arrow?!? Feathered arrows everywhere??. The landscape is breathtaking and brutal. Buck's ongoing hallucination of traveling with a solitary frightened Neanderthal-like male is just weird (and part of that Darwinist type cultural mind-set of the time) doesn't match present science of dog domesticated at the absolute earliest about 26,000 years ago and Neanderthals going extinct 40,000 years ago (Homo Sapiens reared their heads about 300,000 years ago - there is lots of disagreements on where and how still).
As a snapshot of the Yukon gold-rush through the lens of a wilderness-is-best nineteen-century man's-man colonist-white-male writing from a dog's perspective, The Call of the Wild holds up over time. But you notice a lot of caveats there. Would I give this to a 21st century child with a world population of 8 billion (1.6 billion in 1900 - a population increase of 5 times) who needs a modern understanding of respect for other cultures, treatment of animals, and science? Absolutely not.
Trigger warning: Animal abuse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Death