CALL OF THE WILD. BtVS Intertext/Allusion.

Beauty and the Beasts” (3004) begins1 and ends2 with Buffy reading quotes from The Call of the Wild, a 1903 novel by Jack London (1876-1916). The story is told from the point of view of Buck, a dog who is stolen from his home and forced to become a sled dog in the Alaskan wilderness. There he becomes wild and vicious from mistreatment, is saved by the love of John Thorton, and, when Thorton dies, gives in to his inner wildness and joins a wolf pack.

The novel can be read in its entirety at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/CallOfTheWild/

--Annalisa Castaldo

(1) One night after supper, the lead dog turned up a snowshoe rabbit. The dog lay down low to the race, his body flashing forward, leap by leap.

(2) Night came on, and a full moon rose high over the trees lighting the land till it lay bathed in ghostly day. And the strain of the primitive remained alive and active. Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof were his yet he retained his wildness and wiliness. And from the depths of the forest, a call still sounded.