Jack London's The Call of the Wild: “Nature Faker”?

[The] line between fact and fiction is repeatedly crossed and… a deliberate attempt is made to induce the reader to cross too… Mr. Thompson Seton says in capital letters that his stories are true and it is this emphatic assertion that makes the judicious grieve.
—John Burroughs on Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known, in "Real and Sham Natural History," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 91, no. 545 (March 1903), p. 299

True it is that all the animals whose lives are portrayed… are simply human beings disguised as animals; they think, feel, plan, suffer as we do… But in other respects they follow closely the facts of natural history and the reader is not deceived.
—John Burroughs on Charles D. Roberts' Kindred of the Wild, in "Real and Sham Natural History," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 91, no. 545 (March 1903), p. 299

Introduction

Jack London published The Call of the Wild and White Fang after a new kind of animal story had become wildly popular. Most of the authors of such tales (Anna Sewell and Ernest Thompson Seton, for example) wrote with the specific goal of increasing public awareness of wild and domesticated animals and often represented the animal's point of view, sometimes in the first person. Some, like Thompson Seton, purported to describe the natural world and the consciousness of animals with a high degree of scientific accuracy. Others, like Sewell, used anthropomorphism unapologetically—to enhance the reader's identification with their animal protagonists.

In 1903—the same year in which Jack London published The Call of the Wild—John Burroughs, the renowned naturalist, attacked popular nature writers such as Ernest Thompson Seton and William J. Long, whom he called "nature fakers" for portraying animals in what he claimed was a sentimental and anthropomorphic fashion ("Real and Sham Natural History," Atlantic Monthly 91, 545 [March 1903]: 298-310). Eventually, London became embroiled in the controversy, accused of being a "nature faker" by Burroughs and even the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. Some critics dubbed London's animal heroes "men in fur."

Yet London himself shared many of Burroughs reservations, as he argues in his essay,"The Other Animals" (available here as a link on the EDSITEment-reviewed Center for the Liberal Arts). Responding to the charge of being a "nature faker," London maintained that his own animal stories in fact represented

…a protest against the "humanizing" of animals, of which it seemed to me several "animal writers" had been profoundly guilty…I did it in order to hammer into the average human understanding that these dog-heroes of mine were not directed by abstract reasoning, but by instinct, sensation, and emotion, and by simple reasoning. Also, I endeavored to make my stories in line with the facts of evolution; I hewed them to the mark set by scientific research.

To what extent has London succeeded in these aims? How does he solve the technical problems of portraying Buck, the animal hero of The Call of the Wild, without the sort of "humanizing" he faults in other nature writers? Is Buck truly "not directed by abstract reasoning"? Can any writer create a believable and compelling nonhuman character without being a "nature faker"? Why might London have chosen to attempt this difficult technical feat and what is he trying to communicate to readers through his portrayal of Buck?

Note: This lesson may be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a sequel to the complementary EDSITEment lesson Metaphorical Gold: Mining the Klondike Gold Rush for Stories.

Guiding Questions:

How does Jack London approach the literary problem of telling a story from the point of view of an animal? How well has he succeeded in his aims? Why might London have chosen to write from an animal's perspective? In doing so, what was he trying to convey to his readers?

Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, students will be able to:

• Take a stand on whether or not London could be dubbed a "nature faker"; support position with evidence either historical or from the text.
• Take a stand on what London is attempting to communicate through his portrayal of Buck; support position with evidence either historical or from the text.
• Write an essay, complete with hypothesis and textual support, on London's approach to the animal story in The Call of the Wild.

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

• Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Download the worksheet, Is Jack London a "Nature Faker"?, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class. Please note that this worksheet packet includes answers for the teacher as well as worksheets for student use.
• This lesson is designed for students who are reading or have completed The Call of the Wild.
• Animal tales, especially those purporting to be based on the truth about the natural world, were in vogue by the time Jack London published The Call of the Wild. Central to London's novel is the journey from civilization to the wild of an animal hero. The reader's ability to identify with the hero will be enhanced if the tale is told from the point of view of the animal; but that is a point of view no human can truly understand, much less communicate. Having to use words to describe the consciousness of an animal puts an immediate limitation on what an author can accomplish. The human point of view will necessarily intrude. This lesson asks students to consider: How have writers attempted to tell a story from the point of view of an animal? How did London approach the problem in The Call of the Wild? What was London attempting to communicate through his portrayal of Buck?
• To achieve a better understanding of how The Call of the Wild compares with the animals stories of London's peers, students will compare excerpts from some well-known animal stories of the time with a selection from London. Each excerpt will enable students to glimpse a particular approach. While reading the complete narratives may be impractical, interested students should be encouraged to read any of the texts completely. (All stories are available online, some with additional information of interest; see the first bulleted item under Extending the Lesson, below.)
• For further reading for students, consult the Recommended Reading List provided here as a PDF file.

1. Jack London and the Real Buck

2. The Other Animals

3. The Call of the Wild and Other Animal Tales

4. How Does London Portray Buck?: Collecting the Evidence

5. Taking a Stand

1. Jack London and the Real Buck

How did London approach the literary problem of telling a story from the point of view of an animal? Two primary documents from Jack London International, a link from the EDSITEment resource Center for the Liberal Arts, provide some evidence:

• Eulogy by Marshall Bond (NOTE: Pay special attention to sections II, III, and IV and the photo.)
• Letter Identifying the Dog on Which Buck Was Based (NOTE: This is a transcription. A Photo Copy of Page Three of the Letter Identifying Dog on Which Buck Was Based, available from The Jack London Collection, a link from EDSITEment-reviewed website Center for the Liberal Arts, is difficult to read, but clear enough to shed light on the transcript.)

Share the documents with the class. The eulogy discusses the model for Buck and also offers first-hand (though not unbiased) observations about London and how he related to dogs. In the photo, students can see the dog on whom Buck was based.

In what way, if any, should knowledge that London based Buck on an actual dog change the way a reader approaches The Call of the Wild? How, if at all, does that knowledge add to our understanding of London's approach to portraying an animal?

2. The Other Animals

In response to the accusations of Burroughs and Roosevelt, London wrote the essay "The Other Animals," available on The Jack London Collection, a link from EDSITEment resource Center for the Liberal Arts. London claimed he wrote his two dog novels as "a protest against the 'humanizing' of animals, of which… several 'animal writers' had been profoundly guilty." He also claimed to have "hewed them [his dog heroes] to the mark set by scientific research." London considered it ironic, then, that he was being criticized as a "nature faker."

Also in the essay, "The Other Animals," London suggests his intentions in his portrayals of Buck and White Fang. Share this essay with your class (it is about 10 pages long, downloaded) or the "Selections from 'The Other Animals'" on pages 1-2 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions). How does London describe his approach to portraying Buck (and White Fang)?

3. The Call of the Wild and Other Animal Tales

Animal tales, especially those purporting to be based on the truth about the natural world, were in vogue by the time London published The Call of the Wild. Download, copy, and distribute to students the handout "Selections for Comparison" on pages 3-7 of the PDF file. Read the brief selections from London and his peers and fill in the "Chart for Comparison of Animal Stories" on page 8 of the PDF file. What variety of approaches do the students find? Which excerpts make no pretense of portraying the natural world? Which succeed in portraying the natural world with reasonable accuracy? Which do a reasonable job of portraying the natural world even while over-humanizing animals? Which, if any, would you label "nature fakers?" Which most resemble The Call of the Wild?

4. How Does London Portray Buck?: Collecting the Evidence

Select some examples of London's portrayal of Buck from the first chapter of The Call of the Wild to share with the class. If desired, use excerpts from the handout "Buck in Chapter 1" on pages 9-10 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions). Is there a pattern among the selections to indicate London's approach at this point in the book? Remind students that his approach could change during the novel. Ask each student or small group to locate one or two examples of the author's approach from each of the succeeding chapters the class has completed. (Remind students to note a page number for each.) In this way, the class can quickly build up a source of textual evidence for everyone to use. Discuss what the excerpts and the hypotheses of individual students reveal.

Share and discuss each of the sample hypotheses on the chart "Hypotheses for Explaining London's Portrayal of Buck in The Call of the Wild," on page 11 of the PDF file, as well as any variations conceived by students. Collect the text excerpts and make them accessible by posting them on a bulletin board or having students enter them into a computer word processing file or database. Everyone should now be ready to take a stand on London's approach to Buck.

5. Taking a Stand

Students should fill in the chart "Hypotheses for Explaining London's Portrayal of Buck in The Call of the Wild," on page 11 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions), based on the hypothesis they have developed or accepted about the portrayal of Buck in The Call of the Wild. Then, using the evidence from the text that the class has compiled, students should take a firm stand on the issue in the form of an essay, with a clearly stated hypothesis as its thesis. How does Jack London portray Buck? Does London's approach change during the novel as Buck changes? Is London faithful to scientific research as he claimed? Does it matter? What is London trying to communicate to the reader through his portrayal of Buck?

Extending the Lesson

• Interested students can find online (via links from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library) the complete texts of the animal stories excerpted for this lesson:
  • Beautiful Joe: An Autobiography by Margaret Marshall Saunders (a.k.a. Marshall Saunders), 1893
  • Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, 1877
  • The Heart of the Ancient Wood by Charles G. D. Roberts, 1900
  • In the Wilderness by Charles Dudley Warner , 1888
  • The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, 1899
  • Secrets of the Woods by William Long, 1901
  • Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton (a.k.a. Ernest Seton Thompson), 1898
• Jack London's other Klondike tales, among them White Fang and the short story collection The Son of the Wolf, are part of The Jack London Collection, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Center for the Liberal Arts, and an excellent resource for everything London. If desired, students can complete further research about London, including reading some of his letters.
• A good place to start learning more about President Theodore Roosevelt is the POTUS Page on Roosevelt, which is available on the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library and lists many facts and provides links to online biographies and other information.
• Further information on John Burroughs is available from the following EDSITEment-reviewed websites:
  • From American Memory
    • Documentary Chronology of Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement, 1847-1920
    • Today in History
  • From America's Library, a link from American Memory
    • John Burroughs, page 1
    • John Burroughs, page 2

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• American Memory [http://memory.loc.gov/]
  • Documentary Chronology of Selected Events in the Development
    of the American Conservation Movement, 1847-1920
    [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amrvhtml/cnchron4.html]
  • Today in History [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr03.html]
  • America's Library [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/]
  • John Burroughs, page 1
    [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_burroughs_1.html]
  • John Burroughs, page 2
    [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_burroughs_2.html]
• Center for the Liberal Arts [http://www.virginia.edu/cla/]
  • The Jack London Collection [http://london.sonoma.edu/ ]
  • The Call of the Wild
    [http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Writings/CallOfTheWild/]
  • " The Other Animals"
    [http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Revolution/animals.html]
  • Letter to Marshall Bond (Oakland, Calif.), Dec. 17, 1903
    [http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Documents/
    AddPages/I0040831.html]
  • The Son of the Wolf
    [http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Writings/SonWolf/]
  • White Fang [http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Writings/WhiteFang/]
  • Jack London International [http://www.jack-london.org/main_e.htm]
  • Eulogy by Marshall Bond
    [http://www.jack-london.org/05-mat-bond_e.htm]
  • Letter to Marshall Bond Identifying Dog on Which Buck Was Based
    [http://www.jack-london.org/05-mat-bond-jackletter_e.htm]
• Internet Public Library [http://www.ipl.org/]
  • POTUS Page on Theodore Roosevelt
    [http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/troosevelt.html]
  • Early Canadiana Online [http://www.canadiana.org/cgi-bin/ECO/mtq]
  • The Heart of the Ancient Wood
    [http://www.canadiana.org/cgibin/ECO/
    mtq?id=c2c049bdb6&display=32481+0084]
  • Beautiful Joe: An Autobiography
    [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/saunders/joe/joe.html]
  • Black Beauty [http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext95/bbeau10.txt]
  • In the Wilderness
    [http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02/cwitw10.txt]
  • The Jungle Book
    [http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext95/jnglb10.txt]
  • Secrets of the Woods
    [http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext99/sctwd10.txt]
  • Wild Animals I Have Known
    [http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02/wldam10.txt]