A Study of American Frontier Spirit in The Call of the wild《野性的呼唤》中的美国边疆精神研究文献综述

 2021-12-30 20:45:06

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文献综述

1. Introduction1.1 An introduction to Jack LondonJack London's full name was John Griffith London, he was born in San Francisco in California. In his early ages after graduation from middle school, London engaged in various jobs involving hard labor to support the family. At the age of 8, in order to make a living, he worked on a farm as a ranch boy. At the age of 10, he worked as a newspaper delivery boy in Auckland city in San Francisco. He also shoveled coal, helped do printings and worked on a sealing ship. It was on this ship he experienced his very first adventure. During the hard time of working he started reading whatever he could find and developed a great interest of writing. Years later, he briefly attended the University of California at Berkeley and took a writing course because he always liked reading and writing. However, he was unhappy with the stiff teaching style so he dropped out from the school soon. In 1897 while he was unemployed, like many other young boys in America, London decided to try his luck, he joined the golden rush and went north to Alaska, deep into the Klondike county to find gold. This was one of the most famous golden rush called Klondike Gold Rush. Although London did not find any gold there, the experience of living and surviving in the harsh environment in far north gave him great inspiration for writing and creating stories when he came back from Alaska.After returning to California, London began to create stories based on what he learned and experienced. In 1893 with the encourage of his mother, he took part in a writing contest and soon he gained the winner of the contest. It was this contest make London inspired and decided to devote himself into writing.Then in the year of 1900,his first publication The Son of the Wolf came out, which is a collection of short stories. Since then, he became a productive writer, over the period from 1900 until his death in 1916, he created around 50 books,19 full-length novel, 150 short stories and more than 1,000 articles. Although he was famous for his stories about the Klondike Gold Rush, his subjects had a very wide range. He lived a hard and unstable life, he was born in harsh and grew up to be a poor "work beast". After every adventure and all the knowledge the world might offer, he kept exploring and died young. As an individualism, extremist, traveler and explorer, Jack London was never determined to grow old. On November 22, 1916, the author ofThe Call of the Wild, Jack London died at age 40 due to illness. His short but amazing life was disputable and contradictory.1.2 An introduction to The Call of the Wild The Call of the Wild was published in 1903. The background was set in the midst of theKlondike gold rushof the 1890s. The whole story tells how Buck developed from a domesticated southern dog to a savage state like a dog but not a dog, more like a wolf but not a wolf . Buck is a huge hybrid dog. He was stolen from the owner's home in the southern California and was sold to the north. After many setbacks, he began to go on the road of gold mining and became a working dog pulling a sled. During the process of cruel taming, he realized the law of justice and nature, the harsh living environment made him understand cunning and fraud, and later he brought more and more cunning into play, even to a level which was beyond people's expectation. After experiencing the cruel life and death struggling, he finally established his own position as a leading dog. In the difficult way of pulling the sled, his masters were changed several times, but buck and his last master Thornton formed an unusual friendship. The master rescued him from the extremely heavy labor, and at the same time he rescued his master many times. Finally, after Thornton's death, he went back to the wilderness, he finally listened to the wild call that he had heardmany times along the way, finally he joined the wolves and in the end became the leader of the wolves.When it was published in 1903,The Call of the Wildwas an immediate success. The single-volume version of the novel also included illustrations, whichenhancedits descriptions of Canadas natural beautyLondons depiction of Bucks struggle in this setting shows the influence of, and is identifiable with themes within, various strains ofAmerican frontier spirit such as naturalism,individualism, andsocial Darwinism. Buck begins as a good tempered pet dog who is then forced to adapt to survive in the wilderness of Canada. He becomes more and more individualistic: at first he submits to the law of club and fang, doing all he can to avoid beatings and fights, but as time progresses, he becomes more self-concerned. He fought Spitz willingly numerous times, an individualistic act as well as astatementof the survival of the fittest concept from social Darwinism. Bucks final transition into a full strong individual who has triumphed over others is the moment he realizes John Thornton is dead, which removes any remaining element to the civilized world. After this Buck encounters a group of wolves that he will come to lead, his strongindividualismgives him the power of leadership.1.3 An introduction to American frontier spiritAmerican frontier spirit inU.S. means the advancing border that marked by Europeans settlers. It is also called the Old west. It is characterized by thewestward movementof European settlers from their original settlements on the Atlantic coast in 17th century to theFar West. The termfrontier has various meanings.According to Websters International Dictionary(1890), it defines the term as that part of a country which fronts or faces another country or an unsettled region;extreme part of a country. Settling thefrontierinvolved leaving the relative security of village or city to move to an unsettled land. It required courage, ingenuity, and perseverance. It is also means an extreme individualism, resistant to restrictions imposed by a community for the communal good.The historianFrederick Jackson Turnernoted that, especially in the United States,(1992)the termreferred to that belt of territory sparsely occupied by Indian traders, hunters, miners, ranchmen, backwoodsmen and adventurers of all sorts,which formed the temporary boundary of an expanding society at the edge of substantially free lands. Others have thought of it as a form of society, a state of mind, the edge of the unused or the first stage in the process of transforming the simplicity of the wilderness into modern social complexity.1.4 Need for the study In the United States, the frontier spirit has achieved a much deeper significance. In U.S. popular culture, it has been setting for the meaning of high adventure and extraordinary feats of daring. In many works of fiction,literature works, pictures, arts, television, and other media, the national character is seen as having been madethrough the trials and triumphs of life on the frontier spirit.The pioneer experience has been producing the best traits of the American people their tenacity, individualism, love of democracy, patriotism, inventiveness, and much more spirits.This essay intends to describe and to find out the real American frontier spirit lays in this novel and how it inflects both the dogs and humans social characters during the gilded age and therefore reveal the writer's central idea and how does the frontier spirit stills remains its influences on todays American society.2.Literature Review2.1 Frontier spirit in American literatureDuring the significant west-bound frontier time, it was clear that the national awareness was thriving, it was this period marked the real American frontier literature.The most famous two among those writers of this new style were Washington Irving and James Cooper.The humorous History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker, published in 1809, drew the inspiration largely from the local American scene. Some of Irving's best work, such as the story of Rip Van Winkle, is set in the Hudson Valley of New York and reveals America as a land of legend and romance. Next came The Pioneers, a lively prose the picture of the simple life of the American frontier. In the series called the Leather Stocking Tales, published between 1823 and 1841, Cooper made the pioneer, Natty Bumppo, and the silent-footed Indian chief, Uncas, permanent figures in world literature. Cooper also wrote tales of the sea, and they too were products of American frontier influences. 2.2 Previous studies on The Call of the Wild Since The Call of the Wild was published in 1903, countless scholars had done countless researches on this novel.The novel has long been read as a naturalistic work with primitiveness and virility at its core. Li Kuangjin (2009) studied Londons presentation of the environment of dog-sledding in the Klondike, into which Buck with his main character is thrown, as not only primitive but also distinguished by complex organizational characteristics. The spirit of the strongest and smartest always prosper is also a good point to discuss, Jack Willson (2014) studied the spirit of surviving and pointed out that Buck is constantly learning about the life in the wild, about the law of club and fang and how the man in the club is the top and you can never fight that. He also argued about the strongest survive and the law of Darwinism. Others did studies on the characters in the novel, Jeremy May (2012) analyzed Bucks characters development due to the change of environment he is surrounded by. While Barbara Hardy Beierl (2009), in her essay The Sympathetic Imagination and the Human-Animal Bond: Fostering Empathy through Reading Imaginative Literature, it reflects the idea that the gain and loss of human-animal connections act to pressure Buck's character change.2.3 Structure of the thesisThis paper is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the background information of Jack London, The Call of the Wild and American frontier spirit together with the significance of the study. In chapter 2 literature review the author introduces the detailed history and the development of American frontier spirit, some examples of frontier spirit in American literature and previous studies on The Call of the Wild. In chapter 3, as the main body part of the paper, the author discusses the reflection of American Frontier Spirit in The Call of the Wild. In chapter 4 the author summarizes the major findings and provides some implications of this study. In chapter 5 and 6 will be conclusions and references. ReferencesBarnes, D., Noble, F. (2003). "The World of Jack London". The Frontier in American History.1992.198Chaume, F. (2004). Valuing shifts in the distribution of visibility in national parks and wilderness areas in the United States Meta: Traveler' s journal, 49(1): 12-24.Dave, B., Hsien, D. (2011). Indicator-based assessment of wilderness quality in mountain landscapes,Ecological Indicators, 70(2), 140-412.Davies, M. (2009). A new wilderness for Central Europe? The potential for large strictly protected forest reserves in Germany,Biological Conservation, 2019, 237Ellis, N. C.(1998)."The Significance of the Frontier in American History".The Frontier in American History. 1998, 237Frederick J., (1920)."The Significance of the Frontier in American History".The Frontier in American History.Fusco, K. (1987). "On Primitivism inThe Call of the Wild.American Literary Realism, 18701910. Vol. 20, No. 1, pp.7680Foner, P. S. (1964). Jack London: American Rebel .University of Michigan: Citadel Press.Gottlieb, H. (1994). How much of the Solar System should we leave as wilderness. 2,104-106.H.Schumacher,.Finck., P. More wilderness for Germany: Implementing an important objective of Germanys National Strategy on Biological Diversity,Journal for Nature Conservation, 2018, 42James, A., Peter, C. (2001). Mapping threats to wilderness character in the National Wilderness Preservation System,Biological Conservation, 2018, 227Jiao jianping. The Wolves Behind Jack London On the Appreciation of His story The Call of the Wild, Journal of Northwest University , Vol.29 (1999) Jiang Chenghe. (2010).Jack Londons Ecological Complex An Ecocritical Reading of The Call of The Wild. Qufu Normal U.Tida, P. A. (1996). From one place to another. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.Newmark, P. (2001). The promised land beyond dopamine a story of hope and wilderness.Yue, C,. Steve, C,.Mapping wilderness in America: Comparing and integrating Boolean and WLC approaches, Landscape and Urban Planning, 2019, 192

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