时间：2022-10-01 01:49:48
Abstract：The article attempts to analyze The Call of the Wild from the perspective of ecoethics, represents both the maltreatment of animals by some humans without ecoethics and the harmonious relationship between the ecoethic man and animals, thus trying to prove Jack London’s ecoethic thought.
Key words：Jack London；The Call of the Wild；Eco-ethics
中图分类号：I106 文献标识码： A 文章编号：1672-1578（2013)09-0001-02
Ecological ethics is the discipline focusing on the moral principles, standards and behaviors between human beings and nature, and its core idea is to respect life and nature. Ecological ethics advocates that people’s ethic concern should not be limited just among people, but should be expanded to nature.This article attempts to analyze The Call of the Wild from the perspective of ecoethics, represents both the maltreatment of animals by some humans without ecoethics and the harmonious relationship between the ecoethic man and animals，tries to prove Jack London’s ecoethic thought.
1 A Brief Overview of Ecological Ethics
At the primitive society, human beings had adequate conditions for survival, but with advances in technology, various disasters fly out together, say, environmental pollution, animal extinction, oil spilling, etc. Is it right for human to cause the extinction of a species for the convenience of humanity? What is the relationship between man and nature? What environmental obligations do we need to keep for the non-human entities and the ecosystem? These are among the issues that eco-ethics takes up. Ecological ethics is proposed respectively by the French philosopher Albert Schweitzer and British ecologist Leopold in the 1940s and 1950s. However, western eco-ethical thoughts had been around for a long time.
Eco-ethics is one of the branches of ethics. It is an applied discipline that is based on the principle of human behavior and morality in the ecological environment. Eco-ethics examines the relationship between man and nature from the moral perspective. As a field of study, it abandons the traditional anthropocentric worldview that non-human entities have no moral standing, and it believes that nature has its own moral values and man have responsibilities for the natural world. It seeks to help people become aware of their responsibilities and act responsibly when they do things that impact the natural world. In addition, the ecoethical study helps people to understand how to sustain and develop the ecological environment in an appropriate and scientific way. Eco-ethics is a study of the rights of the non-human entities and our ethical values.
2 Maltreatment of Animals
Animals are regarded as a part of nature, should be equal to other species on earth, including human beings. However, the serious fact is that they are always treated unfairly and miserably, which arouses many people’s concerns. In the novel The Call of the Wild, Jack London criticizes human’s maltreatment of the dog Buck and the other sled-dogs.
In the first period of the novel, Buck lived at Judge Miller’s place. When Buck was sold to a man who twisted the rope attached to his collar roughly, Buck’s misery begins. “Buck struggled in a fury, his tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great chest pant in.”( Jack London, 2005: 5 ). After departing from Francois and Perrault, Buck and his teammates were passed into the hands of another master, a Scotch half-breed. He took charge of Buck and his mates on the way to Dawson.“It was a hard trip, with the mail behind them, and the heavy work wore them down. They were short of weight and in poor condition… The dogs were tired.”(63)
The Scotch half-breed overworks Buck beyond his endurance. Buck serves for his master honestly while his master never shows any love or sympathy for him. Dogs are just his sacrifice and working tools. Finally, the dogs are sold to others. The reason why they are deserted or sold lies in money. Selling them can make the master earn a lot of profit.
Buck was stolen illegally, and then treated as slaves, tamed with club. Actually, it is a way of abusing and destructing nature. Why they treat animals so brutely?They always regard people's benefit as the measure of value, and feel pride when they plundered natural resources. Jack London expressed his disgust of the behavior of abusing animals. He is concerned about animals' fate, as well as the natural world.
3 Love for Animals
There is a feverish love between Buck and Thornton. They manage to overstep the boundary between animals and human beings through mutual love. It is fortunate for Buck to meet John Thornton. It is John Thornton that saves Buck’s life. All the dogs are exhausted on the trail under the guidance of Hal and his family, however, the brute master still drives them to go with clubs without any care for them. Like other teammates, Buck has no strength in it and is barely able to stand up.when someone beat the dog, Thornton said,“If you strike that dog again, I’ll kill you” (89 ). Thornton treats animals equally and makes them have the ability of sensing misery and enjoying happiness. He does not only love animals, but also gives them respect and rights.
Thornton, a seasoned gold prospector, saves Buck from being beaten to death by the odious Hal and then becomes Buck’s master. From then on, a deep abiding love blossoms between man and dog. Thornton is the ideal master who sees to the welfare of his dogs as if they were his own children, talking to them, calling them with love names and love words. He was the ideal master. Other men saw to the welfare of their dogs from a sense of duty and business expediency; he saw to the welfare of his as they were his own children, because he could not help it .And he saw further. He never forgot a kindly greeting or a cheering word, and to sit down for a long talk with them. He had a way of taking Buck’s head roughly between his hands, and resting his own head upon Buck’s of shaking him back and forth, while calling him ill names that to Buck were love names. It is Thornton, whom Buck loves intensely, who embodies the better way in which humans and dogs can be partners, where each looks out for the other’s welfare.
4 Return to Nature
Returning to nature is the eternal theme of ecological literature. Nature stands for integrity, spiritual freedom. In The Call of the Wild, Buck returns to nature at last, this is because he has the wild nature in his heart.When Buck returned from the wilderness to Thornton’s camp, he finds the body of Thornton in a pool of water. His last tie with man is broken. While brooding over Thornton’s body, he hears and answers the call of the wild.“And as never before, he was ready to obey. John Thornton was dead. The last tie was broken. Man and the claims of man no longer bound him”(134) .Buck becomes a wolf creature who prefers to live in a savage environment. Buck is now free to live the life of the wild to the fullest.“When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat in the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight glimmering boreal-is, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack” ( 137).
At last,Buck returns to the wild, joining the wolves. Buck’s choice is also Jack London's choice. We can analyze Buck’s destiny from two aspects. Firstly, if we see Buck as a part of nature, the ending indicates that human should respect nature, otherwise, human will lose nature; What’s more, if Buck is a part of human’s world, the ending tells that man is a part of nature, and returning to nature is the ideal destination, namely, pursing the harmony between man and nature.
Some scholars believed that the short and passionate composition career of Jack London was led by a simple pursuing, namely, pursing a life style that was harmonious with nature. The nature written by Jack London is not only an external existence, but also an ideal human lifestyle and values in the author's mind. The novel contains a concept of ecological holism: animals are no longer tools, but creatures bearing equal ecological value like man, and the same factor as man in the nature chain. The ending also represents the orientation of civilization in London’s mind: restoring and rebuilding a harmonious and stable relation with nature.
In brief, the article has a deep and all-dimensional analysis of The Call of the Wild, thus not only deepening readers’understanding of the author and the work, but also helping people think about the harmonious coexistence. Besides, the study will contribute to the establishment of a environmentally-friendly society and ecological civilization.
References：
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[2]杰克・伦敦. 野性的呼唤[M].张勇编译.中国出版社，2005.
[3]林红梅.生态伦理学概论[M].北京：中央编译出版社，2008.
作者简介：张娜（1983-），女，河南泌阳人，河南农业职业学院人文社科系讲师，硕士，研究方向：英美文学。