美国文学论文

1、My reviews on The Call of the WildI .Introduction1. About the book: it is a novella written by the American author Jack London, first published in 1903. It mainly tells a story about a dog n amed Buck. The story takes place in the extreme con diti ons of the Yuk on duri ng the 19th-ce ntury Klo ndik

2、e Gold Rush. The no vella vividly portraits Bucks struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatme nt from huma ns, other dogs, and eve n the n ature. At the end of the story, Buck followed the wolf into the forest and answered the call of the wild.2. About the author: an America n author, jo urn al

3、ist,a nd social activist. He was a pion eer in the the n-burge oning world of commercial magaz ine ficti on and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity. He is best remembered as the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klo ndike Gold Rush. In addi

4、tio n, the Sea Wolf The Iron Heel,a nd Marti n Ede n are also among his most famous no vels.He lived in poverty throughout his youth. He rema ined in school only through the eighth grade but was a voracious reader and a freque nt visitor to the Oakla nd Public Library, where he educated himself. Als

5、o, at that time, the Klon dike gold rush (in Can adas Yuk on Territory) had beg un, and in 1897 London left college to seek his fortune in the snowy North. While,the gold rush did not make London rich. All his experiences furnished him with abundant material for his career as a writer, which began i

6、n the late 1890s and continued until his death in 1916.He published over fifty books and became one of the most famous authors. He embodied, it was said, the spirit of the American West. His portrayal of adventure and frontier life seemed like a breath of fresh air in comparison with the nineteenth-

7、century Victoria n ficti on, which was ofte n overly concerned with trivial and irreleva nt social no rms.n . A Summary of the book1. The sett ing: the story is set in the Klon dike gold rush.The Klo ndike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush,

8、 was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klo ndike regi on of the Yuk on in no rthwesternCan ada betwee n 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospect ing for gold.2. The main characters:Buck-The protag onist who is a powerful dog, half St. Bernard and half shepherd. In

9、the story,he was stolen from a California estate and sold as a sled dog in the Arctic. Buck gradually evolves from a domestic pet into a fierce, masterful ani mal, lean ns to hold his own in the cruel, kill-or-be-killed world of the North. Though he loves his final master, John Thornton, he feels th

10、e wild calling him away from civilization and longs to reconnect with the primitive roots of his species.Joh n Thornton-Bucksfi nal master, a gold hun ter experie need in the ways of the Klon dike. Thornton saves Buck from death at the hands of Hal, and accord in gly Buck rewards Thornton with his t

11、otally loyalty. Thorntons relati on ship to Buck is the ideal man-dog relati on ship.Spitz-Bucks archrival and the orig in al leader of Fran coiss dog team. Spitz is a fierce ani mal. He is used to fight ing with other dogs and wi nning. Un til one day, He meets his match with Buck who is as strong

12、as himself and is more cunning. Finally,Spitz was beat and died at that fighting.Hal-An American gold seeker, Hal comes to Canada with his sister, Mercedes, and her husba nd, Charles, in search of adve nture and riches. The three buy Buck and his team and try to drive them, but their in experie nee

13、makes them terrible masters. At the end, he n early beat Buck to death. In this no vel, Hal and his compa nions represe nt the weak ness of overcivilized men and embody the man-dog relati on ship at its worst.3. The plot:This no vel mainly contains seve n chapters.The first chapter tells about Into

14、the Primitive. It mainly tells about the change in terms of Bucks life. Buck, a powerful dog, half St. Bernard and half sheepdog, lives on Judge Miller s estate in Californianta Clara VaSay. He lives a comfortable life there, but it comes to an end whe n men discover gold in the Klon dike regi on of

15、 Can ada and a great dema nd arises for strong dogs to pull sleds. Buck is kid napped by a garde ner on the Miller estate and sold to dog traders.Then comes chapter two-The Law of Club and Fang. It mainly portraits how the traders teach Buck to obey by beati ng him with a club and, fin ally, ship hi

16、m north to the Klo ndike.The third chapter isThe Dominant Primordial Beast. It tells about Bucks fight and struggle. Arriving in the chilly North, Buck is amazed by the cruelty he sees around him. Especially after witnessing Curlys death, Buck vows never to let the same fate befall him. Gradually, h

17、e lear ns to fight, scave nge for food, and sleep ben eath the snow on win ter nights and almost all the skills that needed in the wild life. At the same time, he develops a fierce rivalry with Spitz, the terrible lead dog in the team. But at one fight Buck kills Spitz and takes his place as the lea

18、d dog. This is also told in chapter four:Who Has Won to Mastership.The n chapter five:The Toil of Trace and Trail. This chapter shows us Bucks miserable sufferi ng. As Buck s new masters are in experie need and out of place in the wilder ness. They overload the sled, beat the dogs, and pla n poorly.

19、 Halfway through their journey, they beg in to run out of food. Of an origi nal team of fourtee n, only five are still alive when they limp into John Thornton s camp, still some distanee from theirdestination. Thornton warns them that the ice which they are traveling is melting and that they may fal

20、l through it. Unfortunately,Hal ignores these warnings and tries to keep going immediately. The other dogs beg in to move, but Buck refuses. So Hal beg ins to beat Buck madly. Then the kind Thornton can not bear such immoral hurt to Buck anym ore. He in terve nes, and saves Buck from the margin of d

21、eath.So the following chapter six-For the Love of a Man, mainly tells the warm relatio nship betwee n Thornton and Buck. After Buck is saved by Thornton, Buck become totally loyal to his new master-Thornton. He does a lot for Thornton. But as time passes, Buck s love for Thornton is mixed with a gro

22、wing attraction to the wild, and he feels as if he is being called away from civilizati on and in to the wildern ess. This feeli ng grows stron ger whe n he accompa nies Thornton and his friends in search of a lost mine hidde n deep in the Can adia n forest. Un til one day,whe n Buck returns to Thor

23、nton from the wild he finds Yeehat Indians have attacked and killed his master. Buck is raged completely and kills several and scatters the rest, and then heads off into the wild, where he becomes the leader of a pack of wolves. He becomes a lege ndary figure, a Ghost Dog, fatheri ng coun tless cubs

24、 and in spiri ng fear in the Yeehats.Then in the last chapter-The Sounding of the Call, it tells Bucks return to the wild and Bucks true emotio n to Thornton. Every year he returns to the place where Thornton died, to mourn his master before returning to his life in the wild.川.My Views on the BookTo

25、 be hon est, before I read this no vel, I just con sider it a no vel about a dog without more deep meaning. While, after reading it, i come to realize that its not only a simple no vel on ani mal, it displays a philosophical depth abse nt in most animal adve ntures. On one hand, i feel a great pity

26、for the miserable life that Buck faces. Certainly,survival is the only imperative. Kill or be killed is the only morality among the dogs of the Klondike. After all, the wild is a cruel, unemotional world, where only the strong prosper and survive. On the other hand, the spirit of Buck is in deed in

27、spiri ng and his experie nces make us aware of the most important principle the survival of the fittest.1. About the plot:The story mainly portraits around a dogs life and varied experiences.In general, Buck, who is the hero, takes a journey, is transformed, and achieves an apotheosis. The format of

28、 the story is disti nctly divided into four parts, In the first part, Buck experie nces viole nces and struggles for survival; in the sec ond part he proves himself a leader of the pack; the third part brings him to his death (symbolically and almost literally); and in the fourth and final part he u

29、ndergoes rebirth and return back to himself.In my view, all those five parts are written attractive. I am moved deeply. There are ple nty of plots that impressed me a lot. One of them is the psychological portrait of Buck after Bucks knowing of his masters death. It says:death, as a cessation of mov

30、ement, as a pass ing out and away from the lives of the liv ing, he kn ew, and he knew Joh n Thornton was dead. It left a great void in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a void which ached and ached, and which food could not fill. It truly shows us a sin cere emoti on betwee n them, and it is so tou

31、ching. Frankly, the plot of this novel is interesting and meaningful.2. About the writi ng method:The no vel ope ns with the first quatrain of Joh n Myers OHaras poemAtavism, published in 1902 in The Bookman The stanza outlines one of the main motifsof the no vel, that Buck, raised in the sun-kissed San ta Clara Valley, will revert to inn ate instinets and characteristics of his wolf heritage.It falls into the genre of animal fiction in which an animal is anthropomorphized and give n huma n traits. In the story, the author attri