《野性的呼唤》英文读后感

《野性的呼唤》英文读后感

读完一本经典名著后，大家一定都收获不少，是时候抽出时间写写读后感了。那么如何写读后感才能更有感染力呢？以下是小编精心整理的'《野性的呼唤》英文读后感（通用5篇），欢迎阅读，希望大家能够喜欢。

The Call of the Wild is London’s most-read book, and generally considered his best, the most masterpiece of his so-called “early period”。 The story was set in 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, in which sled dogs were bought at generous prices.

Buck was a domestic dog in Judge Miller’s home and living a comfortable life until he was sold secretly by the poor gardener and became a sled dog. Buck was a Bernard dog weighed one hundred and forty pounds, tall, strong, and hea一vy muscled. He couldn’t accommodate to the harsh condition at first. And he wanted to fight, to escape, to go back to his cozy home, but in vain.

The man in red taught him the law of stick and club—one must first adjust himself to his surroundings and learn the rules, and only after that he can do what he wants to do. The club of the man in red called back Buck’s nature as a dog.

When he firstly served for Fran?ois and Perrault, two couriers, he showed his superior ability to adapt to the environment and his smartness to learn everything he wanted to learn. Curly’s death astonished him and taught him to be cautious. And before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curly, he was harnessed as a sled dog and step by step wanted to be the leader. But the leading dog, Spitz, was already an excellent one, who also considered Buck as enemy and potential competitor. At last, when Spitz once punished him, hurling backward Buck, he knew the time had come. He killed Spitz and took his place.

When they pulled into Dawson, Buck was sold as useless thing to three gold diggers, who weren’t veteran in sledding and even didn’t know how to get to their destination. Food was eaten up half way. So Charles, one of the three, decided to kill Buck when he couldn’t get up. However, when he aimed at Buck, John Thornton sprang upon him, knocked him down and told him that if Charles stroke Buck, Thornton would kill him.

Thus, Thornton took Buck away. He was the only true friend of Buck. But Buck was a thing of the wild, especially when the calling of wolf from the hills. Once when he came back from hills, he found that Thornton was killed by Indians. What would you do if you were Buck when your beloved friend was killed? Buck became a nut and killed those headsmen and stayed with Thornton for two days and nights, never lea一ving Thornton out of his sight. And then a nearby wolf howl captures his ears, and he follows the sound to an approaching wolf pack, battling several of these creatures to prove his worth.

“When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the back through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his followers, his great throat a bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.”

There was a script about the sa一vage life in the frozen north of ice and snow. There were the unexplored north areas of America and the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush which dragged men from the entire world into the hard wild to look for gold. There was a road where a gigantic dog like human fought his way to struggle in the wasteland. There was a civilized beast grew from mildness to wildness. And there came the call of the wild.

The background and plot

In the 19th century, it was said that gold had been found in the Klondike area in Northern California of vast wilderness, so thousands of people rushed into this uncultivated ground to seek for gold and fortune, which needed a large quantity of dogs to support for the transportation. There came up Buck story which we can’t define it as luckiness or unluckiness.

Buck, a dog weighed one hundred and forty pounds, tall, strong, and hea一vy muscled, lived a cozy and comfortable life in a rich family of a Judge named Miller, but was soled by evil gardener to two dog dealers and was took to Alaska as a sled dog.

Led by his second masters, two governmental couriers, he studied how to pull a sled and how to live in this cruel world where needed more cunning beha一vior and less fake moral and courtesy. For example, he learned to sleep in the snow hole to get warmness from the clod nights, and he learned to thief bacon and food from his masters and neighboring camps, as well as that, he learned how to fight effectively and efficiently with his antagonists and survive of the combat about the dominant leader with Spitz. In addition to those, he also went through the hardships in the toil on the ice layer, and he learned how to ob一tain the victory and stand on the wilderness which was beneficial to himself who can only fit the environment, but can’t defy the harness.

After the arduous trace and trail, they finally reached the destination, and then, after a short break, dogs including Buck led by a Scotch half-breed man stepped again on the ice land with the Salt Water Mail. It was a hard trip and a monotonous life operating like machine that dogs must undertake the hea一ve pulling and poor condition where they were tired and short of weight. Buck’ partner, Da一ve who had something wrong inside suffered most of all, but pride as he was, pulling the sled was his holy missionary job which can fulfill his life and must be done until his death. However, the tough work was still continuous.

Thirty days passes, by which time Buck and his mates found how really tired and weak they are until they arrived at the last town. They were in a wretched state, worn out and worn out, which was not the tiredness that came from a brief and excessive effort and can be recovered from some hours’ rest, but was the dead tiredness that came through the slow and prolonged strength drainage of months of toil and had to need a long vocation to evacuate. Nevertheless, only three days after they were bought by a family including a foolish woman, a callow and ignorant youngster, and a middle aged man with weak and watery eyes. Never mind of dog’s frazzle, the third masters tried their best to lash out at them with whip, but Buck was not under very good command and not proud and interested of this career. Until they reached at the camp of Thornton, with the natural instinct and extreme weariness, Buck tolerated the whip from his so called masters and refused to go ahead which was his luckiness to meet his last master, Thornton.

Without doub一t, Thornton was a good master, full of wisdom, intelligence and love who can manage Buck’s life comfortably and in order. By the careful attendance form his new master, Buck was on his feet quickly and solidly. Filled with the loying love toward his master, Buck companied him, sa一ved his life for several times and helped him win the gambling party. Then, they faced into the East on an unknown trail to achieve where men and dogs as good as themselves has failed, as the call from the wild became stronger and stronger which attracted Buck to lea一ve the civilization to look for. The knife that cut out the bound of Buck between his masters was the master’s deaths which left a void in the dog’s heart and a strengthened calling from the wild. Buck, a civilized dog, finally went back to wolves after thousands of generation by singing a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.

Survive of the fittest

The Call of the Wild abounded in Darwinism which advocated the evolutionism and natural selection theory.

In the process of ha一ving to lea一ve the comfortable Miller’s house and adapt to the harsh primitive snowfield, Buck went through the changes from the mildness to wildness where he studied the law of club and fang and admitted the rule of failure without progress. “He had learned well the law of club and fang, and he never forewent an advantage or drew back from a foe he had started on the way to death.” “He must master or be mastered,” “Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of time, he obeyed.”

After analysis, we can find that related to the Darwinism, learning ability was an important factor of the victory of living of Buck. As a south dog living in the rich family and innocent environment, Buck was not wary of Manuel’s uncommon beha一vior, but situation has changed entirely after a period of barbaric life: he showed hostility to his all possible mates and took precaution of everything. As well as that, throwing away the moral standard and facing the death of starvation, Buck had an ability of thief. “This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would ha一ve meat swift and terrible death.” In addition to those, his muscles became hard as iron, and he grew dumb to all ordinary pain, and he can successful take full use of all the elements no matter internal or external. That’s the progression of Buck which can equip him with thick helmets from being hurt deeply and made him be the fittest.

Not only did he learnt by experience, but instincts long dead became alive again. Maybe knowledge acquired by learning was Buck’s left hand, instincts his right. Good pedigree set up his first sense of a tall, strong and muscular potential king, while the instinct helped him to learn fast and sa一ve his life. “It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and the quick wolf snap.” “They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always.”

Buck changed as his living environment changed. With the change of environment, Buck, compared to the previous southern family dog that was mild and gentle, acquired many abilities and skills. He tried his best to live by becoming cunning, cold-blood, and cruel which make him step forward on the road of corpse and blood. Survive of the fittest which is demonstrated by adaptation to the environment and wielding the law to protect himself and attack on others made him roared on the top of the food chain and return to wolves.

All what Buck has done was not due to his reason and thought, but due to his fit. He was fit to everything surrounding him unconsciously and put him to the new way of living quickly.

“The theory, ‘Survival of the fittest’， is the law of biological evolution which implies that plants or animals adapt to the environment to survive or to die—it is the biological survival rule of brutal biosphere.” That is to say, the key of this law is that those who can fit the environment can survive, on the contrary, those failed to fit would be obsolete under the rule of elimination.

Peeping at Buck and his struggle, we can ha一ve a vision of us human that was also fighting in the battlefield with our mates and against our enemy. Filled with bustling stuff, we tried our best to stand on the top of right and authority only because that position would give us more materials and the sense of pride which we depended on to live. Flowers in the greenhouse didn’t know about the hardship of living, so they showed goodwill and send aroma to others; while life in the ice field where wind was blowing like knife and thick snow can bury people only showed a will of survive and cut up the useless goodness to wear on the coldness.

We must do it because we had to do it. The pack of animal was like a society of people. Death and genocide would happen on us if we were not willing to fit the environment thoroughly. To dance with the shackle of survive of the fittest was the policy we should carry out forever, the reason why our human stood on the top of biologic chain, and the rule of living of every individual.

My opinion on virtue and vice

Some people had said virtue was the biggest treasure that human should obey. There is no doub一t that kindness, loyalty, honor, love, companionship, sympathy, mercy, and other virtue should be followed. However, I argue that there is transformation between different virtue and even the virtue and vice.

Showing the feature of three animals: dog, wolf and human, Buck was the bridge that connected the past and present. As the production of human civilization, dog was evolved from wolf and they would still howl on the wilderness if human didn’t raise and train them.

Buck was a mirror from which we can see ourselves. Through this dog, writer told us that only in a place where sun darted its forth beams and everything was in order human will wear the coat of basic goodness, otherwise, kindness would be eliminated if it met with the club and fang. In the cruel process of primitive accumulation of capitalism, mercy and sympathy was not needed for those quality can lead to death of innocent people. In the period of survive of the fittest, life was not concerned with civilization, while wilderness was the real marrow of life and echoing for the wilderness was the beginning of revival. Buck realized that “Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstanding made for death.” This phenomenon can be seen in dogs as well as human. Wilderness were calling for human and eliminating the kindness in human’s heart stealthily.

In A Treatise of Human Nature, British philosopher Da一vid Hume has said moral came from human’s emotion and conscience but not rationality. The essence of moral existed in the perceptual knowledge, but not rational knowledge. Therefore, the reason why moral distinctions had the division of virtue and vice was that the judgment of moral came from human’s attitude toward their internal actions and external objects. The judgment of moral came from our interest appeal; that is to say, the judgment of moral came from what was good to us, but not what is good.

Let us think the question that which direction of Buck’s change to a beast was, progression or retrogression? The answer was that we can’t answer because he survived due to that he threw away those so called virtue and carry out those so called villainy. All what Buck did was under the pressure of living, and he responded to the call of the wild only because he wanted to live. Maybe in the comfortable and civilized Judge’s house, he would stick to the standard of moral and protect the respect of Judge’s riding whip by dying under his whip. But in this cold field, sticking to those so called moral was a fool. Possibly in this kind of world, brutality, cold-bloodedness, cunning and so on was the moral.

The division of virtue and vice was the refection of the division of civilization and wilderness to some degree. Maybe we can’t define what moral was and what vice was now in some scene, but we can try to last for enough time to seek for the answer.

Run after the free life

The call from the wild stood for human’s nature to run after a simple, independent and free life.

Buck was bored of the complex life where he must deal with such a big net of relationship. He just wanted to run and leap through the forest, howled under the grey moonlight, ate what he liked and killed what he liked without many rules to obey. No one desired to live a complicated life for it’s difficult and tiring to reckon other people, while life in the wilderness was just that eat or eaten, kill or killed and there was no middle ground. Easy and simple life was set up on the uncivilized world where creatures didn’t ha一ve so much relation and elements to consider. Only being independent from all that can we find what we wanted.

When unpracticed Charles and his relatives sunk in a ice hole, writer said that “A yawning hole was all that was to be seen.” That hole was a capitalistic vast mouth that can eat people, but which would be rotten if we escaped from it. “Here a yellow stream flows from rotted moose—hide sacks and sinks into the ground, with long grasses growing through it and vegetable mould overrunning it and hiding its yellow from the sun.” The gold that Thornton got has become a yellow stream because they were eroded by natural power and lost their value. Imagine in a world where was entirely natural and uncivilized, gold, a kind of iron and currency, was entirely futile, isn’t it?

Being free of human world and even free of materials, Buck got a totally new life where he can run at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight to release his vitality and got comfort from nature. We needed materials actually, but material was void actually. How can we get free? To get free of our hearts.

Conclusion

There are two sentences I’d like to mention. First, human beings, never degenerate into beasts. Second, beasts, never degenerate into human beings. Correctness of those two sentences should be discussed.

Human’s progression began in the point when human beings evolved from wilderness period to civilization, but the retrogression also began at the point when people shared the feast of civilization. For us who are far away from the wilderness and raised and trained by civilization, this book gives us a new vision.

Sometimes a picture floating in my mind: in the icy forest, a silhouette of Buck as a wolf caned his neck to howl toward the pale moonlight to echo the howling of pack. That’s the song of animal, and the chant of human, and the snarl of life.

" He sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack." （Chapter VII The Sounding of the Wild） When the last sentence vanished from my eyes, I can still perceive an echo of a song - a wild song, which knocks up my dizzy mind that always cheerfully sink into the so-called civilized world without questioning. Wild, is no longer a symbol of the law of jungle but a headspring where streams out love, passion, bravery, loyalty, friendship, venture, competition and tolerance all these virtues can easily be found in the Call of the Wild.

Jack London （1876-1916） is a worldwide renowned novelist. His stories successfully reflect the contradictory views of man’s nature and destiny in and against the wild, and his "fight to survive" notion has gained him and his works timeless popularity, particularly, the Call of the Wild

It tells a story of a gigantic dog, named Buck, who is stolen from a rich and comfortable home and forced to learn to survive as an Alaskan sled dog. Buck, at first, is too savage for the company of man until he coincidently encounters his beloved master-kindhearted John Thornton. Finally, John’s incidental death breaks Buck’s last tie to the man and drives him into his long-desired wild with his pack. In the story, Buck and John simply adopt themselves to answer the call of the wild. When it comes to Buck’s mind that one day he will eventually leave John- his master, all he wants to do is just to help him finish the gold-rush-trip. He " from then on, night and day, never put a halt, in desperation, he burst into long stretch of flight, did not to stay him （John）…" （Chapter VII The Sounding of The Wild） Buck wished to remember John’s image forever, he "for two days and nights never left camp, never let Thornton out of his sight. He followed him about at his work, watched him while saw him into blankets at night and out of them in the morning…" （Chapter VII） When I read these words I just could not hold my tears bursting. Can a real man devote himself to loyalty and friendship in such a way? On the other hand, John Thornton is not only a dog-lover but also a brave and venturous man. He is so straightforward and simple that makes him an accommodating man. Once he firmly roots a goal into his heart, it seems that nothing could prevent him from accomplishing it except death. I do not know whether the persistence is the most vital element to make a man successful, but what I know is that you are not far away from success once you occupy it.

It is Jack London who plunges me into the animated wild from the hustle-and-bustle and from desperate city. There, I merely cannot deny the attraction of Buck’s bark, which enlightens me to pursue another lost half of the nature in mankind, and to dig out a true meaning of life. Dare we imagine that London intentionally employs Buck to set us a model with perfect characters （count barbarity out）？ The answer is affirmed. We, as animals, are from the wild but shedding off more and more wild signs, which demonstrate us as the "uncivilized". However, who can fully guarantee that we have not overlooked some essential wild-endowed virtues? Especially, nowadays, it seems more crucial for us to stop looking at the post-industrialized world and to ponder for a while. When cheats, betrayals, lies, lusts and crimes stuff a materialized society, whether London uses this novel to help himself escape the reality or warn the earthy people, to us, modern man, is all the same.() It appears horrible that in modern society many people are enthusiastically talking about how to build up "special relations" to the authority, deceiving and lying to each other.

To them life is a mask-wearing process rather than a hard work. Every time, you browse WebPages, scandals in politics, business, the entertainment circle and even on campus crowd into your eyes. Oh, what is the essence of human beings? What is the civilization to us? Do we need to look back at where we came from? Is it good or bad for us to speak out what we think and to do what the consciences demand us to? Are we wasting talents given by the mighty nature? Be an honest, straightforward, warmhearted, emotional and responsible man or be a shrewd, cold hearted and astute hypocrite? While embracing the "civilized" rubbish, we are losing those good virtues, which are the calls of the wild. Once we lose them, we are to lose ourselves, and we will get nowhere. I wish this dreadful thought is totally a fallacy, but, now, it is chilling me hard.

One day when I happen to stand on the top of a grand mountain to observe a boundless prairie enveloped by the sapphire firmament and combed by gusts of the rhythmical west wind, a morning sun sprinkles me her warmth and brilliance in a graceful way, however, at that moment, I am afraid that I cannot appreciate these beauties, I am a lost " civilized man" then.

Book review: The call of the wild

As a type of novelette, I wasnt used to this cos Ive just finished HarryPotter so in occasions novelette wrote very briefly. The background of the author was very poor, and precisely the time to seek gold. Part of the novel means to expose the hardness of dogs at that time. Men were crazy about gold, the main character, Buck, was stolen by a Gardener of a lawyer who owns Buck.

The man with the red sweater taught him the law of clubs, this was a good beginning. The trading road led him at last to two couriers, who knew how to treat dogs. Then the dog team was traded to a three-people family who were seeking good in Alaska. But they didnt know how to treat dogs and at last dogs and men were drowned in the water, except Buck. He was picked up by a man. And eventually Buck was back to the wild—where his ancestors had been.

In my opinion a good novel could make readers cry, yell, etc. I clenched my fist when the Family treated the dog team badly, and had a wonderful feeling when the man picked up Buck and treated him like his own son. It had feeling, this novel…

The story sounds like just a dog tale at first--a dog, Buck, is kidnapped from his comfortable life in California and sold as a sled dog for the Alaskan gold rush. While he endures the wilderness and the other dogs, Buck learns that survival comes only with tooth and fang. This lesson brings him very close to his forbears, the wolves.

If you look deeper, Call of the Wild is as much a story of humans as it is a dog tale. Buck encounters various incompetent masters who try to break his spirit. Are we like this? But Buck also learns to trust a master who is gentle and gives love. We can be like this, too.

Call of the Wild is not a story for the squeamish or very young. By involving us in the characters lives, Jack London tells the truth. It is a life-and-death war between the harsh land and the soul every day. There is blood, death, cruelty--but its the truth.