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1984
135160 Views

Well, if this book doesn't make you want to tape over your laptop camera, we don't know what will.

1984 Summary
136167 Views

By the end of this video, you will be brainwashed. There's nothing you can do about it; we just wanted to let you know. We like to think we're bigg...

A Farewell to Arms
20538 Views

You might be hearing a chorus of farewells if you recommend A Farewell to Arms as the next read for your Fabulously Feisty Feminist Book Club.

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The Call of the Wild 9787 Views


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Description:

A cheap shot at a bestseller or a deeper book with connections relevant to the human race? In The Call of the Wild , the protagonist is a dog named Buck, who's thrown into the wilderness and forced to survive on his own. But this dog has human-esque emotions that help the reader empathize with him.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Call of the Wild, a la Shmoop: It's a Dog's Life.

00:08

Let's talk about calls. . . No not the kind of call you get from your

00:11

mother... Or even the kind of call you get from Mother

00:14

Nature... Jack London writes about another call. . .

00:18

. . .a powerful urge to get back to one's primitive

00:21

state. Buck, the hero of our story, isn't some branch-eating

00:27

survivalist. . .

00:27

. . .and he's not a guy trying to make it in Hollywood.

00:30

Yeah, this Buck isn't even a guy at all. . .he's a dog

00:33

So, what gives? Why is this book about a canine instead of a human?

00:42

Maybe London wanted to come up with an allegory about the true nature of man.

00:45

And Buck and the gang were just stand-ins. The fact that they had human emotions. . .

00:50

. . .might have been London's way of saying we're not all that different from animals.

00:55

But maybe he used dogs for another reason. If London wanted to grab the readers' attention.

01:00

. .

01:00

. . .and get their sympathy. . .

01:01

. . .putting puppies in peril was a sure-fire way to do it.

01:05

C'mon, a defenseless dog stolen by ruthless humans. . .

01:08

. . .and thrown into the frozen wilderness?

01:11

Sounds like a bestseller to us.

01:12

But maybe we're missing the obvious. Perhaps London used animals because it was

01:16

a story about life in the wilderness.

01:20

Maybe it was simply about putting a dog back in his natural habitat. . .

01:23

. . .to see what he would do. So, why was Buck a dog?

01:30

Was he an allegory for something else?

01:32

A sympathy grabber...."oooh look... puppies..."

01:34

Or was it to be taken at face value as a realistic tale?

01:38

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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