Zhao Xin | Short Story Series VII: Jack London (11) "The Call of the Wilderness"

Zhao Xin | Short Story Series VII:

Jack London (11) The Call of the Wild

Section 2: The weak eat the strong

"Buck's first day on the Shores of Deyer was like a nightmare, full of shock and surprise at every turn. He was suddenly stripped of the embrace of civilization and thrown into barbarism. There is no lazy life of sunshine, boredom, idleness; there is no peace, no leisure, not even a moment of security. Everything is in turmoil in chaos, and every moment life and body are in crisis. It is necessary to be on guard at all times, because the people here are not city people, and dogs are not the dogs of the city. They were all wild, and they didn't believe in any rules except sticks and canine teeth. It is the same as the feeling of a "civilized" person in modern society when he arrives in a wild place.

He had never seen a dog tear up so fiercely like a wolf, and the first experience had taught him a lesson he would never forget. Of course, this lesson is indirect, otherwise he would not have been able to benefit from it alive. The victim was Currie. They were camping at the yard, and Collie gestured kindly to a Husky dog. The dog's figure was like an ungrown wolf, less than half of Collie's. But suddenly, without prior warning, I saw that the dog came like lightning, and after the steel teeth of the wind sounded, Collie's face had been torn from the eyes to the chin. So, Curly is just a foil for illustrative purposes... Is the other dog rabies...

"This is the wolf-style tactic of fighting and running, but it's not over yet." Thirty or forty Husky dogs came and drew a silent and persistent circle around Buck and Corrie. Buck didn't understand what this silent attachment meant, or why they couldn't wait to lick their lips. Curly rushed to her opposite, and the dog jumped away again after the attack. In the next round, he confronted Collie's attack with his chest, knocking Herie to the ground in a unique way. She never stood up again. The Husky dog waiting for this is exactly what the onlookers are waiting for. They huddled up, screaming and roaring, and a pile of dog hairy bodies drowned out The screaming Corly. "—that's cruel!!! Kill and eat your kind!!!

"By accident, suddenly, Buck is scared off. He saw Spitsy shrug his tongue and smile as Francos charged into the dogs with his plate axe. Three men with sticks also came to help him catch the dog. It wasn't long before Collie fell to the ground two minutes later, and all the Husky dogs that attacked her were chased away. The chaotic snow was stained with blood, and Collie lay softly, almost torn to pieces, without a trace of vitality. The dark-skinned half-blood looked down at Corrie and cursed. This scene often returns to Buck's nightmares and torments him. That's the thing. Don't mention any fair play. As soon as you fall, it's over. Well, knowing that, he can never fall. Spiz shrugged his tongue and laughed, and from this moment on Buck had an indelible hatred for him. "—that's cruel!!!

"Before he could get out of Corly's tragic death, Buck was hit again. When he first saw what the horse did, he did it now. Drag Fransos's sleigh to the forest by the valley and pull back the loaded wood. Being a trapd animal greatly hurts Buck's self-esteem, but he is very rational and will not rebel. Although this strange job had never been done, he still bowed down and tried his best to do it well. Franços was very stern, and said that he would do it, and he could do it immediately with the power of the whip. Dave is an experienced driving dog, and Buck bites Buck's hind legs if he is slightly at fault. Spiz is a dog and equally expert. He couldn't punish Buck very often, so he roared and reprimanded Buck from time to time, and cunningly used his own weight to squeeze the reins and drag Buck on the path he should have taken. Under the joint tutelage of these two peers and Franços, Buck learned quickly and made obvious progress. Before returning to camp, he had learned a lot: 'Ho' was to stand still, 'Mash' was to walk, to run a big circle around a corner, to chase his heel when a fully loaded sled went downhill, and then he had to keep his distance from the driving dog. 'All three dogs are good,' said Franços to Perlau, "that Bucklao is deadly, and he learns so fast." --Adapt quickly.

Buck was kind to them, Dave ignored them, and Spence bullied this and that. Bi Xi Ning shook his tail and ran when he saw that it was useless, and Spizi's sharp teeth poked at his waist and eyes before he cried out, and the cry was also quiet. However, no matter how Muchins went around in circles, Joe turned his heels to stare at him, hairy, pursed his ears, grinned his teeth, barked wildly, and his eyes glowed fiercely. This fierce look was so frightening that Spitz had to give up the idea of tweaking him. In order to cover up his defeat, he turned to billy, a gas bag that did not harm people, and chased him to the edge of the camp. The dog relationship is well written.

At dusk, Pelau brought another Husky dog. The old dog was thin and long, gaunt, with scars on his face, and his one-eyed, piercing eyes showed that he was superior, and warned others to be respectful. His name is Solex, which means annoying. Like Dave, he doesn't ask for people, he doesn't help people, and he doesn't expect anything. When he walked slowly and calmly to the dogs, even Spitz did not dare to provoke him. He had a taboo: he didn't like it when people approached him from the blind side, and the unlucky Buck discovered it. Buck inadvertently offended him in this way, and immediately knew the consequences of the recklessness: Solex pounced and tore a three-inch-long, bone-exposed slit in Buck's shoulder. Since then, Buck has avoided him when he sees his blindness, so that they never quarrel again when they work together. At first glance, Solex's only wish, like Dave's, was to stay on his own; but Buck later realized that both of them had other wishes, even lofty ambitions. Everywhere there is danger, everywhere is a lesson. foreshadowing.

That night, how to sleep became a big problem for Buck. A candle was lit in the tent, shining a warm light on the white snowfield. Buck, of course, walked in, only to be blasted out by Pelau and Franços with a stinky scolding mixed with various cooking utensils. Overwhelmed and landless, he fled to the icy snow outside. The biting cold wind was like a knife cut, and the pain in the wounded shoulder was unbearable. He wanted to sleep in the snow, but soon he was freezing from head to toe. Poor Buck sullenly circled the tents and finally found it cold everywhere. From time to time, some savage dogs burst out, and his neck hair rose and he roared twice (he learned quickly), and the dogs stopped looking for trouble and went with him. "--No accommodation provided...

Finally he came up with an idea: go back to the tent and see how his colleagues slept. It's strange that they're all gone! He turned around the camp to find them, circled around, and then returned to the tent. Couldn't they be in the tent? No, it was impossible, or he wouldn't have been blown out himself. Where can they go? With his tail between his legs, he trembled and wandered around the tent alone. Suddenly, his front legs stepped into the snow and sank, his claws touching a squirming mass. He was startled by this invisible and unseen thing, and he roared. At this time, a friendly cry made him feel relieved and bold to look back. A puff of hot air poured into his nostrils, and it turned out to be Billy shrinking into a hairball, lying comfortably under the snow. He whimpered like a gentleman, writhing to show his kindness, and even recklessly licked Buck's face with his hot tongue as a tribute to peace. It turned out that he had to dig his own snow nest.

"I learned another trick. Turns out they did it! Buck chose a point and made a big fuss about digging a hole for himself. Soon the heat on his body filled the small space, and he fell asleep. Having just passed a long and sinister day, he slept deeply and comfortably; but also wriggled around in his nightmares. --He settled down in his own quarters.

When Buck opened his eyes, the awakened camp made a noise. He couldn't figure out where he was. It snowed at night, and he was buried tightly. He was crammed by the walls of snow around him, and a wave of fear swept through his mind—the fear of traps by the creatures of the wilderness. This is a sign that he has returned from his own life to the life of his ancestors; for he is a dog of a civilized society, even an overly civilized society, who has never experienced traps and is not afraid of them. His whole body instinctively tightened, and the hairs on his neck and shoulders stood up one by one. After a ferocious roar, he wrapped himself in a snow mist and jumped straight out of the hole and into the dazzling morning light. As soon as the four claws landed, he saw the white camp and understood where he was; from following Manuel out for a walk until he dug his own snow hole last night, he remembered the ins and outs of these days. " – Again, identity.

"Franços welcomed Buck with a shout." What am I talking about? The driver said to Pelau, 'That Buck learned so fast.' Pelau nodded with a straight face. Pelau is a messenger for the Canadian government, has important papers on his body, and needs to find the best dog. He was especially happy to be able to get a dog like Buck. ---Profile description. Again sure Buck.

"Within an hour, three more Husky dogs had been brought in, and now there were nine dogs in all. In a quarter of an hour they were dressed up on their roads and headed for the Dær Gorge. Buck was happy to hit the road, and despite the hard work, he felt that he did not particularly despise the work. He was amazed at the enthusiasm that inspired the whole team, and this enthusiasm infected him; what surprised him even more was the change in Dave and Solex. They were reins reined in a new look. All the negativity and indifference were swept away, and they became alert, energetic, and anxious to get the job done beautifully. Whether it's a delay or a chaotic situation, as long as the work is affected, they are furious. Pulling and selling coolies seems to have become the supreme realm of their self-expression, as if they live for this matter, and the happiest thing is only this matter. The collective changes the individual.

"Dave is a trail dog, a driving dog. In front of him was Buck, and further ahead was Solex; the other dogs in the team were lined up one by one, in a single row, all the way to the head dog. Spitz was placed in the position of the head dog. The division of labor reflects competence, experience, status and character.

Buck was among Dave and Solex, and it was deliberately arranged for him to apprentice. The students are smart students; the two teachers are also competent teachers, they never tolerate Buck's mistakes, and use sharp teeth to carry out the teaching intentions. Dave is fair and wise. He never bites Buck for no reason, but bites when it's time to bite, never tolerates it. With Franços' whip in charge of Dave, Buck understands that it is more cost-effective to change it than to wait for an opportunity to take revenge. Buck messed up the reins during a break on the way, delaying departure, and Dave and Solex jumped in tandem and punished him with justifiable punishment, only to mess up the reins even more. However, Buck has been doubly careful since then, keeping the reins smooth. Before dark, he was fully engaged, the two teachers were barely moving, and Franços's whip was getting thinner and thinner. Pelau even condescended to grab Buck's legs and feet and studied them well. Again, the rapid learning success.

Buck had a big appetite. The pound and a half of salmon that was rationed to him every day had just fallen into the stomach and ran out of nowhere. He had never eaten enough, was hungry, and suffered terribly. The other dogs are small and are born to live like this, so they live well by eating only one pound of fish a day. He quickly got rid of his previous pick-and-choose problem. He originally chewed and swallowed slowly, but the colleagues who ate first always came to grab their mouths, which was simply invincible. Before he could chase away two or three dogs, the uneaten things had already entered the stomachs of the other dogs. He said he could change it, eat it as fast as they did, and be overwhelmed by hunger. He learns as he watches. There was a new dog named Pike. He is very shrewd, always fond of pretending to be sick, and his hands and feet are not clean. Buck saw that he had stolen a piece of cured meat, so he did the same, taking away a whole chunk of meat while Peylor turned around. The case caused an uproar, but no one suspected Buck; a stupid dog, Dub, who was often caught, became Buck's scapegoat. Eating also had to adapt quickly.

"In the northern country where either you die or I live, Buck first stole the ring, marking his adaptation to the living environment here, showing his ability to adapt, that is, the ability to self-regulate according to changing conditions, without which he is not far from death." It also marked the weakening and collapse of Buck's conscience; in the relentless struggle for survival, conscience was not only useless, but also a stumbling block. In the South, in the South, where there is unity and fraternity, and respect for private property and personal feelings, conscience is of course the best thing; but in the North, where sticks and canine teeth are the rules, whoever cares about conscience is a fool, and whoever has a conscience will undoubtedly lose. Alas, it had to degenerate from "civilized" to "barbaric."

These truths were not what Buck came up with. He simply unconsciously self-regulates and adapts to this new way of life. In the past, he had never been timid, regardless of the outcome of the battle, but the man in red had struck a more basic, primitive law into his head. He was previously so influenced by civilization that he could sacrifice himself to defend himself, for example, to protect Judge Miller's whip; now that he has completely escaped civilization, the evidence is that he has the ability to abandon morality to preserve himself. He wasn't happy to steal, but because his stomach was empty. He didn't steal openly, but only stealing secretly, cunningly stealing in order to respect sticks and canine teeth. All in all, he does these things because it's easier to do than not to do. --The causes and processes of the change of mind.

"He progresses (say it's a step backwards) very quickly. His muscles had become as hard as iron, and the ordinary pain was completely out of the question. He was thoroughly economical. He ate whatever was unpalatable and indigestible; as soon as he ate it in his stomach, the gastric juice sucked every drop of nutrients clean; his blood pumped these nutrients all the way to the details of his body, producing the toughest cells. His sense of sight and smell became extremely sensitive, and his hearing was extremely sensitive, and he could hear the slightest noise in his sleep and determine whether there was any danger. He had learned to use his teeth to remove the ice from the cracks in his paws; when he was thirsty and the ice cave where he took the water was frozen again, he would alternate between his hind and front legs to crush the thick ice ballast. His best skill is to 'smell the wind' overnight. Even when he dug a hole in the river under the tree, there was no wind, and when the wind came later, he could always see him comfortably hiding on the leeward side. "--Fully adaptable.

He learned these things not only by experience, but also by instincts that had been asleep for a long time and had just awakened. Traces of ancestral domestication have fallen off, and the scenes of the early years of the group seem to appear in its mind, when wild dogs roamed in groups in the primeval forest, hunting. For him, learning to bite and kill and slash like a wolf is not difficult. This is exactly the style of the forgotten ancestors. They stimulated the ancient vitality of his heart, and his strategy was also marked by the genetic imprint of the strategy of the ancient population. These strategies are not excavated, effortlessly attributed to him, as if they were innate. He howled like a wolf at a distance at a star in the lonely cold night, and that was the sound of his ancestors who had turned into a piece of yellow earth over the centuries and made a howl at the stars through his mouth. The melody of this howl is the melody of the ancestors, pouring out their grievances, pouring out their feelings about dead silence, cold and darkness. --Instinctive resurrection.

Then, as an illustration of life being involuntary, the ancient song gushed out of his heart, and he returned to himself. He returned because a yellow metal had been found in the north, because Manuel was a gardener's assistant, because his salary could not support his wife and the little Manuels who were born one after another. Even the return of animals to the wild is due to man's desire for "money!!!

Supplementary note: When reading the novel, I did not know, and when I read it and then learned about it, I found that Jack London was extremely unfriendly to the mainland and the people of the mainland, and the inhumane words published such as "Yellow Peril" and "Unprecedented Invasion" made an unforgivable mistake to us - because he died of drug overdose at the age of forty, he had no chance to solemnly apologize to us. The public remarks of such a great writer have undoubtedly caused a huge impact and brought us immeasurable losses, even if we solemnly apologize, it is irreparable! For whether to post this series of feelings about him after reading, I have also been entangled for a long time. If a stick is killed, it is too absolute and too unashamed. Good works still need to be studied, but evil and cruel remarks must be resolutely and severely opposed! Therefore, at the end of each post-reading feeling, this supplementary note is added, hoping that the reader can distinguish between right and wrong and grasp it comprehensively.