Individualism In London's Call Of The Wild

Throughout history, books have repeatedly been challenged, banned, and censored by all types of people and organizations for purposes such as self-preservation, and for a multitude of reasons such as presence of witchcraft to violence and age inappropriateness. Call of the Wild follows the life of Buck, a pampered dog who lives a luxurious lifestyle in California until he is thrown into the unrelenting and harsh environment of dog slavery in Alaska, a result of the gold rush. The novel has since been the target of totalitarian governments ruled by fascist dictators in Europe, primarily Yugoslavia, Nazi Germany, and Italy. These such countries imposed their absolute power through the promotion of conformity and dismantling signs of individualism

London, being raised in a challenging and difficult setting, learned to succeed on his own which began to reflect greatly on his stories and attitudes he displays in his novels. From the start of the novel, London wastes no time in showing the reader that he embodies himself- “I was a rampant individualist. It was very natural. I was a winner” (Thor 1), with Buck- “Additionally, abuse by masters requires self-defense. Buck quickly learns that he needs to protect himself if he wants to survive” (Thor 1). London’s ideals strongly correlate with the foundations of rugged individualism, which is more or less the polar opposite of social conformity. This, in turn, outed London as an enemy to be handled and crushed by the totalitarian dictatorships- which they attempted to do through burning, censoring, and banning. Furthermore, the underlying idea of enduring and persisting through life’s challenges no matter how hard they may turn out to be develops and strengthens Buck’s independent mentality. As a result of this, Buck symbolizes the author himself (Thor 1). Another reason for Call of the Wild’s suppression is due to the recurring examples of dark tones and bloody violence. These such examples contain gruesome descriptions and have been argued as age inappropriate for middle school readers. Although there are quite gory descriptions, such as when “[the

As Call of the Wild was published in 1903, it was essentially set up to be challenged, only a couple of decades before the rise of the totalitarian governments, whose primary goals consisted of ceasing the work that opposed their theories and ideals. Through “the indirect promotion of individualism and socialism, London [became] a cocktail for revolution against the dictatorships of Europe” (Thor 2). Because individualism and socialism is taught to the followers of European dictatorships as a corrupt force, it is so forcefully influenced to the point that books are suppressed in a multitude of forms. As the main ideal of European dictatorships at the time, the government's went to extremes to make sure that their followers wouldn’t have access to media that might have a chance of affecting their ideology, leading to them deeming thousands of books, such as London’s Call of the Wild, radical and illegal to possess or read. Even though it may seem hard to read at times, London’s genuine and new style of writing is what allowed him to be such a great author. He used this to stand out from other authors at the time, by writing in an unorthodox method and insinuating radical