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The Call of the Wild， a naturalistic novella written by Jack London， depicts a dog’s experience of returning to the wild. Buck， the protagonist， was originally a civilized dog who lived a peaceful life as a nobleman in Judge Miller’s house. Suddenly one day， Buck was sold by Manuel， a helper of the gardener， who was desperate for money. From then on， Buck turned over a new leaf of his life and stepped on a long journey to where he belongs to.
After reading the papers that also aim at finding the themes of the book， I found that nature， love， and competition are three common themes that are repeatedly mentioned. “One thousand readers， there are one thousand Hamlet.”， so， as one of the thousands of readers， I also have some personal points to provide based on the former researches.
Under the view of symbolism， there lives a person in Buck’s heart， so the enlightenment we got from Buck’s experiences also has some significance to human. First， survival of the fittest is the most obvious theme. To survive， we have to give way to some rules， but this does not mean that we should give up what we want， so the second one is the freedom of spirit. Although we have the rights to pursue our dreams， our relationships with others hinder us， so the third one is love. It is love in our hearts that makes us a full person. These are the same to Buck， so survival， freedom， and love are the three main themes of The Call of the Wild.
Adaption is the best response one can give to a cruel world. When Darwin put forward his theory of “Survival of the fittest in natural selection”， corruption and depravity make it an excuse for them to apply their law of the jungle which means kill or to be killed in the society. Being the weak， one can only struggle to adapt to survive. When Buck was first sold， he learned the law of club and fang quickly， because he realized that he had to obey the man with club in hands if he wanted to survive. When Buck was placed in the team to pull the sled， he could do nothing but follow the directs to toil. When Buck was sold to Perrault and Francois， he chose to give up his dignity to satisfy his stomach. To survive， Buck did what he would never do as a noble dog with morality， “He did not rob openly， but stole secretly， out of respect for club and fang.” （Chapter II） To Buck， nothing is as important as survival， so he was forced to learn the new rules for living in the new world. He had to do something that he thought to be evil before， which reflected his compromise to life.
After reading the papers that also aim at finding the themes of the book， I found that nature， love， and competition are three common themes that are repeatedly mentioned. “One thousand readers， there are one thousand Hamlet.”， so， as one of the thousands of readers， I also have some personal points to provide based on the former researches.
Under the view of symbolism， there lives a person in Buck’s heart， so the enlightenment we got from Buck’s experiences also has some significance to human. First， survival of the fittest is the most obvious theme. To survive， we have to give way to some rules， but this does not mean that we should give up what we want， so the second one is the freedom of spirit. Although we have the rights to pursue our dreams， our relationships with others hinder us， so the third one is love. It is love in our hearts that makes us a full person. These are the same to Buck， so survival， freedom， and love are the three main themes of The Call of the Wild.
Adaption is the best response one can give to a cruel world. When Darwin put forward his theory of “Survival of the fittest in natural selection”， corruption and depravity make it an excuse for them to apply their law of the jungle which means kill or to be killed in the society. Being the weak， one can only struggle to adapt to survive. When Buck was first sold， he learned the law of club and fang quickly， because he realized that he had to obey the man with club in hands if he wanted to survive. When Buck was placed in the team to pull the sled， he could do nothing but follow the directs to toil. When Buck was sold to Perrault and Francois， he chose to give up his dignity to satisfy his stomach. To survive， Buck did what he would never do as a noble dog with morality， “He did not rob openly， but stole secretly， out of respect for club and fang.” （Chapter II） To Buck， nothing is as important as survival， so he was forced to learn the new rules for living in the new world. He had to do something that he thought to be evil before， which reflected his compromise to life.