How Did Jack London Influence The Call Of The Wild

1568 Words4 Pages

Writers of all time periods use what happens in their life and in the places around them to relate to their writings. Jack London, a writer in the literary period of realism, was one such example of a writer who uses outside influences in his writings. One of his books, Call of the Wild, was a story about a dog that was pulled from his simple lifestyle into a life of hard work and labor as a sled dog. In this book and others, London used his own dilemmas and experiences from his life to those of the dog, Buck. Jack London was a writer who used historical events in the United States, events in his life, and the literary period to influence his writing of his books, most specifically Call of the Wild. The historical period London lived in …show more content…

According to “Jack London Biography,” London was born January 12, 1876, to mother Flora Wellman, who encouraged him to begin writing. The article continues to say that London was a hard-working man as he worked many arduous jobs, starting from when he was thirteen years old. For example, he worked on a sealing ship, which is a boat whose crew hunts seals, and in a canning factory. The article also explains that in 1893, a typhoon almost killed him and his crew. His mother encouraged him to write a story about this experience and enter his work in a writing contest. The article continues to say that London won a prize of twenty-five dollars and continued on to attend the University of California at Berkeley after entering the contest. He then decided he wanted to write at least one thousand words per day for the rest of his life (“Jack London Biography”). According to a website sponsored by Sonoma State University and dedicated to providing information about London, London’s first works were some articles in the newspapers such as Overland Monthly. In his later career, London went to the Klondike to gain money from gold. Although he had no success; this experience was his inspiration for Call of the Wild and White Fang (“The Jack London Online Collection”). It is understood that London had a titanic transition from being in California to being in the Klondike, and he shows this in his writing saying, “Buck’s first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock and surprise. He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial” (London 15). London still did not have a steady source of income, so he turned to the gold rush because he assumed that finding gold was the quickest way to be rich (“Jack London Biography”). London says, “…He came because men had found a yellow metal in the North, and

Open Document