The Call of the Wild People
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16 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Judge Miller | Buck's owner for the first four years of the dog's life; owns an estate in the Santa Clara Valley, in California, and he treats Buck well |
| "man in the red sweater" | 1st tormentor; teaches him obedience, discipline, man is the leader |
| Francois | man who along with Perrault, takes charge of Buck early in the trip up north; large, French-Canadian man; knows how to enforce discipline amongst the dogs with his whip; although he is necessarily harsh, is also fair-minded, and Buck learns to respect him |
| Perrault | French-Canadian courier for the Canadian government; buys Buck for the trip north |
| Charles | middle-aged man married to Mercedes; he and his brother-in-law Hal buy Buck and the other dogs cheaply in Skagway; from somewhere south and is out of place in the harsh Arctic environment; overload the sled; miscalculate how much dog food is needed for their trip; continually bickering with Hal; drowns, with his companions and dogs, when the ice gives way as they try to make their way out of Thornton's camp in the spring |
| Hal | 19 yr old brother of Mercedes; brother-in-law of Charles; inexperienced and foolish; needlessly whips and clubs the dogs because he thinks they are lazy; shows little understanding of what is required in the Arctic environment; refusal to take the advice of Thornton not to attempt to travel farther on the river because of melting ice costs him and all his party their lives |
| Mercedes | sister of Hal; wife of Charles; ill-suited to traveling in the Arctic because she cannot leave behind the pampered life she has led; She adds to the difficulty of the trip, first by insisting that she packs a tent on the sled, and then when she insists on riding on the sled, rather than walking alongside it; acts like a spoiled child; has sympathy for the dogs and tries to prevent them being ill-treated by Hal; "However in the world could I manage without a tent?" |
| John Thornton | gold hunter who rescues Buck when the dog is at death's door, having been mistreated by Hal; an experienced man who knows how to live in the north; is kind to Buck, which is why Buck loves him and gives him complete loyalty; Just as Thornton saved Buck's life, Buck saves Thornton from drowning; Thornton is at home in the wild, and is not afraid of anything; he has the patience to endure whatever comes along |
| Black Burton | troublemaker; he picks a fight in a bar and John Thornton steps in |
| The Yeehats | the group of Valley Indians that raids the camp of John Thornton and his companions and kills them; they are terrorized when Buck returns and kills most of them; from then on they speak of a dog inhabited by the devil that roams the forest |
| Manuel | gardener's helper on Judge Miller's ranch; sells Buck in order to finance his gambling habit |
| The Scotch half-breed | drove them to the location of Charles, Hal and Mercedes → Dawson |
| Matthewson | the man who bets John that Buck cannot pull a ton of weight; "I've got a thousand dollars that says he can't." |
| Jim O'Brien | The man who loans John the money to make the bet against Matthewson |
| Hans | one of John Thornton's partners |
| Pete | another one of John Thornton's partners; "I'm not hankering to be the man that lays hands on you while he's around." |
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