Use Of Naturalism In The Call Of The Wild

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Jack London has written many books and they all seem to have one thing in common: Naturalism. Naturalism is the idea that environment determines human character and nature is indifferent to the outcome of a human life. Even though The Sea Wolf takes place on a boat and The Call of the Wild is in the Yukon Territory during the Klondike gold rush they both have the same naturalistic view. A close examination of these two books will show how London sees the world very objectively and detached, as shown in The Sea Wolf and The Call of the Wild. First, London uses Naturalism in The Call of the Wild by using the descriptions of the environment to describe the feelings of the dogs as though they are connected or the same in some way. “Over the whiteness and silence brooded a ghostly calm. There was not the faintest whisper of air—nothing moved, not a leaf quivered, the visible breaths of the dogs rising slowly and lingering in the frosty air” (London, 48). At this point in time…show more content…
The weather is very foggy before the wreck happens and the men aboard the Martinez seem to know that the ferryboat is coming directly towards them. However, the ferryboat is not even aware of the ship it is about to crash into until it is too late. Nature did not care that there were women aboard the ship or that people could die, it just did what it knew to do. If nature cared anything about human kind it would have broken the fog and allowed the two ships to see each other sooner. “I was thrown flat on the wet deck, and before I could scramble to my feet I heard the scream of women. This it was, I am certain—the most indescribable of blood-curdling sounds—that threw me into a panic” London, 11). As Christopher Gair said in his literary criticism of the book, everything changes when nature comes in the form of dense fog and causes the ship
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