CALL OF THE WILD Chapter 3 Review

 Dominant Primordial Beast = DPB = the primitive will to survive  newborn cunning gives him poise and control  NOT prone to rashness and precipitate action, even when Spitz goes out of his way to bully Buck  Spitz tries to take Buck’s snow nest at Lake Laberge  Buck’s DPB roars DOMINANT PRIMORDIAL BEAST

 FORESHADOWING: “it was then that the unexpected happened, the thing which projected their struggle for supremacy far into the future…”  starving huskies attack for food  Dogs have hunger madness; no opposing them  All sled dogs fight  Buck tastes blood; goads him to greater fierceness STARVING HUSKY ATTACK

 Spitz sees an opportune moment and attacks BUCK—twice!  BILLEE thinks to escape over the ice and the team follows  All dogs have injuries  Half the food is gone; they even eat leather STARVING HUSKY ATTACK

 Very hard going; 400 miles to Dawson  6 days to cover 30 miles in 50 below zero  Ice keep breaking; dogs fall through  Nothing daunts Perrault; takes all risks  Buck’s feet hurt, so Francois makes him booties and brings him his fish  DOLLY develops rabies; chases after Buck  Again, Spitz takes advantage and attacks Buck ON THE TRAIL

 From then on it was war between Spitz and Buck  Buck alone “endured and prospered, matching Spitz in strength, savagery, and cunning”  “Buck was pre-eminently cunning and could bide his time with a patience that was nothing less than primitive” WAR DECLARED!!!!

 It was his nature—his PRIDE, just as Dave had pride working the traces, Spitz had pride being the leader  Spitz FEARED Buck as a rival to his leadership  Buck took PRIDE in being seen as a rival BUCK WANTS LEADERSHIP

 Buck OPENLY threatened Spitz’s leadership  Defends Pike from not getting up  Buck switches to COVERT mutiny, INSIDIOUS revolt: do things when Francois is not looking  Team no longer working as one BUCK’S TACTICAL PLAN

 9 p.m. midnight, 3 a.m., dogs would “lift a nocturnal song”  weird and eerie chant, defiance of life  pitched in minor key, long-drawn wailings and half- sobs  pleading of life, articulate travail of existence  invested with the woe of unnumbered generations  Because Buck was stirred by it MARKED THE COMPLETENESS WITH WHICH HE HARKED BACK THROUGH THE AGES OF FIRE AND ROOF TO THE RAW BEGINNINGS OF LIFE IN THE HOWLING AGES DOGS HOWL AT NIGHT

 Mouth of Talkeetna River  Dub starts the chase of a snowshoe rabbit  Buck takes the lead  ECSTASY that marks the summit of life  PARADOX OF LIVING: to feel most alive, you must forget everything living around you  Buck was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle…it was everything that was not death…expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars… CHASE OF THE RABBIT

 Spitz takes a short-cut and takes the rabbit first  Law of Fang—familiar scene to Buck  Spitz was an experienced fighter; patient  Buck took the offensive; tired himself  Buck had one quality that made for greatness:  IMAGINATION: he did a head fake and crunched down on Spitz’s foreleg; then again  Buck was inexorable: Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes.  Buck stood and looked on: the successful champion, the dominant primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!