An Interpretation On The Elements Of Binary Oppositions In The Call Of The Wild

Jack London, American realistic writer, presented The Call of the Wild at the beginning of twentieth century, which was London’s famous masterpiece. It is an adventure novel about animals; the author utilizes unique skills of creation in order to increase the suspense, this special skill enables London’s novel more attractive. It was known as “the world’s most widely read novel in America”, and later it was remade into a famous movie many times. Language in this novel is easily understood; the novel combines animal stories, adventurous stories, fables and fantastic stories, suitable for readers of all ages with different aesthetic taste. While this seemingly simple animal story gives a big shock to the readers’ heart, it is rich in meaning. This dissertation tries to interpret the interior text of The Call of the Wild from the perspective of structuralism and explore all the contrasting elements with binary opposition by Roland Barthes, thus expecting to explain this American classical novel by the brand-new angle of view.This thesis is composed of three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The main contents of the thesis are as follows:The first part of the thesis is the introduction. First, the thesis briefly introduces the writer’s life and his position in the literary history; and then, the thesis discusses the purpose and practical significance; again, this thesis introduces the literary review of The Call of the Wild at home and abroad. At the same time, the author puts forward the innovation of the thesis and the defect of thesis.The main body of the thesis contains three chapters. The first chapter introduces the theoretical framework about binary oppositions. This chapter mainly describes the structural linguistics and its theoretical basis—binary opposition and their relationship with the text analysis, and then tries to find the traces of binary opposition from London’s novel. The second and third chapters are the important parts in this thesis, which analyze respectively several groups of opposing elements involved in the novel, namely, the element of external environment and intrinsic inheritance; the element of wildness and humanity.The second chapter analyzes the opposing elements involved in the work; this chapter will discuss from three aspects. First of all, the first part explores the influence of social experiences on the protagonist Buck after he was sold. Because of the complicated and cruel natural environment, those people in Alaska want to seek for a living. So they take part in the ranks of gold rush. They buy many sled dogs; Buck is also the part of the team. When Buck goes to work as a sled dog in Alaska, he fully understands the true meaning of club and fang. So he begins to get along with the cruelty of environment; he also learns the indifference and greed of people. This part represents the rule of the cruelty of life which Buck learned. Second, second part explores the resurrection of gene influences on Buck. In this part, Buck uses his own wisdom to become the head of this group of dogs; what’s more, he also makes every effort to overcome the difficulties. Finally, third part mainly explores the mutual relationship between external element and internal element; through these two factors it can be concluded that the reason why Buck appears the atavism eventually.The third chapter mainly analyzes the internal structure of the work from three aspects. First of all, first part mainly explores some reasons for lack of humanity, regression of wildness in Buck’s body. This part will discuss from two sections. On the one hand, because of the change of society, America transforms into industrial society. So at the same time, the thoughts of people have changed, they are eager to live a leisurely life, they seek the gold to meet their desire; these cruel men abduct Buck. He experiences all kinds of sufferings on the gold rush road, Buck is deeply aware that he should adapt to the law of survival of the fittest. For living here, he must defeat his opponents with devoid of humanity; in addition, mainly discusses the influence of the human around Buck on him and the important reason for the resurrection of wildness. On the other hand, the influence of the bad behavior on Buck arouses his wildness. Second, the second part explores Buck’s desire for humanity. This part will show from two parts. On the one hand, it explores the life of Buck at Judge Miller’s home; on the other hand, it elaborates Buck’s deep love for his Master Thornton. Finally, the third part explores that Buck wanders in the wild and humanity. Buck becomes the head of the pack finally, but for the sake of Master Thornton’s love, Buck always is dying to return to the valley. At last, the wildness makes a dominate role. Therefore, humanity only in the sunny days will appear the good side.The last part is the conclusion. This thesis deeply explores the opposing elements in The Call of the Wild; it is not only beneficial to the deep understanding of the work, but also more accurate to dig out the deep purpose of the writer. In addition, it has a profound and practical significance to explore the wildness and humanity in this thesis. The author expects to interpret this work with a new perspective, thus making a great contribution to the research in the future.