The Call of the Wild: Chapter One

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In 1897, three men discovered gold in a tributary of the Klondike River, located in the Yukon region of northwest Canada.

Word traveled quickly and the Klondike Gold Rush began. For eighteen months, men poured into the Yukon to strike it rich. This mad dash into the Arctic gripped the nation and the attention of Jack London. Six years later, London published The Call of the Wild, which fictionalized the events of the Klondike Gold Rush through the eyes of Buck, a sled dog. To learn more about this event, read the following article and watch the documentary. Answer the following questions in a notebook or journal that you will keep throughout this series:

• What two cities were primary ports of entry to the Klondike gold fields?
• How long was the journey from the two Alaskan cities to the gold fields in Canada?
• What portion of the journey was the most difficult and what made it so treacherous?
• What were prospectors required to do in order to enter Canada?
• Approximately how many people attempted prospecting during 1897 and 1898?
• What were conditions like in the city of Dawson?

Read What Was the Klondike Gold Rush? (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior), and watch 1898 Alaska Klondike Gold Rush Story, Dawson City, Yukon River YouTube:

• Would you have taken the chance to find a fortune in these conditions?

Now that you know more about the events that inspired the novel, read Chapter One of The Call of the Wild. You can use the digital text of The Call of the Wild by Jack London, provided by Project Gutenberg, or you can obtain a print copy at your local library or bookstore. As you read, take notes on Buck's journey to Alaska in your notebook or journal.

When you have read Chapter One and taken notes, move on to the Got It? section to explore the early events of the novel in more detail.