Study On Needs’ Generation And Satisfaction In The Call Of The Wild

The Call of the Wild, the masterpiece of American realistic writer Jack London,narrates how the protagonist Buck transforms from a pet-dog to a wolf-leader afterexperiencing various adversities and then self-unbounded from the control of humanbeings by returning to nature, finally a series of social problems in the turn of19thand20thcentury are revealed, which present Jack London’s sympathy to the miserable livingcondition of common labors and his desire to freedom and justice. Large numbers ofscholars focus on Buck’s returning. However, most of them interpret his returning fromthe perspective of naturalism and collective unconsciousness, few of them study the causeand nature of his returning from Buck’s inner needs. Base on this, this thesis interprets theprocess of satisfaction, deprivation and re-satisfaction of Buck’s deficiency and growthneeds, to explore the fundamental cause of Buck’s returning to the wild and the socialreality reflected in the novel.This thesis reviews the previous researches on The Call of the Wild firstly, proposesthe topic of this thesis and then gives an introduction of humanistic psychology andMaslow’s need hierarchy theory, including the content and trait of the theory, therelationship between different level needs and the application of the theory on literatureanalysis, hence to lay a solid theoretical foundation for the study. Based on the abovestudies, this thesis interprets the process of the deprivation and satisfaction of Buck’sdeficiency and growth needs as follow: first analyzes the deprivation of Buck’s deficiencyand growth needs; then analyzes how Buck’s deficiency needs are satisfied in the barbaricenvironment; at last analyzes the satisfaction of Buck’s growth need (need forself-actualization) and the real cause of his returning to the wild. The analysis abovemanifest that harsh social environment would certainly frustrate the satisfaction ofdeficiency needs and hinder the growth of individual; the cozy environment does notalways foster the individual’s development, it may deprive the individual’s growth need aswell; the society cannot satisfy Buck’s deficiency and growth needs and balance hisnaturality and sociality, and the nature seems more fair and free and attracts Buck more and more, hence Buck eventually breaks away from human society and returns to thenature.To conclude, this thesis analyzes Buck’s growth process and the real cause of hisreturning to the wild in The Call of the Wild in the light of Maslow’s need hierarchy theory,hence to provide a new perspective to the novel’s research. Meanwhile, the social realityof American in the turn of19thand20thcentury is vividly revealed by analyzing thedeprivation, pursuit and satisfaction of Buck’s needs, which manifests Jack London’ssympathy to the toiling labors and dissatisfaction to the society. The exploration of therelationship between individual’s essential needs and social development vividly presentedJack London’s desire of constructing an ideal society which is favorable to the satisfactionof individual’s inner needs and the balance of individual’s naturality and sociality.