Suddenly, Buck feels proud that he has killed some of the enemy;

“he had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in

the face of the law of the club and fang.”

With his master gone, Buck can finally and permanently answer

the call of the wild.

Throughout the novel, London has prepared

the dog to succeed in this final challenge. There is no doubt that

Buck is fit enough to survive in the natural world. When a pack of

wolves come into the camp, Buck attacks and kills the strongest

one of them. He then wounds three others. The rest of the pack

jumps on Buck and pins him to the ground; but Buck will not give

up. He fights all of the wolves. Then one of the wolves comes up

and rubs its nose against Buck, inviting him to join the pack, rather

than fight it; it is the wolf that Buck has earlier chased in a friendly

manner. Buck gets to his feet and runs off side-by-side with the

wolves, answering the call of the wild.

London ends the novel by telling that Buck becomes a legend

whose story is repeated over and over again throughout the years.

There is also a change in the appearance of the timber wolves,

which develop “splashes of brown on the head and muzzle, with a

rift of white centering down the throat,” a trait inherited from

Buck.

Notes

Throughout the novel, London has carefully traced Buck’s journey

from the civilized world to the natural, primitive wild. In this last

chapter, he emphasizes the fact that Buck, though he loves

Thornton, is in constant conflict. The call of the wild, the

primordial instinct is extremely strong in Buck, and he spends

more and more time away from camp and out in the woods. His

urge to hunt and kill returns, and he attacks a bear, a pack of

wolverines, and a moose. Still, however, he cannot abandon

Thornton, to whom he is devoted.

When left unprotected, Thornton is killed; ironically he is not

murdered by animals in the wild, but by men. Buck takes revenge

on the Indians, and is proud to have killed Thornton’s enemy. With

Thornton gone, Buck is free to answer the call of the wild; thus,

the Darwinian circle is completed, and Buck is allowed to fulfill

his quest.