The Call of the Wild Characters

Buck is such an endearing fellow. Er…dog. But that’s a good point – it’s easy to forget he’s not a person. You know, aside from the whole dragging a sled through the f...

Thornton is one of the main human characters in the book. He is important in the life of Buck, but we don't know much about him. In one sense, Thornton's role in the story is to help us learn more...

You might have a hard time keeping Perrault and François straight. One way to remember is that Perrault is more Batman and François is more Robin. Perrault leads the team, he knows more a...

OK, if you’re having a hard time keeping François and Perrault straight, François is the Robin character in this Batman and Robin-like team. He doesn’t have Perrault’s b...

This guy doesn’t even get a name. And in literature when someone doesn’t have a name, there’s a reason. Not having a name can mean any one of a few different things. Here, we̵...

Manuel, the Californian gardener, gets the ball rolling. It’s a thieving, illicit, morally despicable ball, but it rolls nonetheless. This guy’s thievery triggers Buck’s entire jo...

It seems like Curly represents the brutality of violence that dogs face in the frozen North. Her most memorable moment in the limelight is when she gets her "face ripped open" by a husky she tried...

Spitz is Buck’s last steppingstone on the way to becoming Buck, Master of the Universe. He may have conquered snow, starvation, and the need to wear little dog shoes, but Buck isn’t the...

As sad as it is, the most important thing about Dave is his death. When Dave gets sick and insists on staying with the sled, we really get to see that pulling the sled can become a way of life for...

Billee and Joe are just two dogs that pay the price of the frozen North…with their lives. These brothers have a hard time. Billee gets torn up by Spitz, loses an ear to the feral dogs, and di...

In his desire to lead the team, Buck beats out Spitz physically and Sol-leks by sheer intimidation. That’s good stuff. Sol-leks, or "the angry one," is everybody’s pick for next leader,...

Hal is not someone you want to be spending time with – not if you’re a person, and definitely not if you’re a dog. If Thornton is the ideal human, Hal is his polar opposite. Hal i...

If Charles is any better than Hal, it’s only because he’s more passive and therefore less violent. Last time we checked though, being the willing sidekick to a violent antagonist didn&#...

Mercedes is the only woman in this text (not counting the female dogs), and unfortunately represents many gender stereotype that existed around the turn of the century (that would be the 1800-1900...