Abstract

Jack London (1876-1916) is one representative of American Naturalists at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He is also one of the most frequently translated American writers with numerous readers all over the world. The Call of the Wild is London’s masterpiece. Since its publication in 1903, the novel has received great compliments and attention from the critical circle.
Taking place in the wilderness, the story contains naturalistic elements in the narration. As a literary trend, naturalism has played an important part in American literature. According to naturalistic theory, human beings are controlled by environment and heredity. Naturalism has carried on and developed the writing features of realism, and at the same time it has helped lay a foundation of literary modernism. 
The present thesis is a tentative study of the naturalism in London’s masterpiece The Call of the Wild. It aims to analyze the naturalistic elements in the novel to illuminate how environment and heredity shape a character’s fate. It is hoped that through this paper readers can have a better understanding of Jack London as one of the representatives of American naturalism.

Key words: Jack London  The Call of the Wild  naturalism  heredity  environment

摘要

杰克·伦敦(1876-1916) 是19世纪末20世纪初美国自然主义的一位代表作家，也是全世界读者最多，作品翻译最多的美国作家之一。《野性的呼唤》是其代表作。自从1903年出版后，这部小说就得到评论界广泛的赞誉和关注。
《野性的呼唤》以荒原为背景，体现了丰富的自然主义元素。自然主义作为一种文学思潮，在美国文学史上占据重要的地位。根据自然主义理论，人类的性格和行为受到环境和遗传因素的控制。自然主义是现实主义写作风格的延续和发展，也为现代主义奠定了基础。
本文试图研究伦敦的代表作《野性的呼唤》中的自然主义元素。论文旨在通过分析小说中的自然主义元素来揭示环境和遗传因素如何影响作品中角色的命运。希望通过这篇论文，使读者对伦敦作为美国自然主义的代表作家有一个更全面的认识。

关键词：杰克·伦敦；《野性的呼唤》；自然主义；遗传；环境

Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Jack London
John Griffith London (1876-1916) is one of the leading American writers in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in San Francisco as an illegitimate son. He grew up in extreme poverty: from earliest youth he needed to do menial and dangerous jobs to support him. By the time he was eighteen, he had worked as a seaman, a jute mill worker and a coal shoveler. London experienced profound hardships and struggle for survival that other writers could only imagine. His life experience led him to take in views of Marx, Spencer, Nietzsche and Darwin. London believed in Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” and Marx’s socialism, which found full expression in many of his works.