Call Of The Wild

Call Of The Wild

Naturalism in “The Call of the Wild”
While being one of the most debated fiction books of the 20th century, The Call of the Wild has shown to be a phenomenal piece of American literature that developed its own niche. This type of work has come to be called naturalism. Naturalism is defined as “realism in art or literature; specifically: a theory or practice in literature emphasizing scientific observation of life without idealization and often including elements of determinism.”(Merriam-Webster) The best way to describe naturalism is that it “abstracts the best from realism and romanticism - detailed accuracy and philosophical depth”. (Reuben) The original type of work that this novel fit into was either realism or romanticism. However after reading, you quickly figure out that it’s not one or the other but more of a mixture of both. The combinations of multiple types of novel seem to give even more importance to this early work. Since there is no clear definition of what writing falls into which category, it’s important to think about the plot and the details while reading these works to gain the understanding necessary from them. Jack London’s work is trying to connect the reader with the awe-inspiring ability of unity with nature while purposefully drawing attention to the animal and the environment so that the public audience will feel sympathy and want to take action. The ability for this genre to express itself in a manner which the general public can follow and easily relate to gives this style of writing an advantage over realism or romanticism. The use of the dog-hero set against the protagonist human characters in this novel clearly gives a unique approach that no one else in his era had done previously.
The way in which Jack gave light to his hero Buck started smoothly at the opening of the book. “Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king, -- king over all creeping,...