Lukas Zhang

Esaay writing

Mr.Fitz’s class

10/14/2018

Pet or Beast

Call of The Wild reflection

“You never realize how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.”

—Bob Marley

     When you embrace the beast, we you the beast. In the novella Call Of The Wild, by Jack London. I have not yet to discover the beast inside me, but soon enough, it will call for me and haunt for eternity. Buck the innocent domestic pet was beaten, whipped, tortured into submission, but he didn’t give up, and later became one savage. Jack London wanted us to realize that becoming a wild primordial beast is a painful process, but everyone has a little wildness inside them. Some perused their inner dreams and suffered poorly from them, and some didn’t peruse and lived the average life. In the end, the only one that would ever be successful was the ones that overcame the pain.

     Late 19th century, the Alaska gold rush changed everything. “The sun kissed the Santa Clara valley,”(London, page 8) Buck had everything, food, water, shelter and most importantly, love. He never knew, that this didn’t last very long. The gardener Manuel loved gambling, and was out of money so he sold Buck. Buck was later delivered to a saloon and locked up for two days. He had no water and no food, he became more and more furious, ferocious, more and more primitive. He was delivered to a man to “tame” him. Driven by rage Buck tried to attack him but he was beaten into submission by a club, but he knew “he was beaten; but he was not broken.”(London, page 21) Perrault who worked in the Canadian government soon bought him as a sled dog and shipped him to Alaska. Buck had barely enough food and he almost worked to death every day. He stole and fought just to survive but then he met spitz, the primordial beast. Their path soon collided and with collision it came hospitality. Buck tried avoiding him but that did not work out well for him. His pride didn’t allow him to be challenged and taunted like that, so he decided that he should be the primordial beast. The clash came late at night and spitz was beaten, “Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes”(London, page 69), the dogs ate spitz. Buck was then sold to someone that tortured and overworked all his dogs but he was later saved by a man called Thronton who who treated Buck very well, but the he was killed by Indians. The beast once again driven by rage and agony slaughtered the people who dare to offend his master. Covered in blood, Buck looked into the white mountains, and answered his call from the wild.

     After reading this book, I was extremely surprised. The way buck transformed from a pet to a man slaughter was never to be expected. This book also payed so much attention to detail and made every scene so vivid, I felt like I was there the entire time. When buck fought Fitz I felt nervous, when Dave the good dog died I physically cried, and when Thronton was killed, I had a mental breakdown. This book made me laugh and caused me physical sadness. It was amazing to witness Buck grow stronger and stronger, more and more independent. I am a person who love dogs but really seeing their other side makes me shiver in fear. I feel like we can be anyone if we wanted to. We never realized how strong we really are until we are being forced to. I don’t think I can relate this book to any other books but maybe after reading  Mobby Dick everything will change.

     Shall thou be the pet or the beast?

Technologies Save Lives

“Did you hear about the world wide no technology day Kim?”
“No,Jim what happened?”
“I don’t really know much. Our supreme leader did not inform us very well on the radio, he only said that this will be a business opportunity. And you know what that means, Jim.”
“It means money for glorious North Korean Empire. I mean, the tech ban doesn’t effect us much anyways, it’s only a radio.”
“No no Jim, the “world” doesn’t include North Korea, it is a universe itself. Our glorious leader stated clearly that this is a part of his plan all alone, and soon communist will spread to every corner of this planet.”
“So we do get radios?”
“Yes, maybe TVs and those tiny little boxes with a piece of glass on them too.”
“Wow, really? Where did you get all this information.”
“Well to be honest... wait do you hear that too or am I just weird?”
“Oh yeah look, the planes are all taking off, what’s going on. A bomber? These planes rarely come out of the hanger!”
“I knew it, this was all just a part of the plan. Without technology how can other countries defend our air strikes, they can’t even sound the alarm. Truly brilliant.”
“Brilliant move... this will be a new start.”

Mushroom clouds rose from the horizon.