Abstract: I read The Call of the Wild during May Day, a novel by Jack London who was an American author. Buck, a domesticated dog living at a ranch in the Santa Clara valley of California is the novel's central character. Unfortunately, he is stolen by the gardener and sold into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog. He reverts to atavistic traits. Buck has to adjust to, and survive, cruel treatments and fight to dominate other dogs in a harsh climate. He sheds the veneer of civilization, relying on primordial instincts and lessons he learns, to emerge as a leader in the wild at last. While reading the story of Buck, I shed tears of sorrow and sympathy, and was moved by great courage and the bravery he has shown in the face of every challenge. The only thing I can do is to cheer for him in silence and wish he can be stronger to fight with difficulties. From Buck, what I have learnt is to fight bravely and intellectually until the last minute in my life. And that is a great asset we should learn to gain. I choose the book to finish my book report just because I appreciate Buck very much.
Key words: brave, perseverance, The Call of the Wild, survival, fighting
First of all, I would like to mention the author Jack London when I share my views of The Call of the Wild. London was a passionate
advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes. [1]From his works, we can easily see that Jack London writes books in a way of realism and naturalism. Also the reflection of naturalism is manifested in The Call of the Wild. With The Call of the Wild published in 1903, it made a reputation for London. As early as 1908 the novels was adapted to film and it has since seen several more cinematic adaptations. The book secured London a place in the canon of America literature. The Call of the Wild is one of the masterpieces of Jack London, which was combined with his experiences in the north when he was engaged in looking for gold. [3]
The story was written as a frontier adventure and in such a way that it worked well as a serial., it is good episodic writing that embodies the style of magazine adventure writing popular in that period. "It leaves us with satisfaction at its outcome, a story well and truly told," As Doctorow points out he said.
As we can know (if you have read the book), Buck has a lot of excellent quality, such as loyalty, powerful, intelligence and valiant fighting. At the same time, Buck is thankful. He will return for
someone who is good to him. Just like John Thornton, a man had saved his life and became his ideal master, Buck saves the guy’s live and protect him in all time. “For a long time after his rescue, Buck did not like Thornton to get out of his sight.”, ”At such times he would shake off sleep and creep through the chill to the flap of the tent, where he would stand and listen to the sound of his master’s breathing.”[4] You have to admit that you also feel warmly when you across these sentence. Here, I feel Buck’s endless love for his master. When John Thornton was killed, for the first time in his life he allowed passion to usurp cunning and reason, and it was because of his great love for John Thornton that he lost his head. I do not think Buck will go back forest if John Thornton did not lose his live. Perhaps this is one aspect that Buck does better than most people. As far as I am concerned, you can lose everything, but a thankful heart. Heart of appreciation is of great significance in our lives. A grateful heart is full, it is happy!
After a long honed metaphor, in the face of harsh persecution or against without weakness and fearless, Buck became stronger. Buck’s response to the call of the wild was actually the continued the process of mining process of their own potential. To survive, he fights with the cold weather; to survive, he fights with other dogs;
to survive, he fights with human. With the fierce struggle and the ability to quickly adapt to the environment, he turns to be the strong. You would admire that Buck is excellent to pursuit life himself. However difficult, he pulls through in the end. He is the last winner.
There is something we can learn from Buck’s world. The law of club is one of them. When Buck was forced to sell the new owner, he tried to fight in his own way to show his unwilling. However, the law of club forced him to surrender the principles of the master. Of course it is wise of him to do so. It makes readers feel he is not a dog, because it owns the quality and characteristics we human have. No one would be so stupid that he still try it on the occasions of weak. Even in the true world of human, many people will choose to show themselves forbearing and conciliatory for the sake of the common good. They would not parade their superiority and strive to outshine others. I really appreciate it when Buck acts likes that he is tame to avoid the club.
Now, here comes the theme of the book. The themes are conveyed through London's use of symbolism and imagery which, according
to Labor, vary in the different phases. The imagery and symbolism in the first phase, to do with the journey and self-discovery, shows physical violence, with strong images of pain and blood. [2]
In this novel, London wants to tell us that Buck is a symbol of the stronger. He reflects the world through the description of the dog world. In his eyes, Buck is a man who is brave and honest instead of a dog. Here the strongest man takes all, and strength alone knows conflict, weakness is below even defeat, and is born vanquished. So buck must be adhered to it at all times. Once he surrenders or is knocked down, he would be the underdog and governed by others or even be killed. Actually, the primary theme of the story is of survival and a return to primitivism. But we can grasp more in Buck’s world. Personal speaking, based on Buck’s tough life in the nature, it is easy to associate with my future life in society. All kind of unknown difficulties is waiting for me. I am not sure if I can perform as well as Buck, but I certainly believe that I will try my best to face the challenges on the road of my life.
What I want to be is the female strong, maybe not the strongest one. But I am able to calmly deal with my life, and that is enough.
第二篇:the story of an hour英文读后感.
The story of an hour is an 19th century society crying of the open window feminism.From this story ,we learn that feminism
means freedom,pursuing gender equality in man dominated society and exceptional openness about human sexuality.
This story can be divided into four parts. At first part,we can read Mrs.Mallard was told that her husband had been dead in a railroad disaster,and at the second part, Mrs.Mallard was so sad at the news and cried in her sister’s arms,she did not know how to accept this bad news and just want to be alone.At the third part,there comes a abrupt turn,we can know that her name is
Louise from her sister from this part.She was waiting for something coming to her,and then she found it is freedom.She found
something more important than her insipid life ,it is freedom.At last part,Mrs.Mallard died of a heart disease when seeing her husband going home.
It is a tragedy story, we can see that women were not free and happy at that time, at first she is very sad maybe because Louise’s husband treat her not too bad,However at the third part she suddenly change be happy for her husband’s dead,From every detail,we maybe feel Mrs.Mallard was very crazy,but we can see a 19th century society crying what women were controlled by men,they wanted freedom ,feminism and independent from
Mrs.Mallard’ dead.As far as from my view.I think Mrs.Mallard is a very smart and intelligent woman because she know how to pretend her actually feeling.She shows her upset and distress when she hear her husband’s dead as well as heart trouble both physical and emotion.Her psychological changes is rise and fall.
In this story ,it shows a value of women became aware of their own identify in man dominated marriage and came to feel a sense of freedom and gradually tried to pursue feminism .At last ,she died of broken heart because she losing her independence.Louise’s view of a long life changed from dread to hope,she is obviously the character of interest through we see the social repression that women felt at that time,I think it was very ironic for them to use the word “joy”in the last sentence of this story,when she saw her husband, the pain so much to kill her.
The author show integrated plots and multidimensional
character.to give us reader a point of her view,she pursue feminism and independent ant that time ,so she give us a multidimensional characters to express her current feeling.She want freedom and feminism as well as women did not need to live a man dominated society. Louise is the main clue in this story,She is smart ,intelligent and just want to be freedom as well as the author.
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