Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: The Call of the Wild, masterpiece of Jack London, a well-known American writer at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, delineates how the protagonist, a dog named Buck goes back to nature from the civilized world forced by his masters. Superficially the novel describes the animal world, but actually the human society is vividly reflected. Most scholars apply eco-criticism or naturalism to the study of The Call of the Wild. The author of this paper attempts to approach the characteristics of Buck, the hero dog in The Call of the Wild based on Nietzsche’s Superman Theory. Due to its incomparable willpower and the ability to live in a very hard environment, Buck’s image resembles that of Nietzsche’s Superman, whose properties dispersed in Nietzsche works. Thus, the author of this paper draws the conclusion that Buck, though a dog, can be regarded as a Nietzschean “Superman”.

Key words: Buck; superman; environment; willpower

摘要：  杰克•伦敦美国19世纪末20世纪初著名的文学家，在其《野性的呼唤》一书中以一只狗的经历表现文明世界的狗在主人的逼迫下回到野蛮，写的是狗，也反映人的世界。目前大多学者对《野性的呼唤》的研究主要是从生态批评和自然主义等方面进行阐述说明。本文作者旨在运用尼采超人理论对杰克•伦敦小说《野性的呼唤》中巴克的形象进行分析，在作者看来，主人公巴克的身上体现出来的非凡的意志力和艰苦环境下顽强的生存能力暗合了尼采笔下的超人特质。因此，本文作者认为巴克的形象正是尼采超人理论的一种表现。

关键词：巴克; 超人; 环境; 意志力

1.    Introduction
1.1    A Brief Introduction of Jack London and His Call of the Wild
Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876. He grew up with poverty and had become the highest-paid, most wildly read and best known writer in America by the time he was in his 30s. He lived an adventurous life and these experiences were the catalyst of his novels. Jack London was an oyster pirate, a government patrolman in San Francisco Bay, a sailor and agrarian reformer, a seal hunter in the North Pacific and a gold prospector in the frozen Klondike, a war correspondent and a prizefighting reporter, a socialist soapbox orator who later became a lecturer at universities, a family man and landowner, and a true American writer. A critic named Alfred Kazin once remarked, “that the greatest story London ever wrote was the one he lived”. Jack London was thoroughly acquainted with dogs, through his lifetime ownership and study of these animals. Throughout all his life, he had lived with four dogs. He observed the dogs and learnt the information about them. More than knowledge, London had great sympathy with and understanding of dogs. London’s enduring interest in dogs is certainly apparent in his novel, in which they sometimes play a major role and often are integral to the story.