The Implication Of The Wild In Jack London’s The Call Of The Wild

Jack London (1876-1916) is one of the greatest novelists in America at the turn of lastcentury. Many of his works have been classified as American literature classics. The wild hasbeen a unique and indispensable background in most of his novels, and Jack London isregarded as a wilderness writer because of his wonderful description of the wild. The Call ofthe Wild (1903), as a typical wilderness work, is recognized as Jack London’s best. However,the critics pay too much attention to the analysis of this novel’s characters, narrativestructures, language features, and little to the setting of the wild and the wild’s thematicsignificance.This thesis from the perspective of cultural criticism aims at the interpretation of theimplication of the wild in this novel, considering that it is not just an animal story about a dog,but an allegorical story about the eternal theme of life. According to his Klondike experiences,Jack London creates this novel in the beginning of20thcentury when America is in thetransformation period with rapid development of economy and sharp intensification of socialcontradictions. Through the story of a dog, he symbolically presents his concern about everysocial stratum Americans’ living circumstances at that period and his insight on life’s vitality.With three different kinds of characters as the penetrating point, this thesis exploresrespectively three characters’ living circumstances and fates in the wild, analyzes theimplication of the wild and finds out the ideological fantasy, power relation and the pursuit ofthe positive freedom behind the text by combining historical and cultural backgrounds ofAmerican society at the turn of last century.This thesis is mainly divided into three chapters. Firstly, this thesis interprets the wild forgoldseekers who are the symbol of immigrants as an illusory land. They are tempted byideological fantasy namely American Dream constructed by religion and mass media to rushinto the wild to look for hopes, but eventually lose their lives here. Then, this thesis examinesthe wild for sled dogs that are the symbol of the lower people as a hopeless abyss. They arestruggling hard to survive under the violence and discipline of power relation, and dietragically under the cruel law of violence and the endless toil. Finally, this thesis explores thewild for wolves that are the symbol of the strong as a pleasure ground. Only the strong can overcome “negative freedom”, realize “positive freedom”, and can truly experience life’sfreedom and savagery. On the basis of above analysis, the conclusion clarifies Jack London’sinsight about life that is the living state of being the strong and the wild vitality bursting outof life itself.