In Jack London’s The Call of The Wild, sled dogs are trained by being beaten and then put on a team. “Be a good dog or I’ll whale the stuffin’ outa you. Understand?” (Pg.12). The treatment that the dogs suffer under these men today would be considered animal cruelty and would result in jail time. The cruelty that the dogs suffers show the cruelty of the drivers early on in the book. Teaching the dogs that they are not their friend, but their master.
Yet this cruelty also teaches the protagonist, Buck, self-reliance as well. Buck was raised in a place where everything was handed to him. After realizing he had to sleep out in the cold, he literally stumbles onto one of companions hiding under the snow. He decided to burrow into the snow, finally feeling warm enough to sleep. When he wakes up, his sled driver named Francois remarks “Dat Buck for sure learn queek as anyt’ing.” (Pg.19). Buck realizes he cannot rely on his fellow dogs or even his sled drivers. The one pup he can always rely on though, is himself.
Great American Novels 