论文总字数：25447字

摘 要

杰克·伦敦的小说《荒野的呼唤》，虽然题材并不复杂，但主题明显具有丰富性，多重性。本文在国内外学者研究的基础上，对小说重要主题进行深层次挖掘，对其作品进行重新解析，解读伦敦的丰富情感和蕴藏的哲学内涵。作品通过巴克受到人类的种种侵害，揭露了人类中心主义现实存在的弊端；北方环境里，巴克为了生存，不断抗争，不断适应，改变自己，体现了作者对适者生存的观点在社会生活中重要意义的肯定；最后，巴克抛弃人类社会，回归荒野，写出了19世纪末20世纪初的种种社会现状，表达其对所谓人类文明的一些虚伪本质的失望，对于回归荒野，回归本真的期盼。此文旨在通过作品的主题的揭示过程中，品味社会的黑暗、人性的复杂，同时警示当今时代人们，社会的健康发展，必须遵循人与自然和谐的法则、人类的永续发展，必须在学会抗争与适应的过程中回归人性。

关键词：杰克·伦敦；《荒野的呼唤》；多重主题

Content

1.Introduction 5

2.Literature Review 5

3.The Reality of Anthropocentrism in The Call of the Wild 6

3.1 The introduction of anthropocentrism 7

3.2 Buck’s misery brought by human beings 7

3.3 The death of the Charles 8

4.The Doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest of The Call of the Wild 9

4.1 Adapting everything to be alive 9

4.2 Cruel struggle in northern environment 10

4.3 Buck’s elite transition 10

5.The Expectation to Return Wilderness 11

5.1 The description of northern wilderness prototype 12

5.2 Buck’s returning of wilderness 12

6.Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

Jack London (1876-1916) is one of the most famous American naturalist representative writers in 19th and 20th Century. He was born a peasant family and suffered from poverty and hunger when he was just a child. He used to sell newspapers, work as child labor, be a sailor and a pirate and so on. He was even affected by “Gold Rush”, but his uncommon experience gave him much more than money. When he returned from the north, he brought back much creative inspiration for his novels. His most famous works are “Tales of the North” which based on Klondike Gold Rush"s experience and knowledge.

London is one of America"s most talented and most prolific writers, he plays a connecting role in American"s literature history. With his brave spirit, he broke the Victorian romanticism and sentimental style, Philip S. Foner commented: “No American writer better than Jack London to be a clear and good spokesman represents times, because he broke the ice frozen in American literature, literature and life had to make meaningful connections.” The Call of the Wild is one of stories which describe northern life, it was written in Jack London"s early literature creation period and was written in Auckland. When the novel was just published, readers reflected enthusiastically, so the novel was published hundreds of times later. It was translated into more than fifty kinds of words and became one of the outstanding works of world literature, making London boogied nights, which also greatly improved Jack London"s position in the literary world.

2. Literature Review

Jack London began writing when he was 20 years, since 1900, he published a number of novels continuously. Most of his novels tell us the life story of the people who live in the United States" lower class, exposing the evils of capitalism, they have strong individualism and socialism color. He is one of the most popular writers who loved by Chinese readers, he has many representative works: White Teeth, Love of Life and Martin Eden… The Call of the Wild is the first classic novel he writes, it is also one of the most successful novels whose leading roles are animals.

The Call of the Wild became what a hot research literature that scholars around the world are competing to research it at that time. Most scholars study its ecological theme, Li Shuying, a scholar, analyzed the novel from the point of view of ecological criticism and proposed human"s responsibility for nature, “human should consider the relationship between man and nature from the overall interests of ecology.”（Li 45）I support this point very much, in today"s society, as technology advances, the plundering of natural resources has become more serious, so we should protect the nature just like how we protect our human beings. There were also some scholars studying Buck"s image, Zhao Yang read Jack London"s personal values by analyzing multiple images of Buck. Many scenes of the story reflect the author"s own life experience, with the expression of Buck"s characters,”the author delivers us indirectly what he advocates the true meaning of life.”（Zhao 74）In that environment, the writer intents to get rid of human civilization and pursue freedom. Wang Yuhua once published an article at Heilongjiang University Youth Science Fund Project "American Wilderness Literature Research". By praising the charm of this novel"s wilderness literature, she analyzes the author"s disgust to civilized society and hope for wilderness, “hoping to raise people"s awareness of the love to the wilderness , praise to nature and re-achieve harmony with nature” （Wang 316）I am also in favor of this view, London respects naturalism, so many of his works have a naturalistic color, warning human to pay attention to the harmonious development of man and nature...

The novel"s connotation is rich and deep and we are unable to make a comprehensive analysis only from one aspect. So this thesis will analyze the novel from three themes: The Reality of Anthropocentrism Theory, the theory of the survival of the fittest and The Expectation to Return Wilderness. It will study deeply about Jack London"s criticism and expectations on society at that time and the novel"s philosophical contents. The thesis also warn modern people that social development must ultimately return to humanity, back to nature, if one want to develop healthily,he must hold on his own efforts and adaptation.

3. The Reality of Anthropocentrism in The Call of the Wild

According to the novel"s a variety of life situations what in fact is Jack London`s true portrayal of life experiences, in late 19th century, the society was full of humanity alienation, lack of faith, depression and ecological imbalance. The novel makes deep explanation on anthropocentrism which prevailed in the entire Western at that time by analyzing Buck"s experience. It proposes humanities warning on the potential crisis of the rapid expansion of capitalism. It reflects author"s all sorts of social concerns at that time, proposes human beings should abandon the anthropocentric concept, symbiotic balance between man and nature is the eternal social development of the Road.

3.1 The introduction of anthropocentrism

Western anthropocentrism has a long history, the earliest Declaration is Protagoras" speaking that “Man is the measure of all things, the existence of things is the presence of scale, but also what is not there is no scale.” Kant said that “people is the goal”,（Immanuel 95）it made the completion of anthropocentric theory. The completion of modern Western industrial revolution promoted the concept of anthropocentrism from the practical aspect. Human"s ambition becomes larger and larger, they expand the living area, possess more natural resources and so on. it reached its peak in the early 20th century ...

Anthropocentrism emphasizes that people do anything should from the perspective of the interests of people, everything is for people"s interests. In the relationship between man and nature, it emphasizes the human rights of nature, places man and nature in opposite positions, it considers human is higher than any other living beings because of their rationality and intellect, so God gives people power to make human beings become the center of all things in the world and the master of the universe. (Duan 96）But London questions the humanity and showed many kinds of human evil in The Call of the Wild.

3.2 Buck"s misery brought by human beings

Characters in the novel has a violent dislocation with humanity"s noble and perfect which put up in anthropocentrism(London 27). It collapses the idea of the excellence of humanity by many pictures of violence. Driven by money and interest, Buck was cheated and bought into the north, then, he had to take sticks lessons. Its resistance only exchange for a more brutal beating. It was difficult for him to accept to be imprisoned and mocked, however, to be alive, he had to learn obedience. After becoming a sled dog, he found that the dog-drivers only care about their own interests, when a dog lost his value, they would shot him without any hesitation, there were even some dogs on the way down, they just cut down their heads and went on moving. Buck kept running and ignoring the cold and hungry, though his toe crevices were full of nuggets.

When gradually adapted to the hard labor, Buck became fierce and cunning, he did not believe love or friendship any more. To survive, Buck learned to steal, to please their owners and to seize leadership. After experiencing with the Charles", he had more suffering then before. The family cared little about the dog team"s physical exertion, they had no planning about this long travel. Buck was saved by Thornton when he experienced his most badly hurt, Thornton"s meticulous care made Buck to believe love once again. However, Thornton was killed at last, the last glimmer of hope for Buck was also deprived, eventually he rushed into the wilderness.

3.3 The death of the Charles

“Gold Dream” attracts thousands of people around the world to rush into the north. They walk through the inaccessible wilderness on the twist roads, they not only exploit natural resources but also damage the local ecological environment which forcing the Indians to compete for limited resources and start killing each other. The most foolish human Buck met was the Charles". Hal whipped the dog team before the line tyrannically in order to show the correctness of his theory, “They are lazy, I tell you, and you"ve got to whip them to get anything out of them. That"s their way.”(London 31) He even took the axe and knocked Billee on the head as he lay in the traces, at last, they lost their lives on the gold dream road to attempt to conquer the north.

This is consistent with the theory in Engels" “dialectical Natural Law” which the relationship between man and nature must follows “ the first line wins, the second fails”: We human beings should not overly intoxicated with the victory to the nature, for such a victory like this, the nature is taking revenges against us. Every victory, in the first line we achieve our desired results, but in the second and the third-line there is an entirely different effect, it often eliminates the first result.(Engels 114）In other words, human beings can never conquer the nature, revel in the transient victory of the nature is stupid, we will suffer from it ultimately , human beings should abandon anthropocentrism, learn to respect the laws of nature, respect for other life, construct a human society in harmony with the nature.

4. The Doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest of The Call of the Wild

Jack London lived in the late 19th century when Darwin"s “evolution theory” was prevailed around the world, the author"s reading range is very wide, so it has a very large influence on his works. He was particularly appreciative of the thought of “Natural selection and survival of the fittest”. J. Stewart Doublday once pointed out that “the philosophy thought that the Natural Law of ‘People Who Adapt to The Environment Can Survive’ throughout Mr London"s book"s(Call of The Wild) each page.”（Kepos and Paula 266）London"s life was full of misery and suffering, his humble origins and the status of the oppressed made him to understand that only people who can adapt to the society can survive. Modern society"s competition is more and more sharp, we must do more to learn to adapt to the society.

4.1 Adapting everything to be alive

It is filled with snow and ice in the north, there are fewer people and the bullwhip of the law can not touch this land. The survival of Human and animals was threatened at any time, so you can easily image the fierce competition there. Buck was originally just a very loyal dog, but in such an environment, he became a “beast” who is stubborn and cruel. It is the essence of survival of the fittest to continue to make progress and break oneself. It is common that human adapt to live or fail to death.

Buck"s adaptation to the environment almost throughout the entire novel, in order to escape the cold, Buck learns to dug snow cave shelter, to fill his stomach, he even learns to steal others" foods. To meet the hard labor, his muscles become as hard as the iron,

“he could eat anything, no matter how loathsome or indigestible, and once eaten, the juice of his stomach extracted the last least particle of nutriment, and his blood carried it to the farthest reaches of his body. Sight and scent became remarkably keen, while his healing developed such acuteness that in his sleep he heard the faintest sound and knew whether it herald peace or peril.”(London 15)

In the end of the story, he lost Thornton, so he listens to his inner voice, rushes into wolves, he chooses to adapt once again.

4.2 Cruel struggle in northern environment

London was influenced by the gold rush himself, so his northland story was so unique. The critic Katy B. once lamented that: “This book allows us to admit the reality that the description of the chilling Darwinian struggle for existence is part of our human life.”（Jack 76）He writes out the competition of survival in human society and highlights the hardships of people"s lives in the bottom of American society by miseries Buck experienced in northland.

The survival of Buck and the death of other dogs also occurred in those gold diggers. Some people like Buck: Perrault，Francois, Thornton and his friends are winners who defeat the environment. But some people like the Charles` are doomed to dead ultimately because of their weakness and silly. Dog-drivers are familiar with the northern environment, They arrange for the road reasonably and overcome the cold and hunger actively. The Charles" buy a lot of thin sledding dogs and feel proud of it, they don"t think of the food distribution and long-term journey. In that environment, these travelers carry items have no value like dinner plates, and ultimately, they can only disappear from the ice.

4.3 Buck"s elite transition

Jack London described Buck as a representative to break the chain to become the elite. The servant of the Judge Miller"s bought Buck to others so that Buck begins to endure sticks, ski, reins, suffer from the hunger and cold and change into the natural and human"s slaves. However, the environment can shape people, also can change people, poor living environment sharpens Buck"s determination to struggle, forces Buck to abandon his kindness and friendship, he has to learn to be cunning and cruel to become stronger, and then become a strong leader.

It performs the most profoundly when Buck competes for the position of leader with Spitz, He first spreads rumors among dogs to let them no longer obey Spitz"s arrangements, then he is the first one to stand out, to express their dissatisfaction when Spitz want to punish disobedient dogs. It not only makes Spitz"s leadership position reduced, but also makes him receive a group of loyal followers. Buck does not want to be the weak, he forces Spitz to battle with him through the treacherous plan step by step, and he wins the final victory over the leadership. After that, he changes the usual attitudes to others and becomes even more brutal. When they camp the first time after he becomes the lead dog, he punishes all the dog heavily. All dogs are overcome by fear, they dare not resist any more. Since then, he consolidates his leadership deeply, Buck has completed the transformation of the elite by that time.

5. The Expectation to Return Wilderness

Return wilderness is a return to the nature was first put forward as a slogan by Rousseau, he believes that the return of the natural environment and the restoration of human nature is a necessary for human to live healthily. “With the taste of infinite intoxication, he consciously melts into this vast and beautiful nature which is an integral whole to him. So all the individual objects he could not see, all he can see, feel are in the whole nature.”（Kepos 23）The novel reflects this theme in the beginning

“Old longings nomadic leap,

Chafing at custom`s chain

Again from its brumal sleep

Wakens the ferine strain.”（London 1）

The society develops rapidly, but Buck is bought into the north in a civilized southern society, we can see the hypocrisy of civilized society from it. Buck has extraordinary strength and wisdom, he has strong ability to adapt to the environment which makes him more confident to face the competition. This is a prerequisite for his final return to the wilderness. With the mysterious call from the wilderness, Buck"s eager to stay away from human and return to the wilderness become more and more strong. Because it is the only way to retrieve freedom and dignity, to return to the original nature. In fact, this is the author"s disappointment towards human civilization, he wishes to return wilderness, return freedom and return to the original nature.

5.1 The description of northern wilderness prototype

Call of The Wild mainly described the wildness in the north, it is peaceful and harmony, it isn"t defiled by the society. It gives people a feeling of nobility, purify and shock because it is a world covered with snow. Although it is cold there, you may not image it will give people a sense of security and warmth, it also seems difficult to be able to compare with that ideal paradise which brings people with happiness, but compared with the civilized society which is full of selfish and greed, there is an amazing power for the human to pure their souls and stimulate the inner spirit of the hard work.

It is the North"s cold and ruthlessness that makes it seems so upright and fair, there is so much momentum as well. Thoreau once said that “What we call wilderness is actually a civilization more advanced than our civilization.” On the surface, the wilderness is undeveloped, but it is this unspoiled primitiveness that makes the wildness more valuable for us. As one of the human beings, the writer yearns for the past simple harmonious life of the community. Because of the social reality, it can not be achieved, so Jack London makes the wilderness as an ideal destination for Buck to express his own ideal and desire.

5.2 Buck"s returning of wilderness

After Buck meets the man in the red sweater, he keeps in mind that it is not wise to face with the club directly, then he constantly sharpen his teeth to resurrect the instinct to struggle in his body. Huskies attack the team-dogs, Buck was sprayed with blood when his teeth sank through one of the huskies" jugular. During Sparks" sneak attack, he beat him with his sharp teeth. In the face of human"s sticks, he first avoids cleverly, and finally he defeats the human with his shape teeth. Buck recovers the primitive survival instincts in these struggles step by step, and after Thornton"s death, he decides to walk into the wilderness and return to the most primitive wild.

Buck"s returning to the wild contains the author"s expectation on human"s humanity regression in essence. The society at that time, with the economic development, there was full of money and interests around the whole western world. The ever-growing desire to make more money made the society become increasingly competitive. Violence, fight and murder, there was not any humanity any more. In order to survive, people had to make each move with shrewd strategy just like Buck in the novel. Conflicts among humans are also never-ending. Human pursue a better life, but they are farther away from their simple nature now. Those long-lost kindness and friendship are hard to find in the future.

6. Conclusion

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