from The Call of the Wild by Jack London.docx

1、from The Call of the Wild by Jack London-from The Call of the Wild by Jack LondonThis first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would have meant swift and terrib

2、le death. It marked, further, the decay or going to pieces of his moral nature, a vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence. It was all well enough in the Southland, under the law of love and fellowship, to respect private property and personal feelings; but in the Northland,

3、under the law of club and fang, whoso took such things into account was a fool, and in so far as he observed them he would fail to prosper.Not that Buck reasoned it out. He was fit, that was all, and unconsciously he accommodated himself to the new mode of life. All his days, no matter what the odds

4、, he had never run from a fight. But the club of the man in the red sweater had beaten into him a more fundamental and primitive code. Civilized, he could have died for a moral consideration, say the defense of Judge Millers riding-whip; but the completeness of his decivilization was now evidenced b

5、y his ability to flee from the defense of a moral consideration and so save his hide. He did not steal for joy of it, but because of the clamor of his stomach. He did not rob openly, but stole secretly and cunningly, out of respect for club and fang. In short, the things he did were done because it

6、was easier to do them than not to do them.His development (or retrogression) was rapid. His muscles became hard as iron, and he grew callous to all ordinary pain. He achieved an internal as well as external economy. He could eat anything, no matter how loathsome or indigestible; and, once eaten, the

7、 juices of his stomach extracted the last least particle of nutriment; and his blood carried it to the farthest reaches of his body, building it into the toughest and stoutest of tissues. Sight and scent became remarkably keen, while his hearing developed such acuteness that in his sleep he heard th

8、e faintest sound and knew whether it heralded peace or peril. He learned to bite the ice out with his teeth when it collected between his toes; and when he was thirsty and there was a thick scum of ice over the water hole, he would break it by rearing and striking it with stiff fore legs. His most c

9、onspicuous trait was an ability to scent the wind and forecast it a night in advance. No matter how breathless the air when he dug his nest by tree or bank, the wind that later blew inevitably found him to leeward, sheltered and snug.And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead b

10、ecame alive again. The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down. It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and

11、the quick wolf snap. In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, and the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always. And when, on the sti

12、ll cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolf like, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. And his cadences were their cadences, the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning o

13、f the stillness, and the cold, and dark.Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is, the ancient song surged through him and he came into his own again; and he came because men had found a yellow metal in the North, and because Manuel was a gardeners helper whose wages did not lap over the needs o

14、f his wife and divers small copies of himself.生平第一次行窃，证明布克能够适应北极恶劣的环境。它表现出随环境改变而改变的适应能力，离开了这种能力，它很快就会悲惨地死去。不只如此，它的道德感也彻底沦丧，而在残酷的生存斗争中，道德只是障碍，根本没有用处。在南方，在爱和友谊的律法统治下，尊重私人财产和个人情感当然可以，但在北方，在大棒和牙齿的法则面前，谁再考虑那一套就是傻子，越是遵循，越会失败。 布克并不是用思考走到这一步的。它成功了，就这么简单，它只是不知不觉地适应了新的生存方式。所有这些日子，不管胜败几率如何，它从来没有逃避过争斗。但那个穿红毛衣的人

15、用大棒在它心底刻下了一套更基本、更原始的行为准则。在文明的状态下，它很可能出于道德的考虑而献身，比如看护米勒法官的马鞭；而现在，它能放弃道德的考虑来保全自己的性命，说明它已经彻底清除了自己身上的文明因素。它不是因为喜欢才偷东西，而是因为肚子饥饿难忍。因为它尊重大棒和牙齿的法则，所以才没有公开抢掠，而是用狡猾的手段悄悄地偷，一句话，它之所以做这些事，是因为做比不做来得更容易。它的进步（或者说退步）是迅速的。它的肌肉变得坚如钢铁，通常的疼痛已经影响不了它。里里外外，它的身体已经打磨成最有效率的样式。它什么都能咽下去，不管食物多恶心，多么难以消化。一旦下肚，它的胃酸就能把营养吸收得一点不剩，而它的血

16、液又会把营养输送到身体的各个角落，打造最强健刚硬的组织。它的视觉和嗅觉变得异常敏锐，听觉更是不可思议地灵敏。即使在睡梦中它也能觉察到最细微的声音，并且能判断出这声音是否预示着危险。当冰在脚趾之间冻结时，它知道用牙齿将冰咬碎。当它口渴了，而水面上有厚厚一层冰的时候，它知道抬起僵硬的前腿，猛地敲击冰层。它最出色的本领是凭嗅觉提前一个晚上预知风的来向。不管它在树旁或者岸边挖坑睡觉时空气如何平静，寒风来袭时它总是处于避风的位置，所以睡得舒适安稳。它不仅从经验中学习新本领，而且很多早已泯灭的本能也复活了。多少世代以来驯化的特征从它身上消失了。它在朦朦胧胧中记起了远古祖先的生活，那时它们还是野狗，成群结队

17、地穿行在原始森林里，以追捕猎杀为生。对它来说，学习撕咬、啃噬和狼一样的偷袭并不是难事，那些被遗忘的祖先就是这样战斗的。现在，它们唤醒了它体内古老的生命，它们通过遗传印刻在它天性深处的那些诡计也是它要依赖的诡计。它没有刻意去寻找它们，但却和它们相遇了，仿佛它们一直在它身边。在那些寒冷静寂的夜晚，当布克仰望着一颗星，发出狼一样的长嚎时，其实是它的祖先，那些早已死亡、化作尘土的祖先，穿过多少世纪的空间，透过它，在嗥叫。它起伏的嗓音也是它们的嗓音，这嗓音传递着它们的悲哀，传递着静寂、寒冷、黑暗在它们眼中的意义。生活就是这样一出木偶戏，远古的哀歌通过它的喉咙迸发出来，它又重新获得了自己的本性。而这一切，仅仅因为人们在北极发现了一种黄灿灿的金属，因为马努埃尔是园丁的助手，而他的工钱养活不了自己的妻子，也应付不了自己的赌博游戏。