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The Call Of The Wild Adversity Analysis

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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

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