The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

Buck is a 140-pound, 4-year-old dog living in the Santa Clara Valley of California. His life at Judge Miller's place is filled with hunting with the Judge's sons, protectively walking with the Judge's daughters, playing with the Judge's grandsons and generally watching over the entirety of the Judge's estate, the place he was born. While there are other dogs on the estate, he remains aloof from them because of his dignity, strength and size. Buck's life changes completely when news of a gold strike in the Yukon creates a market for large dogs to pull sleds over the snow and ice to the gold fields.

Buck has always been treated kindly and believes that humans know more than he does and that they have his best interests at heart. He doesn't know that Manuel, one of the Judge's gardeners, needs money to pay a gambling debt. On a day when the Judge is away, Manuel puts a rope around Buck's neck and leads him through the orchard to meet a man who will buy Buck for use as a sled dog in the Yukon.

Buck is completely surprised when his new owner twists the rope so tightly that he can't breathe. He has never been treated like this and tries to fight back, but the man tightens the rope until Buck passes out. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself in the baggage car of a train. He knows where he is because he had traveled with the Judge in the past. Buck suffers greatly in the baggage car. His throat hurts from the twisted rope and his attempts to free himself.

Eventually he is unloaded from the train. The rope is removed from his neck, and he is housed in a crate inside a shed. For a while, he brightens up when he hears the shed door open, thinking it will be the Judge or one of his sons come to take him home. This hope dies when his only visitors are rough men who poke sticks into the crate to enrage him. When Buck sees that the men want him to react this way, he becomes sullen and lies down. The crate is soon put on a wagon and then on another train. During the entire ordeal, Buck has nothing to eat or drink. He is relieved when the men remove the rope from his neck, and he promises himself that he will never accept another. Buck is transformed during his journey; he is no longer the peaceful dog that had lived with the Judge. He has become a "raging fiend."

His crate is unloaded in Seattle, and he is turned over to a man wearing a red sweater. Buck realizes this man is the next in a series of tormentors. Buck throws himself at the bars of his crate, but the man just smiles and hacks the wooden crate apart with a hatchet to let Buck out. Buck rushes at the opening, growling and snarling. When the man in the red sweater succeeds in making an opening big enough for Buck's body to get through, he picks up a club. Buck hurls himself through the opening, enraged and ready to bite. Just as Buck is about to reach the man, the man hits him with the club for the first time.

Buck had never been hit with a club, and he doesn't understand what happened. He attacks the man again, and again the man clubs him to the ground. Buck continues to charge the man a dozen times, and he is slammed with the club every time. When Buck finally staggers toward the man, covered in blood, the man deliberately hits him directly on his nose. This causes the most horrible pain of all. Buck rushes the man one last time, but the man deals him the strongest blow yet and knocks Buck unconscious.

When Buck's senses return, the man speaks to him, telling him that now he knows his place. If he is "good," then he won't be hurt anymore, but if he is "bad," then he'll receive another beating. The man pats Buck on the head as he speaks. Buck endures the petting and drinks the water the man brings for him. He eats the food the man gives him as well. Buck knows he is beaten, but he is not "broken." He realizes that he has no chance against the club. He learned his first lesson in the world of primitive law, and he accepts the facts of his new life with courage and "all the latent cunning" of his nature.

Other dogs join Buck as the days go by. He watches the man in the red sweater beat them into submission. Buck comes to understand that the man with a club must be obeyed, but he doesn't have to like him. Buck never becomes one of the dogs that fawn over the man, wagging their tails and licking his hand. Buck watches as one dog dies rather than submit to the rule of the club.

One day a man speaking poor English comes to the shed. He recognizes the greatness in Buck and buys him for $300. The man delivers dispatches for the Canadian Government, and he knows the value of a good dog on the trail. He also buys a Newfoundland named Curly before joining his partner and other dogs on a ship that is traveling north. This was the last Buck saw of the man with the red sweater, but he never forgot him.

Buck and Curly meet two other dogs on the ship that are going north with the men. One is a big white dog from Spitzbergen. Buck finds him to be "friendly in a treacherous sort of way." The other is an unfriendly and gloomy dog named Dave who just wants to be left alone. These dogs are more experienced than Buck and Curly and laugh at them when they react to the ship's rocking or show fear at the howl of a storm at sea.

The weather grows colder and colder as the ship sails north. It is snowing when the ship finally docks at their destination. Buck has never seen snow before and watches it with wonder. Onlookers laugh at him and his response to the snow, and he feels ashamed.