Answer:
Summary
John Thornton pays off his debts with money he earns from the bet, and he sets off to the east to find a fabled lost mine that is supposed to make a man rich. Together with his other dogs andswith his fangs and killing several of them. The Indians scatter, and Buck finds the rest of his camp, including Thornton, dead.
Buck mournthe Yeehats. Henceforth, he will not fear men unless they carry weapons. He hears the call of the wolf again. His ties to Thornton broken by death, he heads off to follow it. He finds the pack, and one wolf lunges for his throat, but he breaks its neck easily. Three others try but pull back. After half an hour they all draw back, and one of them approaches Buck in a friendly manner. Buck recognizes him to be the wolf he encountered in the woods. Buck joins the wolf pack, and the Yeehats notice a difference in the local breed of timber wolves as years pass. They also tell of a Ghost Dog that runs at the front of the pack, singing songs and leaping above his fellows. They tell of a haunted valley—where Thornton lies dead—where an evil spirit dwells, and where, every year, Buck comes and mourns for a time beside the stream before loping away to rejoin the pack.
Analysis
Early in this chapter, Buck’s vision of primitive man recurs, and this time, he sees himself running alongside thee thewith him in the forest, and guarding him while he sleeps. In these images, London once again emphasizes the primitive nature of the man-dog relationship and the strength of the bond that ties Buck to John Thornton. But the bond is constantly tested by the equally strong call that draws Buck away from human life and deeper into the wilderness—a call that fills Buck with “a great unrest and strange desires.” As Thornton and his friends sift for gold in the wild, Buck’s soul is in a state of extreme tension, torn between his loyalty to his master and his destiny as a wild animal.
Explanation:
