Initial SituationBuck leads a calm and contented life in the "sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley."
Ah,
the life of leisure. Like most initial situations, this is rather
boring and unexciting, and begs for Something Fun to happen next.
ConflictBuck is stolen by Manuel and sold to the man in the red sweater.
Something
Fun happens. Or rather, something illegal and kind of sad. We identify
this as a conflict based on the clubbings, illicitness, chains, and all
around sinking feeling that a story is about to unfold.
ComplicationSpitz and Buck clash and compete for alpha dog status.
Spitz
stands in the way of Buck completing his transformation, so Buck does
the only thing a protagonist can do when faced with a complication: he
beats the heck out of it.
ClimaxBuck’s sled team (minus Buck) crashes through thin ice and drowns.
Sled: crash. Bystanders: oh no. Reader: gasp. Sounds like a climax to us.
SuspenseJohn Thornton almost dies. Then he actually does die.
John Thornton adds an element of tension to the end of this story. Once Thornton almost dies we begin to fear that he actually will die. Whether or not Thornton will die constitutes the suspense of Call of the Wild.
DenouementBuck leaves the civilized world.
This
is told in summary, to make it even less suspenseful and more
denouement-y. Buck kissing civilization goodbye for a life in the wild
was sort of inevitable anyway, so we can relax once we get here.
ConclusionBuck answers the Call of the Wild.
Just the kind of conclusion we would expect from a book with such a title as this.
