Notes - Chapter Seven, Call of the Wild

Reading Notes – Chapter Seven

Call of the Wild by Jack London
Chapter Seven: The Sounding of the Call

With the money he won from Matthewson,

John Thornton is now able to pay off his
debts and so heads off north in search of a
lost gold mine. The trip is slow and leasurely
and Buck spends a lot of time wandering in
the woods on his own. He kills a moose and
runs with wolves recalling “that other dimly remembered world”. As they proceed
northward, further and further from the world of the south, both dogs and men move closer
and closer to nature. Unlike the starving half-dogs of the Indian village in chapter three, Buck
now learns to hunt and to live on his own, independently of men. Once he kills a men who
have attacked the camp. Finally, „the one who has won mastership‟ leads wolves answering
the final „call of the wild‟.

Focus

What are the three things that Buck does in this chapter that show he is ansereing „the call of
the wild?

Questions

1. In this chapter Buck dreams again of the hairy man. London remarks, „the salient thing of this
other world seemed fear‟. Is John Thornton‟s world filled with fear? Why or why not?

2. Has Buck proved himself to be superior to men? If so, how?

“He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn.”

3. Is Buck the same dog he was in chapter three when he fought with Spitz? How has he changed.
Is he better off now.

4. Why does Buck leave John Thornton. Would he have left if this had not happened?

5. Evolution always moves toward improvement. Is this true in the light of London‟s story or not?
Give examples from the text to support your answer.

Vocabulary

ramshackle: in a bad condition; badly time-card: a card on which is

made. recorded a worker‟s hours of work.

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game: wild animals that are hunted
for food and sport.
whipsawed: cut with a saw that has a
narrow blade held at each end by a
frame.
obliterated: completely removed.
time-graven: marked or scarred by
the passage of time.
flint-lock: an old-fashioned type of
gun which is fired by a spark from a
flint igniting gunpowder.
Hudson Bay Company: a famous
corporation, trading mainly in furs, in
most of north and west Canada.
water-courses: brtooks or streams.
pertinacity: stubbornness;
obstinancy; not giving up trying to do
something although it iws difficult
and hard to achieve.
belie: hide the true situation.
lope: long, bounding, relaxed strides.
wolverines: meat-eating animals that
have a thick-set body, short legs and a
short bushy tale. A type of weasel.
Also known as gluttons.
chaff: the outside part of grain that is
removed before the grain is used as
food.
contagion: the spreading of disease
from one organism to another.
pent: shut in; tightly enclosed.
compass: accomplish; succeed in.
asunder: apart
mineself: myself
moose: a large North American deer
quarry: a person or animal that is
being hunted
bull: a male North American deer
palmated: shaped like an open hand
with the fingers spread out
Adapted from From: Cope, Jim & Cope, W, A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Edition of the Call of the
Wild (Pengin) & Carter, Ronald (ed), The Call of the Wild, Penguin Student Edition (Penguin, 1999).
Image: http://img-fan.theonering.net/rolozo/images/chmiel/dances_with_wolves.jpg
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Notes - Chapter Seven, Call of the Wild
paroxysms: sudden attacks or
outbursts
simulated: pretended
ambuscade: a hidden position, ready
for attack
beset: surrounded; in the situation of
being continually attacked or harassed
harrying: attacking
toll: cost
hundredweight: a unit of weight
equal to 100 pounds (45.5 kg) in the
United States and 112 pounds (50.8
kg) in the United Kingdom.
slake: satisfy
palpitant: throbbintg, trembling
certitude: absolute certainty; in a
state of being absolutely definite, or
having no doubts about something
magnetic needle: this refers to a
compass, which is a device for finding
directions by means of a dial and a
magnetic needle.
excrecence: something abnormal
growing out of an animal or plant.
bellying: crawling on the belly or
stomach.
usurp: take over from
Yeehats: a tribe of native Americans
advent: arrival
Fiend incarnate: the devil in human
form
sluice boxes: devices for controlling
the flow of water
pell-mell: in a hurried and
uncontrolled waybrought up against:
landed against; stopped suddenly
against
discomforted: slightly embarrassed or
confused
abiding-place: a place to remain and
live.