I read this book quite a long time back and I remember some of them telling me it’s a children’s book about the adventures of a dog.Since most of them were telling me similar things, I did not expect much from the book, but when I finished reading it, I had a totally different perspective. It’s a book that delves into the inner psyche of man, evoking questions that are sometimes too vaguely answered. It addresses the psychical concepts of Jung, the superhuman cocepts of Shaw and even the biological survival, which seems to be inevitable.

The book is nevertheless a story about a dog,Buck, who is sold and resold and resold.Buck identifies each owner, in sense, he i able to understand each owner and judge for itself whether they are wicked or kind. When Buck finds someone wicked, he becomes one too and viceversa. But when he finds that one of his owners who was very kind to him killed, he becomes wild,he amost becomes a wolf, his wickedness returns never to leave (I have just presented an outline of the story)

This story has an inner interpretation, something of the sort of Orwell’s Animal Farm, where animals are portrayed instead of human beings. The dog Buck is only a disguise of human being, who is not able to suppress his native animal instincts, whenever he comes across wickedness, although there is a superhuman, a God in him as well.The brutality of the world around encourages man to grow the animal in him.The dog is an animal which can be domesticated,but it’s a fact he retains some of his animal instincts which may at anytime return to look like a wolf-what happens to Buck, when he sees a pack of wolves, supposedly ancestors. His instincts are roused and he begins to yearn for their company. That primordial urge in us to recognise that is a part of ourselves, both animal and God is inevitable. Which do we choose, sometimes depend upon circumstances and sometimes on the quality we have so far nourished, infact its a struggle which we all face almost daily.

The atavistic urge or the ancestoral feeling,sometimes disturbs us so much, just as in the case of Buck surrounded by hostile atmosphere, when he sees a pack of wolves is all mankind’s weakness, perhaps all the incidents so far: Wars, genocides, brutal invasions, etc. are a result of the stuggle inside which are augmented by external circumstances. Ofcourse, the fight is on...

Its a powerful book. Children may read it as an adventure, but the end definetly disturbs, once understood.