Illustration by Ron Parker

Very briefly

Canada, late 19th century. The domestic dog falls from the warm South into the conditions of the cruel North. The instincts of a predator awaken in it, which helps to survive and protect itself.

I. Towards primitive life

The dog Beck, born of a St. Bernard and a Scottish Shepherd, did not read the newspapers and did not know that thousands of people rushed to the North in search of gold, and therefore now need large breed dogs suitable for hard work. Buck lived in Judge Miller's mansion, warmed himself by the fireplace near the owner's feet, went hunting with his sons, and played with the judge's grandchildren. So the dog's life went on until the gardener, a passionate lottery player with a small salary, sold the gullible Beck to a man at the station.

Never before had people treated Buck so badly. First the rope around the neck, then the cage. The dog passed from hand to hand, did not eat or drink for two days. When he is freed by a man in a red sweater, Buck unleashes his rage on him, but the man repels the dog's attacks with a club. Buck is defeated, he realizes it. The dog obeys the new owner, but does not flatter him, like other brought dogs.

Beck is bought by Perrot and the mestizo François to transport government mail. They turned out to be fair and calm people, the dogs were punished only for offenses.

II. The law of club and fang

Buck's first day on the beach at Dye was a terrible nightmare. The local dogs fought like real wolves. The way the Spitz leader tore apart the good-natured Newfoundland was a harsh lesson for Beck. “So this is what life is like! There is no place for honesty and justice. Whoever has fallen is the end. So we must hold on tight! " From that moment on, Beck came to hate Spitz with a "cruel, deadly hatred."

Beck, together with other dogs, is harnessed to sledges. If the dog got off his feet, Dave or Spitz bit him with his teeth, and François tried to achieve order with a whip. Buck is a quick learner. The work is hard, but the dog does not feel disgust for it. He notes how the gloomy dogs Dave and Sollex changed in the harness, it seemed that "this work was the highest expression of their being."

Dogs work hard and get very tired. Buck learns another lesson: you must eat quickly, otherwise the other dogs will snatch the ration, and he will remain hungry. Buck also learned to steal food and go unpunished. He's running wild. The past of his forgotten ancestors is being revived in him.

III. The primeval beast triumphed

Back does not hit Spitz first, but his opponent constantly provokes him into a fight. One day Spitz occupies a hole dug by Beck in the snow. “The beast has spoken in him. He lunged at Spitz with a fury unexpected for both of them. " But the fight is interrupted by a hundred hungry dogs who smelled the smell of food and attacked the camp. A fight breaks out between the sled dogs and the alien dogs.

Back becomes a cunning, power-hungry dog, striving for primacy. He wants to become a leader and undermines the authority of Spitz in the team. Only Dave and Sollex remain calm and still work smoothly.

Somehow one dog misses a hare, and the whole pack rushes in pursuit. Primal instincts awaken in Beck, he runs ahead of everyone. The cunning Spitz runs in a wrong direction to the hare and, being the first to overtake him, sinks his teeth into the back of the animal. "Buck felt that the decisive moment had come, that this fight would not be for life, but for death." The advantage is clearly on Spitz's side: he manages to bite Beck and deftly rebound. All of the bloody Beck's attacks are unsuccessful. At the last moment, he changes his maneuver: having deceived the opponent, Back gnaws Spitz two paws. The enemy has been defeated.

Vi. Who won the fight for the championship

The next morning, François discovers that Spitz is not there. After examining Buck's wounds, he realizes what happened: "Isn't it true that there are two devils in this Buck?" Now the fighting is over, Perrot and François think. The dog, by his behavior, achieves the place of the leader from Francois. He quickly subjugates everyone else. Dogs make a record run.

The dogs are sold to a half-breed Scotsman. Now they work day after day, pulling sledges with heavy luggage. Buck is not homesick. Instincts spoke imperiously within him. When Buck is resting by the fire, he sees non-modern people. Before him appears the image of a short-legged man with long arms. "His hair was long and tousled, his skull sloped from the very eyes to the crown ... He was almost naked - only a skin dangled on his back, torn and warped by fire."

V. Works and hardships of the way

The owner with Beck's team arrives at Skagway. "The dogs were exhausted and exhausted." The dogs are sold to the Americans, Charles and Hal. With them was a woman — Mercedes, Charles’s wife and Hal’s sister, a capricious, pampered beauty. These three are absolutely not adapted to the conditions of the North. They have an unbearable load on sledges for dogs, they do not know how to handle animals, in addition, they do not listen to the advice of experienced people. On the way, dog food runs out quickly, seekers move slowly, often quarrel. The dogs die of exhaustion and hunger one by one. "So they got to John Thornton's camp at the mouth of the White River." Thornton explains that it is spring already, the ice is about to break, and travelers should not go further - it is very dangerous. But they don't listen to him. Hal lashes the dogs with a whip to get them to walk. Only Buck does not move and makes no attempt to get up, which infuriates Hal. The guy takes the club. John defends Beck, a fight breaks out between Thornton and Hal, and the guy retreats. Buck stays with his protector.

Sleds go down on the river ice. But soon the area of ​​ice beneath them subsides, and people and dogs hide under the water.

Vi. For the love of man

Thornton looks after the dog. For the first time, Beck “knew love, love true and passionate. He had never loved anyone in the house of Judge Miller so much ... only John Thornton was destined to awaken in him an ardent love, love-adoration, passionate to madness. " Thornton took care of the dogs "like a father to children - that was his nature."

Returning companions John, Hans and Pete, the dog tolerates condescendingly because of its owner, "as if out of grace", accepts their courtesies. Observing Beck's loyalty, Pete once said to John: "Yes, I would not want to be in the place of a person who will try to touch you in front of him."

Pete was right. Once at a bar, John tried to stop a fight, but one of the participants hit him. Buck instantly attacked the offender, having managed to bite through his neck. In the fall of the same year, Beck saves Thornton. John's boat capsized, "Thornton was carried away by the current to the most dangerous place of the rapids, where every swimmer was threatened with death." But Buck, tied with a rope by Pete and Hans, pulls out the owner.

In the winter at Dawson, Buck brings John sixteen hundred dollars. The bet was that the dog would drop a thousand pounds and go a hundred yards. And Beck did it.

Vii. The call is heard

Thornton and his comrades set off in search of gold to the east. After long wanderings, people find "a surface deposit in a wide valley ... Here they washed thousands of dollars worth of pure gold sand and nuggets in a day, and worked every day."

One night Buck hears a call - a drawn-out howl. "He seemed familiar to Buck - yes, he had heard it before!" In an open clearing, the dog sees a skinny wolf. The wolf ran away from Buck for a long time, but, realizing that the dog is not threatening him, he ceases to be afraid. They sniff in a friendly way.

“Buck was wildly ecstatic. Now he knew that he was running next to his forest brother exactly to the place from where the imperious call, which he heard in his dreams and in reality, was coming from ”. Already in the afternoon the dog remembered Thornton and returned to the camp.

But the call continued to ring more and more insistently in his ears. By the river, he gnaws a bear. He longed for large prey, and soon he manages to fight off the old leader of the elk from the herd. Buck hunted the elk for several days until it became weak. The dog remembers John Thornton and rushes back to camp. "On the way, Buck felt more and more something new and disturbing around him." Near the camp, he finds John's dead dogs and those killed by Hans and Pete. Iheets are dancing near the hut. "Buck lost his head, and it was his great love for John Thornton that was to blame." The dog, like a living hurricane, swooped down on the Iheths, "mad with a thirst for revenge." He gnaws at the Indians' throats and tears them apart. The Ihetes rush to run in terror.

Beck did not find John's body; the traces of his struggle led to the pond and there they ended. “John Thornton is dead. The last ties were broken. People with their demands and rights no longer existed for Beck. He adjoins a wolf pack.

Year: 1903 Genre: story

Main characters: Beck the dog and the gold digger John Thornton

Dog Beck, a cross between a St. Bernard and a Scottish Shepherd, did not read the newspapers and did not know that thousands of people went to the North to mine gold, and for this they needed strong and resilient dogs like Beck. He lived at the estate of Judge Miller, until one day the gardener secretly sold Beck to an unknown person. Since then, a completely different life began for Beck. Accustomed to freedom, the dog was first put on a rope around its neck, and then put in a cage. Then he was passed from hand to hand until he finally got to the man in the red sweater. The man used a baton to show Buck how cruel a dog can be. Beck was soon sold to two men, François and Perrault. They knew perfectly the dog's habits and punished animals only for the cause.

François and Perrault brought Beck along with other dogs to the north. There Beck became acquainted with the wild disposition of local dogs and began working in a team. Buck quickly learned new things and gradually adapted to the harsh conditions of the server. In this he was helped not only by his experience, but also by stalled primitive instincts.

The leader of the team in which Buck worked was the dog Spitz. Beck and Spitz disliked each other from the first meeting, and were constantly at odds with each other. Over time, Buck began to more and more openly claim to be the leader. It was clear that a battle between him and Spitz was imminent. Once, when François and Perrault stopped the team to spend the night, one of the dogs noticed a hare, and the whole pack of dogs chased after him, including Beck. Spitz caught the hare. And then Buck pounced on the leader and grabbed his throat. All the other dogs surrounded the fighting dogs with a ring and waited for one of them to fall to the ground. After a long struggle, Spitz fell, and a ring of dogs closed around him, ready to finish off the defeated one. Shortly after this fight, Buck became the new leader.

The dogs had to overcome a long and difficult journey, and they arrived at Skagway completely exhausted. However, they did not have time to rest properly. Three days later, François and Perrault sold their dogs to two Americans, Hal and Charles. With them was also a woman named Mercedes, who was Charles's wife and Hal's sister. They did everything completely awkwardly: there was too much luggage, and it constantly fell from the cart; they did not know how to handle dogs. On the way, they soon ran out of dog food, and, exhausted by fatigue, cold and hunger, the dogs began to die.

Somehow they reached the parking lot of John Thornton. John Thornton did his best to discourage them from continuing along the river, since it was spring and the ice was already fragile. But seeing that it was useless to argue with these people, Thornton took Beck away from them, and very soon watched as their whole cart fell through the thin ice and went to the bottom.

John Thornton became Beck's last owner. Buck became so attached to this man that he was ready to do anything for him. He once saved John Thornton's life when he and his friends were ferrying a boat down the river through dangerous rapids and fell into the water. On another occasion, Buck helped his master win an argument by single-handedly moving a sled with a load of a thousand pounds and walking a hundred yards with them.

Soon, John Thornton and his friends went in search of the lost gold deposit, which, according to legend, was at the abandoned hut. After long wanderings, they never found the hut, but stumbled upon a placer of gold in a wide valley. At this place they set up camp and started mining for gold.

Beck had nothing to do at that time, so he hunted and often ran into the forest, as he heard some strange call that attracted him further and further every time. Once in the forest, he met a wolf, and already even ran after him, but remembering John Thornton, he returned to the camp.

One day Buck decided to hunt an old moose. Four days later, he managed to recapture him from the herd, and the elk became his prey. When Buck returned to the camp, he saw that John Thornton and his companions, and two other dogs were killed, and in the camp he saw the ichi dancing around the remnants of the hut. Having lost his head, Buck threw himself at the Iheths, and began to tear and torment them one by one. And neither their arrows nor their spears touched him.

Buck was left alone, but not for long. Soon a wolf pack came to his valley, with which Beck had to fight. Having won a fight with a whole pack of wolves, Buck became part of this pack.

Since then, people have bypassed the Beck Valley. And he himself sometimes came there, sat in thought and howled, for a long time and dejectedly. Sometimes he came there with other wolves, and then a loud song spilled over the valley - the song of a wolf pack.

Conclusion. The novel "Call of the Ancestors" teaches that sometimes you need to get closer to nature in order to understand your true essence and purpose, as well as that even in the most hard work and in harsh conditions, you need to maintain your dignity.

Picture or drawing Call of the ancestors

Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary

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• Summary of Andersen's Magic Hill

  The lizards say that noble guests will soon arrive on the magic hill. Further, when the hill opens, one ancient fairy patroness of the forest appears from it, she had an amber heart on her forehead

• Summary of the Black chicken or underground inhabitants of Pogorelsky

  A wonderful tale about a black chicken was written by Anthony Pogorelsky for his ten-year-old nephew Alyosha Tolstoy. This boy later became a famous writer and poet.

• Summary Notes of the little schoolgirl Charskaya

  The main character of the work is an orphaned girl. Her mother, anticipating her imminent death, took care of the fate of her daughter. She asked her cousin living in St. Petersburg to help the girl.

• Summary Dragoon Main rivers of America

  This story is about Denis Korablev. Deniska spent the whole summer training to get ready and dress quickly, like firefighters. He once slept on the way to school, but was able to get dressed quickly in one minute and forty-eight seconds.

Read The Call of the Wild in full! The summary is a surrogate, a pitiful fake. It's like eating a margarine sandwich instead of bread and cheese. Without stopping, you will read The Call of the Ancestors in three hours! A summary will not give a vivid idea of ​​this amazing work. It will only outline the general outline of the story. Having given such recommendations, the author invites you to get acquainted with the story that Jack London so incredibly retold - "The Call of the Wild." A summary of the chapters (there are seven of them) will give a general idea of ​​it, and then you will certainly read the whole work.

The collapse of Beck's life

A cross between a St. Bernard and a Shepherd, the large, muscular Buck with thick fur lived as the king and patron of the family of Judge Miller. In the evenings he lay by the fireplace and looked at the fire, and in the afternoon he went hunting with the sons of the judge or walked around the neighborhood with his daughters, played with the master's grandchildren. Here he was born and lived for four years.

But gold diggers were drawn to the Klondike, and they needed large, muscular dogs that could pull heavy teams and not freeze. Beck was betrayed by the gardener's assistant. He seemed to take him for a walk when no one saw him, and sold it to a reseller.

Upbringing

He pulled the strap around the dog's neck, beat her and dragged her into the carriage. Later he was put in a cage. For two days, until the train arrived at the terminal station, the dog was not fed or watered. He was brought to the "trainer", who severely beat the dog with a club, so that he could not get up, and blood flowed from his ears, nose and mouth. The dog lay motionless, and the tormentor went up to it and hit it with all his might with the same club in the face. Buck quickly learned what a club is, especially since more and more new dogs were brought in, and all of them were beaten with the same fearlessness. He understood in whose hands the power, but the proud spirit in him was not broken. He just became more careful. Finally he was bought and taken away in the hold of a steamer far north, where he first saw snow.

Chapter two: mail transport

The quiet life under the southern sun is forever over. On the shore, packs of dogs fought to death among themselves, until the drivers drove them away with whips.

Leader Spitz tore apart the good-natured Newfoundland on the sly. From that moment, Beck's hatred for the leader arose. This is how Jack London describes the primitive life. The Call of the Ancestors novel, summary which we present, begins to develop rapidly, and we will see how quickly Buck transforms from a good-natured to a cautious and dangerous dog.

They put on a harness and harnessed him to a sled. In the beginning there was teaching. For misbehavior, he received a bite from the leader or a blow with a whip from a driver. In one day, Buck quickly learned everything. Night has come. There is snow all around, and there is not a single dog, they are not allowed into the tent. Beck accidentally stumbled upon a hole dug by another dog. Frozen, he dug himself a cozy nest and soon fell asleep in the warmth. The study began harshly pet dog as Jack London first showed it.

"Call of the Wilds", a summary of which is the topic of our article, says that work in a team even captured Beck with his passion. The second thing he learned was to eat quickly, so that food would not be stolen from him. Now he himself knows how to steal a piece, while none of the drivers can see, because food is life. The Call of the Wild novel, a summary of which we are retelling, shows how Buck is gradually running wild.

Chapter three: Beck's primacy

Between the leader Spitz and Beck, a deadly war gradually broke out. Spitz dared to occupy the hole that Beck had dug for himself. But the fight ends, as a flock of hungry dogs rushed into the camp. The aliens are chased away, but Buck tries to undermine Spitz's supremacy. The pack of sled dogs is getting worse and worse. Once a hare ran past the camp. The hungry dogs rushed after him.

Spitz cunningly caught the prey. Away from the drivers, a life-and-death struggle flares up. The whole pack watches as Buck bites down first on the leader's hind leg, and then on the front. The dogs finished off the fallen Spitz and returned to the camp without him. The Call of the Ancestors, a summary of which we present, shows a change in Beck's mind: he has forgotten what a fair fight is, he is gradually becoming a dangerous and cunning beast.

Chapter four: a new owner

Buck firmly pushes the drivers to put him in charge, and then quickly gets all the dogs to work with full tension. The run was completed in record time.

The drivers cry, but sell Beck. With a heavy load, dogs pull the bunks from the new owner. Now Buck loves most of all to look at the fire. He sees in the play of the flame a man dressed in skins, with a sloping forehead, who is afraid of everything and sniffs and looks at everything. Ancient instincts are pouring into Beck.

Chapter five: dramatic

Buck got to random people. They do not know how to control the dogs, they do not know how to calculate the route, they overload the sledges, completely exhaust the dogs and find themselves in the spring, when the thin ice is about to break, by the river. They stop at the camp of John Thornton, who advises them to stop their journey. But these smart guys don't need advice. They will go at any cost. Buck refuses to join the team. The owner wants to end his life. But Beck stands up for John Thornton. The dog remains on the shore, and the whole team with people and dogs drowns before their eyes.

Chapter six: first love

The new owner takes care of the exhausted, emaciated dog. Soon, Beck's devotion to the savior and master awakens. He lies at his feet, goes hunting with him, loves madly when the owner talks to him, resting his forehead on Beck's.

The dog simply cannot imagine life without a master. When John's companions return to the camp, he simply does not pay attention to them. In the fall, the boat in which Thornton is sailing overturns and John begins to sink. Everyone else is on the shore at this time. A rope is tied to Buck. He rushes in powerful strokes, swims up to the owner and swims with him to the shore. In the winter at Dawson, he wins a bet. According to the conditions, it is necessary to move the frozen sleds weighing 500 kg and walk with them 100 yards. Beck did it and brought John $ 1,600.

Chapter seven: tragic

John and his comrades went east to look for the legendary placer of gold. They found a vast placer in the river valley and tirelessly wash the golden sand. Now they will be rich and independent. Buck and the rest of the dogs are free. He runs every day to hunt. The dog was already accustomed to the fresh raw meat he had procured. Increasingly, he dreams of a former wild life with a strange man. One night he hears a howl and goes to this call, which he also dreamed of. The skinny wolf got scared when he saw big dog, but realizing that her intentions were friendly, he sniffed. They run side by side through the forest. But Buck remembers John and returns to camp. Buck continues to hunt. He copes not only with small game, but also with a bear, but invariably returns to John. For four days he chases the leader deer.

He was exhausted himself, but he drove the deer. After eating and resting, Buck returns to camp. He's worried. He senses trouble and other people's smells. Near the camp, he first sees the killed dogs, then the dead comrades of John. The Indians, who had defeated the small camp, danced at the remnants of the hut. The rage with which Buck attacked stunned everyone. People huddled in a heap, and the dog tore them up. They fired, but they hit each other. Finally they began to run away.

Buck went to look for the owner. John's footprints led to the pond, and did not return. Buck realized that John was gone. We are finishing the description of the work "Call of the Ancestors". The summary, set out in chapters, leaves no room for doubt: people do not mean anything to Beck anymore. He finds a wolf pack and becomes a leader. The Iheta Indians noticed how the color of the wolves began to change in their lands. And the worst thing is that a huge Evil Spirit has settled in their lands.

He walks at the head of a wolf pack. He is cunning: he steals prey from traps, in winter he steals supplies of Indians, tears their dogs apart and is not afraid of hunters. Sometimes the Indian went hunting and never came back. He was found with a gnawed throat. And next to it were the traces of huge paws. The Iheta Valley was bypassed. A huge wolf runs here, he sits for a long time, and then howls for a long time and sadly.

Jack London, Call of the Wild: Reader Reviews

There are extensive reviews of people who first read a story about animals, more precisely about a dog. They, apparently, never kept dogs, and they were struck by the loyalty and loyalty of the dog, which gradually turned into a wild animal, but retained love for the owner. This is a very strong story - "The Call of the Wild." Readers' reviews are full of emotional experiences. Nobody remained indifferent. Draws the natural principle in every living being, be it man or animal, Jack London. "Call of the Wild" reviews are very emotional. Everyone is very sympathetic to Buck, who is faced with a tough question - either you will be clever and smart and survive, or you will die.

Therefore, the call of the ancestors awakens in him. Reviews of the book speak of the author as a master of the word, which is easy, so that it is read in one breath, describes the difficult path of Beck's dog, for which everyone has compassion. How hard it was at first, how many beatings the proud and intelligent animal endured. What a cruel avenger for the destroyers of his beloved master Buck has become. Everyone warmly recommends reading this tale. Some readers wonder why this work is classified as children's literature. It is intended for people of all ages, whose soul has not hardened.

Year of writing: 1903

Genre: story

Main characters: Back- large dog, John Thornton- gold digger

Plot

The dog lived in the judge's mansion, but something happened and the gardener sold it to people going north in search of gold. Now he had to work hard, starve and endure severe beatings from new owners.

Now, along with other dogs, Buck had to drag heavy sledges and fight other angry dogs. He discovered new laws of life and existence, and besides, he learned to get food for himself so as not to die of hunger.

But after some time he was bought by Thornton, whom Buck loved with all his dog's soul and was ready to do everything possible for him.

But instincts gradually took over, and Buck became more and more a predatory animal without a touch of education. And after the death of the owner, he went to the wolves.

Conclusion (my opinion)

A well-raised domestic dog is gradually turning into a wild indomitable animal, which obeys only the instincts laid down by distant ancestors in their struggle for survival. Buck went this way in a short time, because he had to fight every second with trials.

Summary of the novel by Jack London "Call of the Wild"
The main "hero" of the novel "Call of the Wild" in London is the dog Beck, a mixture of St. Bernard and Shepherd, a dog of rare strength of character, intelligence, courage, if I can say so about a dog, of course. Until the age of 4, Beck lived in the south of the country, he belonged to a judge and his life was measured and easy enough. Once everything changed dramatically: a gardener working for a judge kidnapped Beck and sold the dogs to buyers who then supplied the dogs to the north to be used as a sled dog. In the north, there was a great need for dogs, as the onset of the gold rush created a great demand for dogs as a draft force. Buck changed hands several times, he was not treated well, but he was not broken and wanted to take revenge on his offenders, to tear them apart, he was just waiting for an excuse to pounce. This chance presented itself to him, but Buck was very surprised, a professional trainer easily coped with him and very quickly Buck began to learn the "law of fang and whip": he learned to ride in a team and obey the demands of the drivers.

Buck learned very quickly and his character changed faster and faster, almost nothing remained of his arrogance, pride, a sense of his own exclusivity and desire to fight for his dog values, instead Buck began to mother, gain strength and primitive ambitions to be the leader of a dog pack, his instincts changed, and he became more like a wild beast, and not like a refined "southerner". The satisfaction of his leadership ambitions was hampered by the old leader Spitz, with whom he openly feuded and waited for an opportunity to fight for life and death. Such an opportunity presented itself and Beck defeated Spitz and took his place, much to the surprise and admiration of the drivers. Under Beck's leadership, the team began to work better and more harmoniously, and the drivers were very pleased with it, but, unfortunately, they were forced to part with it, selling it to a new owner, who also carried mail.

The new owner exhausted the dogs with backbreaking work and sold them further, since the exhausted dogs demanded rest, and he had to carry mail further. The next owners were of a completely different kind - they were southerners, unadapted to the hardships of the north, who did not know how to manage the economy prudently. This rashness cost them their lives and nearly cost Beck's life, he was saved by an accidental man John Thornton, who witnessed how the owner beat Beck, demanding that he get up and pull the team. John left Beck and became the best master for him. Buck recognized him as his master unconditionally, served him faithfully and even once saved his life.

John Thornton and his companions went in search of the legendary place where gold lay on the surface, they drove for weeks and months and finally found what they were looking for. While people were busy looking for gold, Buck rested, gained strength. He was more and more attracted to the wild nature and he kept running away, disappearing for long days. He could not leave at all, since he was attached to the master John, but absences became more and more long and frequent, until one day Buck, returning, saw that his master, his companions, other dogs, had been killed by the Indians. Buck in a rage attacked the Indians, killed several people and put them to flight, and from that moment Buck began another life, the life of a predatory beast. He nailed to the wolves and eventually became the leader of their pack, and for a long time the Indians bypassed the valley where Beck's master was once killed, and the huge wolf-leader of the pack became a legend among them.

Meaning
The novel "Call of the Ancestors" London touches upon the themes of the survival of the fittest, the desire to overcome unfavorable circumstances, learns to survive in hostile conditions.