Chase+H.

The Call of the Wild

1) Yukon Gold Rush a) History b) What happened c) The way of life 2) Jack London a) his background b) his history c) Inspiration for writing 3) The Call of the Wild a) Reaction to the book b) How it portrayed the gold rush c) Influence from the book

http://questconnect.org/ak_klondike.htm http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/jack-londons-call-wild-nature-faker http://www.gradesaver.com/call-of-the-wild/study-guide/about/ http://www.gradesaver.com/call-of-the-wild/study-guide/major-themes/ http://www.gradesaver.com/author/jack-london/
 * 1) Klondike gold rush began in July of 1897 when 2 ships docked in San Fransisco with miners returning from Yukon with bags of gold
 * 2) press printed stories to the masses
 * 3)  miners called stampeders went to gold fields
 * 4) within six months about 100,000 miners went to Yukon
 * 5) only 30,000 returned from Yukon
 * 6) most stampeders knew very little about mining gold or where they were going
 * 7) pamphlets were available to help them on their way
 * 8) pamphlets had little or no useful information but made claims of wealth for everyone
 * 9) outfitters opened to sell stampeders what they needed to get started including clothing, food, tools, camping equipment, mining and transportation equipment
 * 10) stampeders were required to have at least a years supply of equipment before being allowed to cross into Canada
 * 11) about one ton of equipment per person, made outfitters rich
 * 12) easiest route but most expensive was by boat
 * 13) the most difficult route was the all Canadian route which was through the wilderness and all over land
 * 14) most common route taken by the stampeders to reach the fields was by boat from the west coast of the continental U.S. to Skagway in Alaska, over the Chilkoot or White Passes to the Yukon River at Whitehorse and then by boat 500 miles to Dawson City
 * 15) Chilkoot Pass trail was steep and hazardous
 * 16) Rising 1,000 feet in the last ½ mile, it was known as the "golden staircase": 1,500 steps carved out of snow and ice worked their way to the top of the pass
 * 17) Too steep for packhorses, stampeders had to "cache" their goods, moving their equipment piecemeal up the mountain
 * 18) stampeders who gave up, gave up there and got rid of their gear on the side of the trail
 * 19) conditions on the white pass trail were even worse, steep, narrow, and slick
 * 20) over 3000 pack animals died on this trail giving it the name "dead horse trail"
 * 21) those who made it had to cross the Bennett lake
 * 22) had to build boats to travel the last 500 miles
 * 23) those who made it to dawson found that all the gold bearing streams had been claimed by the locals
 * 24) most of the gold was 10 or more feet below the surface of the earth
 * 25) to reach the gold miners had to dig through permanently frozen ground
 * 26) all the digging had to be done in the summer
 * 1) Jack London published //The Call of the Wild// and //White Fang// after a new kind of animal story had become wildly popular
 * 2) wrote with the specific goal of increasing public awareness of wild and domesticated animals and often represented the animal's point of view
 * 3) in 1903 john Burroughs called popular nature writers "nature fakers" for portraying animals in a sentimental way
 * 4) London became embroiled in the controversy, accused of being a "nature faker" by Burroughs and even the President of the United States
 * 5) Some critics dubbed London's animal heroes "men in fur."
 * 6) London shared many of Burroughs feelings
 * 7) London wrote an essay representing a protest against the "humanizing" of animals, of which it seemed to me several "animal writers" had been profoundly guilty…I did it in order to hammer into the average human understanding that these dog-heroes of mine were not directed by abstract reasoning, but by instinct, sensation, and emotion, and by simple reasoning. Also, I endeavored to make my stories in line with the facts of evolution; I hewed them to the mark set by scientific research
 * 1) Jack London spent a single winter in the Canadian North during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898
 * 2) When he returned, he claimed to have come upon a mythic wolf which inspired the character of Buck
 * 3) his experiences with the Gold Rush provided the inspiration for a tale of resilience and exploration
 * 4) Much of the story takes place in Alaska, traveling between Dawson and Skagway
 * 5) The discovery of gold prompted a mass exodus to the Klondike, where gold was hypothetically free for the taking
 * 6) The town of Dawson became the heart of the Gold Rush; for in 1886, Captain Moore, a citizen of Canada who had been prospecting for gold in the Canadian northwest, discovered a trail he called the "White Pass.
 * 7) This trail allowed for the transportation of supplies, correspondence, and men into the Alaskan interior, and it lead directly to Dawson
 * 8) In reality, the journey to the Klondike was a dangerous and expensive undertaking
 * 9) Canadian law stated that gold-seekers could only enter the territory if they entered with a year's worth of provisions
 * 10) This law was rigidly enforced by police patrols
 * 11) Meanwhile, the journey to the Klondike by ship was so dangerous that many threw supplies overboard to lighten the load
 * 12) Once the ships had landed, the journey grew no easier
 * 13) Numerous memoirs and diaries remain from the men and women who toiled over the icy trail in that year
 * 14) Their accounts of the journey between Skaguay and Dawson are the best source of what life was like on an expedition
 * 15) Writings speak of rugged canyons, boldly ascending mountains, and projecting cliffs
 * 16) London borrowed money from his sister to make the trip. On the one hand he was spurred on by poverty, for America was in the throes of the Great Depression
 * 17) On the other hand, he sought adventure and inspiration
 * 18) While London did not strike it rich in the Klondike, he found the inspiration he was seeking, and that impetus would lead to tremendous success and certain amount of fortune
 * 19) London would have had abundant experience with the sled-dogs that were the most popular choice for transporting people and supplies into the Klondike
 * 20) The most common breeds were the huskies
 * 21) stocky and gray with short, erect ears and thick coat, intelligent and majestic, and the malamute, an Alaska Indian dog crossed with the wolf and resembling the wolf in shape and size
 * 22) They were mostly brownish-gray, friendly and easily led
 * 23) In the Gold Rush Arctic, the dog was of paramount importance
 * 24) Men could not cover the great distances involved, much less carry their food and equipment, on foot
 * 25) As yet there were no machines, not even railroads
 * 26) Horses were bogged down by the snow and could not survive on fish, the most readily available food
 * 27) London also would have known that many large dogs like Buck were stolen from the pacific northwest and sold as sled-dogs
 * 28) London was clearly influenced by several important philosophers and scientists during the writing of //The Call of the Wild//
 * 29) Darwin's theory of Evolution, Herbert Spencer's ideas about the "survival of the fittest," and Nietzsche's "superman" theory play important roles in plot and characterization
 * 30) The presence of these overarching ideas lends credence to those who argue that //The Call of the Wild// should be read as an allegory for human experience
 * 31) London sold //the Call of the Wild// in 1903 for a flat fee of two thousand dollars
 * 32) He received no royalties from the millions of copies that sold in America and overseas
 * 33) the popularity of //The Call of the Wild// played an important role in London's continued success
 * 1) London believed in Herbert Spencer's theory of "survival of the fittest," which means basically that an organism or group that is better suited to an environment will have a better chance for survival than an animal or group that is less suited
 * 2) In other words, Spencer suggested that learning did not play a great role in the survival of a species
 * 3) More often it had to do with luck -- a major environmental change would suddenly make one group of organisms better off than it had been before, and they would therefore live longer and reproduce more
 * 4) London clearly makes use of the idea of "survival of the fittest" in //The Call of the Wild//
 * 5) By chance, Buck's environment undergoes a tremendous change - he is kidnapped and taken from a "sun-kissed," easy existence to the wilds of the Klondike
 * 6) Buck survives because he was genetically more suited to that environment than many of the other dogs who were there. He did not need to learn much of anything
 * 7) the instincts for survival were handed down by his ancestors,a more poetic version of genetic inheritance
 * 8) London takes the idea even more literally than is necessary
 * 9) If Buck had remained in Santa Clara, he would not have passed on his genetic traits, for there were no suitable mates available to him
 * 10) At the end of //The Call of the Wild// it reads that "the years were not many when the Yeehats noted a change in the breed of timber wolves; for some were seen with splashes of brown on head and muzzle, and with a rift of white centered down the chest."
 * 11) there was a scientific theory, which suggested that human beings as well as animals have natural instincts which are merely things passed down through the genetic code
 * 12) In //The Call of the Wild//, London dwells a great deal on animal instinct, for Buck's ability to listen to his instinct both makes him more and more powerful and draws him more and more deeply towards the wild
 * 13) When Buck leads the team into John Thornton's camp, he does not consciously know why he does not get up
 * 14) He is as capable of continuing as the other dogs, and he has no desire to be killed
 * 15) Instead, he unconsciously sensed that the snow and ice under his feet were getting weaker and weaker
 * 16) His instincts told him to go no further, and he obeyed them, saving his life
 * 1) Jack London's naturalistic style sprang from a difficult and tumultuous childhood
 * 2) mother sent him to live with an ex-slave named Virginia Prentiss
 * 3) at age five Jack settled into the hard work of farming
 * 4) Jack had developed a love for books, encouraged by a local librarian
 * 5) He took an opportunity to become an oyster-pirate, where he roamed the San Francisco Bay, stealing oysters from other people's farm
 * 6) at age 19 London went back to high school
 * 7) developed interests in political theory, especially socialism
 * 8) 1902, a second daughter was born, and Jack began to write //The Call of the Wild//. In 1903 //The Call of the Wild// was published and he separated from his wife