In many ways, adversity is the leading factor for change. People, animals, and things often alter their shape or ideas to fit with their surroundings. Usually, those surroundings include one driving factor that forces the change: struggles or difficulty. This idea poses the question, in what way do people deal with adversity? The books The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, and The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, along with the article “What Does It Take to ‘Assimilate’ to America?” by Laila Lalami, carry a common theme: it is not just change that helps people deal with adversity, but adaptation. Change is the simple act of becoming different, whereas adaptation is the act of changing oneself to fit in one’s environment. Adversity, however …show more content…
Jack London brings a natural instinct into the spotlight by defining that everyone has that primal call to the wild, and often one feels this when in a difficult situation. Giving into this ‘call of the wild’ leads to a different kind of adaptation, it makes you become primal to survive in a primal situation. Further into the book it states, “The others sat down and howled. And now the call came to Buck in unmistakable accents. He, too, sad down and howled.” (London, 1990, p.62). This is the defining moment of Jack’s book when Buck lets go of all ties to humans and decides to carve his own path, adapting the way he needs to, not the way that humans encouraged him. Soon, Buck changes himself completely to fit snugly into the environment and to prevent further torturous struggles with humans. These quotes combine to paint a picture of total and complete change when it comes to a new and unfavorable environment. Adversity can, and will, lead to an adaptation of thinking and opinion to help you rise above the problem(s). In The Prince, Machiavelli describes the necessary lifestyle and tactics to gain power over those whom you may not like (or whom may not like you) and retain it. In Niccolo Machiavelli’s life as a public official, he ruled like any other ruler. Eventually, however, he was unseated from his power. Soon after he wrote The Prince as an example of how to overcome all adversity. For example, “The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend
“The suck of the water as it took the beginning of the last steep pitch was frightful, and Thornton knew that the shore was impossible. He scraped furiously over a rock, bruised across a second, and struck the third with a crushing force (London 81). This quote was written by Jack London, the author of The Call of The Wild that he had written a novel about a St. Bernard and a Scotch half breed dog named Buck coming into the Yukon transferring from a master to another. He Becomes loyal and loving to his new master John Thornton they look for gold in the Yukon together, the wild is calling to buck and he has to chose John Thornton or the wild.For the theme Survival of the fittest there are several samples of how Buck has adjusted to his
As Charles Darwin once said. “It is not the strongest of species that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. Darwin’s quote strongly relates to “The Call of the Wild” in many circumstances where the stronger species was not able to thrive, but the one that was most able to adapt to change. In Jack London’s novel, “The Call of the Wild” it is conveyed that in order to survive in any environment one must be able to become accustomed to their surroundings. To survive by adaption one must drop old habits, be able to thrive in poor treatment environments, and love when given the chance. The main character in “The Call of the Wild” Buck, proves this idea on a multitude of occasions throughout his journey in the hostile Canadian Yukon Territory. The first adaptation that is made in “The Call of the Wild” is conveyed when one must drop their old habits to survive.
During the Civil rights movement many leaders faced many adversities, but one leader named Malcolm X wrote,“Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time” hence he tries to say that there is no better way to develop skills than an adversity. At the present time, when people are faced with a challenge they either give up or take the easy way, thus leading to potential going to waste. Although adversity can bring harm, it helps introduce us to ourselves and our unknown skills with the potential to improve them.
London’s novella Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck’s transformation from a domesticated pet on a vast Santa Clara Valley estate to the primal beast he becomes in the bitter regions of the Klondike wilderness. London delivers Buck’s journey in several key plot events and uses various settings and narration styles to tell the story in a way that allows a reader to easily become invested in Buck’s character and well-being from the viewpoint of a loyal and lovable pet, as well as, that of a creature returning to its primal roots and ancestry. Settings in Call of the Wild consist of generally harsh and vicious locations, situations previously unknown to Buck, and various hostile persons and dogs. As well as a variety of settings, London
Jack London’s novel, The Call of the Wild, is about the transformation of Buck. As a dog who was raised as a domestic animal, he must learn to adapt to his new wild surroundings after he is snatched away from civilization. The author's message of this novel is “survival of the fittest.” Buck’s only chance of staying alive is to display his strength and fight. This quote displays Buck’s thoughts on the rules of the wild; the only way to survive. It is clearly shown that having superior power is the only route to not being killed. Each dog, no matter which breed or age, learns these rules almost instantly and gets put into their place; their journey to proving themselves and rising to the top begins. This citation is significant to the theme, because it depicts the valuable law of the wilderness, which is “survival of the fittest.” This quote describes the “eat or be eaten” world that Buck is now adapting to in order to live. The theme, “survival of the of the fittest,” is shown in this quote, and seems quite gruesome. However, “...master or be mastered...Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten…” is exactly how the animals in the wild sustain their places in their “communities.”
In his novel, The Call of the Wild, Jack London wants us to see the step beyond the survival of the fittest to the complete adaptation to and domination of a once unfamiliar and unforgiving environment. Using a third-person, limited omniscient narrator, the cold, icy Yukon wilderness, and a journey from lazy farm life to the deadly work of a sled dog, we see Buck, a Saint Bernard/Scotch Shepherd mix slowly return to his ancestral roots. As Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin states in her book The Call of the Wild: A Naturalistic Romance, “The book deals less with the concept of evolution than with that of devolution” (Courbin pg 57). London asks us to believe that happily domesticated farm dog, Buck, can not only survive life as a sled dog in the Yukon, but can become completely in tune with his primitive inner self, and ultimately thrive as a leader of a wolf pack.
Human beings emotionally thrive on the will to survive, yet how they react to adversity will determine their length of drive they have within. Everybody will eventually face a situation where their mentality will be tested, no matter how happy their life had been. Even in fictional stories, authors must write out their characters facing a major conflict or else there would be no character build, a necessary component of a fantastic novel. Roman poet Horace quoted how the best traits of a person will lay dormant unless they are faced in a miserable situation. However, the results after facing an adversity are debatable. Adversity comes in multiple sized tests that shows how you react by what you experience personally and the results can be either negative or positive on the person’s behalf. Although people facing adversity are expected to present their best traits by Horace beliefs, the background of each individual is what truly determines their ability to grow or falter in undesirable situations.
Of course, adversity is ultimately inevitable in life. When a problem arises, individuals are generally astonished at the response to the complexity of the situation. This makes adversity becomes a wall that is unable to be broken down. However, there is a point in an individual where their instincts can reveal the truth, “it’s part of life to have obstacles, it’s about overcoming obstacles, that’s the key to happiness.” Qualities and characteristics of individuals are revealed during the hard times. These talents that are within us, that are usually locked up to give the ability for an individual to unlock the adversity that it created. In this sense, an individual true color and nature can be revealed leading to a new understanding of the capability to overcome adversities.
A major theme in Jack London’s classic, The Call of the Wild, is that adaptability is essential for survival.
In the beginning of the book, Buck must learn to adapt to life in the wild. First, Buck learns how to adapt to no Longer being a King, but a slave instead. For example, the man in the red sweater beats Buck with a club so that Buck will obey him like a slave, including eating out of his hands that just beat him. Since Buck survives the clubbing by not attacking the man, he has learned to adapt to the “Law of the Club.” Second Buck learns how to adapt in the snow. For instance, Buck becomes a great sled dog and leads the team. Since Buck is a great sled the people need him. So they help Buck survive. Last Buck learns how to adapt by being pretty much king, For example he went from being beaten and not loved to being leader and loved and important.
A major theme in Jack London’s classic book The Call of the Wild is that adaptability is essential for survival, which is what buck has to do to during most of the book. At the beginning of the book, Buck’s appearance changes, In the middle, his mental thinking changes, and At the end, his senses change so he can adapt to his new life in Alaska.
The will and perseverance of a person can get the through the hardest and most difficult of times. The Call of the Wild is an adventure fiction novel by Jack London. The novel gives and insight into human nature. Set during the Yukon gold rush the Call of the wild tells the story of Buck. Buck ,a dog from Southern California, who is kidnaped and sold on the blackmarket to a sled team in Alaska. Perseverance play a big part in buck’s journey throughout the novel.
Chris McCandless and Buck serve as examples of the archetype of the wild through their experiences of leaving where they feel most comfortable and answering the call of the wild. They show that each experience is inimitable because the wild is unique to every individual. For Buck, the wild is a place outside of civilization and his dependence on man, where the external threats of nature exist and he must prove himself as a true animal with instincts for survival. In McCandless' case, the place outside of civilization is actually an escape from his fears because the wild for him is in relationships, where the threat of intimacy exists and he must learn to trust others for happiness. This is because for each of us, the wild is what we
Jack London’s attitude in the text made it very apparent how he felt about life. In retrospect, he said that you do what you have to do to survive. One of the very first examples of why he believed this is in the novella, when Buck was taken from his castle in the Santa Clara Valley. Buck had no idea where he was, where he was going to, or why. He soon found out that he was going to be a sled dog and was auctioned off; Buck did not like that. He fought with the man in the red sweater and he finally surrendered so that he did not get beaten to death. London expresses that Buck just did what he had to do by saying, “He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken” (Call of the Wild, London) Another example of when Buck
The author of The Call of the Wild, Jack London, heavily influenced the literary world with his inspirational works, specifically surrounding the theme of Naturalism. London followed the same theme, among others, in many of his works, focusing on how the environment affects its inhabitants and the details of the environment itself. The descriptions of nature London took the time to include in his books and the way they affect the story is what makes his works truly remarkable. He strongly committed himself to his works and put a great deal of effort into researching them to ensure accuracy. In The Call of the Wild, there are three main themes that are made evident: naturalism, coming of age, and loss of innocence. Naturalism is what London is most known for, and is shown through his attention to the surroundings of his characters. Coming of age was displayed through specific life changing events that altered Buck’s perspective. And finally, loss of innocence can be seen in the gradual, but sure decline of Buck’s morals.