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The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Novel Guide • Teacher Edition • Grade 7

Published and Distributed by Amplify.

Copyright © 2019 by Amplify Education, Inc. 55 Washington Street., Suite 800, Brooklyn, NY 11201 www.amplify.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form, or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of Amplify Education, Inc., except for reprinting and/or classroom uses in

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Table of Contents

Teacher Edition

Welcome to Amplify ELA’s Novel Guides 1

Part 1: Introduction 2–3

Part 2: Text Excerpt and Close Reading Activities 4–5

Step 1: Close Reading Activity 6–7

Step 2: Connected Excerpts to Continue Close Reading 7

Step 3: Writing Prompt 7

Part 3: Additional Guiding Questions and Projects

Step 4: Guiding Questions to Read the Whole Book 8–9

Step 5: Extended Discussion Questions 9

Step 6: Writer’s Craft 10

Part 4: Summative Projects

Step 7: Writing Prompt 11

Step 8: Final Project 11

Step 9: Challenge 12

Step 10: Extra 12–14

Step 11: Extended Reading 15

Note: The student worksheets can be found on pages 17–32. Teachers can make copies of

these pages to distribute to students.

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RL.7.1, RL.7.2, RL.7.3

RL.7.4

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RL.7.1, RL.7.2, RL.7.3, RL.7.6

SL.7.1

RL.7.4, RL.7.6

W.7.3, W.7.3.D

RI.7.1, RI.7.3, RI.7.9, RL.7.1, W.7.2

RI.7.1, RL.7.1. RL.7.9, W.7.1

RL.7.2, RL.7.4, W.7.3

The Call of the Wild Novel Guide 1

The Call of the Wild • Teacher

Welcome to Amplify ELA’s Novel Guides

We created a series of Novel Guides to provide you with a flexible resource

for the books you most want to teach. Some of the titles are in the digital

library while others will need to be accessed through your school, public,

or classroom libraries. We selected one strong aspect of each novel and

are having students focus on this element as they explore and analyze a

key theme.

Rather than fully built-out lessons, these guides offer lean, targeted

instruction that follows Amplify ELA’s pedagogy as students explore great

literature. Each Novel Guide provides activities and questions with sample

answers for the Teacher Edition, including:

• A complete close reading session,

including the text excerpt

• Connected excerpts to extend

reading and skill practice

• Guiding questions and activities

to support reading the whole book

• An introduction to the book and

the author

• Activities that focus on a range

of literacy skills

• Project-based learning

• Discussion questions

• Writing Prompts

• Exploration of Writer’s Craft

• Role-playing opportunities

• Collaborative learning

• Social-emotional learning

discussion questions, Writing

Prompts, or activities

• Standards alignment

The diverse selection of books we chose comprises a range of genres

from mystery to non-fiction, and themes from social justice to identity

and courage. Students explore classics and contemporary award winners,

expand their literacy skills, and discover the rewards that come with close

reading compelling texts. The guides are designed to be used flexibly and

offer suggestions for implementation.

All the guides are housed in the Amplify Library as downloadable,

printable PDFs. They include student worksheets and instructions for the

teacher that will take students through a close reading of a passage all the

way to the end of the novel.

2 The Call of the Wild Novel Guide


About the story

In The Call of the Wild, Jack London tells the story of Buck, a dog who is kidnapped from his tranquil California home and forced to pull a sled in the Yukon Territory. The harshness of the terrain and the brutality of his human and canine co-travelers force Buck to confront his own wild nature. He begins to hear promptings from deep within himself, promptings that call him to a life long since forgotten.

Themes that align with this guide

This guide focuses on the words and phrases London uses to describe the visions and promptings Buck receives from his innermost nature. It also offers extended activities that help students make connections to the author’s purpose and the sources and ideas he draws from to develop the narrative.

About the author

Jack London was an American author, born in San Francisco in 1876. As a young man, he joined the Klondike gold rush to northwestern Canada, an experience that would contribute to The Call of the Wild. He lived a life of wandering and adventure, traveling as a migrant and as a sailor. He wrote more than 20 novels, many of them drawing on his experiences. London died when he was just 40 years old.

The Call of the Wildby Jack London

Amplify Library version Published in 1903 Cover Art: Amplify, Shutterstock

Part 1 Introduction



When and how to use the Novel Guide

Amplify ELA’s Novel Guides can provide flexible teaching options. They can be used at any point in the year or paired with thematically related core units, before or after teaching the units. Or, if you would like to build out lessons, the guides can be used as the foundation for a more fully developed curriculum based on the titles.

The Call of the Wild Novel Guide aligns with the following core unit:

7A: Red Scarf Girl & Narrative Sub-Unit 3, Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution Ji-li Jiang faces conflicts with the adults and peers in her life in the tumult of the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China.



Excerpt: The Call of the Wild, Chapter 4, paragraphs 26–28

26 Best of all, perhaps, he loved to lie near the fire, hind legs crouched under him, fore legs stretched out in front, head raised, and eyes blinking dreamily at the flames. Sometimes he thought of Judge Miller’s big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley, and of the cement swimming-tank, and Ysabel, the Mexican hairless, and Toots, the Japanese pug; but oftener he remembered the man in the red sweater, the death of Curly, the great fight with Spitz, and the good things he had eaten or would like to eat. He was not homesick. The Sunland was very dim and distant, and such memories had no power over him. Far more potent were the memories of his heredity that gave things he had never seen before a seeming familiarity; the instincts (which were but the memories of his ancestors become habits) which had lapsed in later days, and still later, in him, quickened and become alive again.

27 Sometimes as he crouched there, blinking dreamily at the flames, it seemed that the flames were of another fire, and that as he crouched by this other fire he saw another and different man from the half-breed cook before him. This other man was shorter of leg and longer of arm, with muscles that were stringy and knotty rather than rounded and swelling. The hair of this man was long and matted, and his head slanted back under it from the eyes. He uttered strange sounds, and seemed very much afraid of the darkness, into which he peered continually, clutching in his hand, which hung midway between knee and foot, a stick with a heavy stone made fast to the end. He was all but naked, a ragged and fire-scorched skin hanging part way down his back, but on his body there was much hair. In some places, across the chest and shoulders and down the outside of the arms and thighs, it was matted into almost a thick fur. He did not stand erect, but with trunk inclined forward from the hips, on legs that bent at the knees. About his body there was a peculiar springiness, or resiliency, almost catlike, and a quick alertness as of one who lived in perpetual fear of things seen and unseen.

Part 2 Text Excerpt and Close Reading Activities

Focus standard for Part 2: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4

Skill: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.



28 At other times this hairy man squatted by the fire with head between his legs and slept. On such occasions his elbows were on his knees, his hands clasped above his head as though to shed rain by the hairy arms. And beyond that fire, in the circling darkness, Buck could see many gleaming coals, two by two, always two by two, which he knew to be the eyes of great beasts of prey. And he could hear the crashing of their bodies through the undergrowth, and the noises they made in the night. And dreaming there by the Yukon bank, with lazy eyes blinking at the fire, these sounds and sights of another world would make the hair to rise along his back and stand on end across his shoulders and up his neck, till he whimpered low and suppressedly, or growled softly, and the half-breed cook shouted at him, “Hey, you Buck, wake up!” Whereupon the other world would vanish and the real world come into his eyes, and he would get up and yawn and stretch as though he had been asleep.



Step 1: Close Reading Activity (with sample answers)

1. Circle each of the distinct memories that Buck recalls inparagraphs 27 and 28.

Sample answer: Buck remembers Judge Miller’s house in California, theswimming tank, and the dogs he used to live with. He remembers the man inthe red sweater who “broke” him, the death of Curly, and his fight with Spitz.He thought about the food he enjoyed eating. He “remembers” sitting by afire with a hairy man in prehistoric times.

2. Where and when do the memories in paragraphs 27 and 28 takeplace? What specific words or phrases make you think so?

Sample answer: This memory is from prehistoric times. The story mentionsthat the man did not stand erect. He was covered with hair and wore “aragged and fire-scorched skin.” He also held a “stick with a heavy stonemade fast to the end.”

3. Underline any words or phrases that reveal Buck’s feelings abouthis memories. What do you think they reveal?

Sample answer: It says that he “sometimes” remembered his life inCalifornia, but “oftener” he remembered the days since he was kidnappedfrom there. This means that the old days don’t seem as real to him. He callsSunland “dim and distant” and it says that those memories “had no powerover him.” I think he feels more excited by his life now compared to his oldlife. He calls his memories of prehistoric times “far more potent.” He isdrawn to this other way of life. Even though it seems more dangerous andrisky, it is closer to his nature.

4. Which memory does he like the most? Which does he like theleast? What specific words or phrases make you think so?

Sample answer: It seems strange, but I think he likes the memory of his lifeat the judge’s house the least of all. He doesn’t seem to feel anything about it.I think he likes the prehistoric memory the most because he describes it as

“potent.” He also spends the most time describing that memory.

5. When the cook would yell for Buck to awake, Buck would “get upand yawn and stretch as though he had been asleep” (28). Whatdo the words “as though” tell the reader about his memory of thehairy man?

Sample answer: The words “as though” here are meant to show that Buckwas not actually asleep. He was not dreaming, but he was experiencingactual memories from before his lifetime.

Possible answers are provided under each activity.

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6. Based on the word choices the author makes in this passage, howdo you think these memories will impact Buck throughout the restof the story?

Sample answer: I think that Buck will try to answer this “call of thewild” and return to being a wild dog. After thinking about his past life inthe comfortable house in California, the text says that Buck “was nothomesick” (26).

Step 2: Connected Excerpts to Continue Close Reading

Continue your work analyzing word choice. Use the same steps as above when close reading these pages.

• Chapter 2, paragraph 25: Buck feels part of himself coming alive.

• Chapter 3, paragraphs 33–34: Buck expresses great joy about hisanimal instincts.

• Chapter 6, paragraph 8: Buck recognizes that he is wild, notcivilized.

• Chapter 7, paragraphs 9–12: Buck has another vision of theprehistoric man.

Step 3: Writing Prompt

Compare and contrast the description of Buck and his life at the beginning of the story and the end. What words and phrases does the author use in each? What do these choices reveal about the changes in Buck’s life?

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Step 4: Guiding Questions to Read the Whole Book (with sample answers)

Use the discussion questions below to guide reading throughout the whole book. Students should come prepared to discuss their answers by referring to evidence from the text. Students should also be prepared to respond to comments made by classmates.

1. Chapter 1: Compare and contrast Buck’s life at the judge’s housewith his life after he is abducted.


Sample answer: At the judge’s house, Buck lived a life of comfort and ease. Now, his life is much more difficult and dangerous.

2. Chapter 2: What is the “law of club and fang”? How does Buckadapt to it?


Sample answer: The “law of club and fang” means that there are no more rules. Buck feels there is no more right and wrong. The dogs and humans have to use force to get what they want.

3. Chapter 3: Which dogs have the most power? Which dogs have theleast? Why?


Sample answer: Spitz has the most power, mainly because he is willing to do anything and doesn’t care who he hurts. On the other hand, Curly is one of the dogs with the least power. This could be because she is too gentle and kind in such a harsh environment.

4. Chapter 4: What challenges do the dogs face? How do they dealwith those challenges?


Sample answer: They had to deal with the death of Spitz and the challenge for leadership of the team. Even though they had a lot of ground to cover, the dogs performed better than ever under Buck’s leadership. Dave became so weak that he could no longer work, and the driver shot him. The dogs all carried on out of necessity.

Part 3 Additional Guiding Questions and Projects

Possible answers are provided under each question.



5. Chapter 5: What motivates Hal, Charles, and Mercedes? How doyou know?


Sample answer: They are mostly motivated by greed. They are after the gold treasure in the northwest and don’t care about the welfare of the dogs, or even one another.

6. Chapter 6: What motivates John Thornton?CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6

Sample answer: Thornton is motivated by love and honor. He treats his animals like his children, with respect and kindness. The text says that Thornton was this way “because he could not help it” (4).

7. Chapter 7: What role does Buck take among his new pack? Whatexperiences have prepared him for this role?


Sample answer: Buck has become the leader of the pack in his new life. He has come a long way since his time in California. Buck was prepared for this role by all the harsh experiences he survived, by the strength and toughness he built up over time, and by the love and respect that he learned from Thornton. He has become a great leader.

Step 5: Extended Discussion Questions (with sample answers)

1. Buck becomes the leader of the sled dogs. What qualities do youthink make a good leader? What possible leadership qualities doyou think you have or would like to develop?

» Self-Awareness; Responsible Decision-Making

Sample answer: A good leader is strong and encourages others to be strong, but also has compassion and kindness. A leader doesn’t give up, but keeps trying even when things look bad.

2. What do you think made Buck’s relationship with Thornton sospecial? What specific behaviors made their bond so strong? Whatlesson do you think their interaction reveals about friendship?

» Social Awareness; Relationship Skills

Sample answer: Buck knows that he can trust Thornton, no matter what. Thornton takes risks for Buck, protects him, and treats him with total respect. This shows the importance of treating other people like you would want to be treated.

Questions for social and emotional learning

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1



3. Buck had to act differently as a sled dog than he did at the judge’shouse in California. Why did he have to act differently? What aretwo or more situations in which you have to act differently? Why?

» Self-Awareness

Sample answer: Buck had to be a lot tougher when he was living as a sled dog. The other dogs would have destroyed him if he was too soft and kind.

Step 6: Writer’s Craft (with sample answers)

Personification:Throughout the novel, the author uses personification: He makes the dogs seem human in their thoughts, feelings, and actions.

• Example 1: “Buck had been purposely placed between Dave andSol-leks so that he might receive instruction. Apt scholar that hewas, they were equally apt teachers, never allowing him to lingerlong in error, and enforcing their teaching with their sharp teeth.”(Chapter 2, paragraph 17)

• Example 2: “...he knew John Thornton was dead. It left a greatvoid in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a void which ached andached, and which food could not fill. At times, when he paused tocontemplate the carcasses of the Yeehats, he forgot the pain ofit; and at such times he was aware of a great pride in himself,—apride greater than any he had yet experienced.” (Chapter 7,paragraph 42)

1. Note at least three specific moments in which the authorpersonifies the dogs.

Sample answer: In Chapter 1, Buck is referred to as a “sated aristocrat” anda “country gentleman” (9). In Chapter 1, Spitz is described: “He was friendly, ina treacherous sort of way, smiling into one’s face the while he meditated someunderhand trick” (51). In Chapter 4, the writer personifies a number of dogs atonce: “But it was in giving the law and making his mates live up to it, that Buckexcelled. Dave and Sol-leks did not mind the change in leadership. It was noneof their business. Their business was to toil, and toil mightily, in the traces. Solong as that were not interfered with, they did not care what happened” (17).

2. Can you find any examples in which the author does theopposite, in which he makes humans seem like animals? Whattechniques does he use to make them seem that way?

Possible answers are provided under each question.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6



Sample answer: In Chapter 1, the man in the red sweater uses violence to get his way, as do François and Perrault throughout the story (30–44). In Chapter 5, Charles, Hal, and Mercedes act in completely selfish and unthinking ways, and ignore the suffering of the animals and each other because of their selfishness (45).

3. Why do you think the author relies so heavily on personificationto tell the story of The Call of the Wild?

Sample answer: The author wants to reveal the feelings of the dogs in a waythat readers will understand. But he may also want us to experience whatBuck is experiencing. It may be that London doesn’t think dogs and humansare that different, and that we should all listen to the “call of the wild.”

Step 7: Writing PromptCreative: The Call of the Wild follows Buck on his adventure and tells the story mostly from his point of view. Choose a portion of the story and retell it from the point of view of another character. Reveal the thoughts and feelings of this character using word choices. Some possible excerpts to retell include:

• The arrival in Canada (Chapter 1, paragraphs 49–53)

• The fight with Spitz (Chapter 3, paragraphs 34–42)

• Working for Hal, Charles, and Mercedes (Chapter 5, paragraphs 37–58)

Step 8: Final Project“Living Primitively”

Read “Living Primitively,” an article about modern-day humans who decided to return to nature and live as people lived thousands of years ago.

• Research: Can you find other examples of modern humans whochose to leave civilization and return to a primitive lifestyle?

• Discuss: Why do you think these people made this decision? To whatextent do you agree or disagree with their decision?

• Write: Based on your reading of The Call of the Wild, what do youthink Jack London would say about the people who returned to aprimitive lifestyle? What details in the text make you think so?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.D

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.9CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.2

You can use this link to find the article as students silently read along: theweek.com/captured/723719/living-primitively.

Summative Projects Part 4



Step 9: Challenge

Man’s Best Friend

Dogs are a popular household pet. But most people wouldn’t keep a wild wolf in their house. How did dogs become “man’s best friend”?

Trace the domestication of dogs, the process by which dogs were turned from wild wolves into cuddly, lovable household pets. Using your own Internet research, find information to answer the following questions:

• What species did modern-day dogs come from?

• How did wild dogs become domesticated?

• How long did domestication take?

• How do scientists know about the origin of dogs?

Then, return to The Call of the Wild. Write to answer the following questions:

How is the history of the domestication of dogs reflected in London’s novel? In your opinion, how accurately does he represent this history? Use evidence from the texts to support your answer.

Step 10: Extra

The Klondike Gold Rush

Robert W. Service lived a life similar to Jack London in many ways. He was born in England, but eventually moved to western Canada to work as a cowboy. He traveled around the world, and his experiences inspired his writings. He became known as the “Bard of the Yukon” and wrote about the famous Klondike gold rush in which Jack London also took part.

• Read “The Spell of the Yukon” by Robert Service.

• Underline any words, phrases, or lines that reveal the narrator’sfeelings about the gold rush.

• Answer the question: How would you characterize the narrator’sexperience of the Klondike gold rush?

• Then, write a poem from Buck’s point of view that reveals hisexperience of the gold rush.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.9 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.1

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“The Spell of the Yukon” by Robert W. Service

I wanted the gold, and I sought it; I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.Was it famine or scurvy—I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave.I wanted the gold, and I got it— Came out with a fortune last fall,— Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it, And somehow the gold isn’t all.

No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?) It’s the cussedest land that I know,From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it To the deep, deathlike valleys below.Some say God was tired when He made it; Some say it’s a fine land to shun;Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it For no land on earth—and I’m one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason); You feel like an exile at first;You hate it like hell for a season, And then you are worse than the worst.It grips you like some kinds of sinning; It twists you from foe to a friend;It seems it’s been since the beginning; It seems it will be to the end.

I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow In crimson and gold, and grow dim,Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming, And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming, With the peace o’ the world piled on top.

The summer—no sweeter was ever; The sunshiny woods all athrill;The grayling aleap in the river, The bighorn asleep on the hill.



The strong life that never knows harness; The wilds where the caribou call;The freshness, the freedom, the farness— O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you, The white land locked tight as a drum,The cold fear that follows and finds you, The silence that bludgeons you dumb.The snows that are older than history, The woods where the weird shadows slant;The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery, I’ve bade ’em good-by—but I can’t.

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless, And the rivers all run God knows where;There are lives that are erring and aimless, And deaths that just hang by a hair;There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still;There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back—and I will.

They’re making my money diminish; I’m sick of the taste of champagne.Thank God! when I’m skinned to a finish I’ll pike to the Yukon again.I’ll fight—and you bet it’s no sham-fight; It’s hell!—but I’ve been there before;And it’s better than this by a damsite— So me for the Yukon once more.

There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting; It’s luring me on as of old;Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting So much as just finding the gold.It’s the great, big, broad land ’way up yonder, It’s the forests where silence has lease;It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder, It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.



Step 11: Extended Reading

• White Fang by Jack London

• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

• King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

• The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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