“The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck”

“Well, Buck my boy.”

“He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial.”

“…and from that moment Buck hated him with a bitter and deathless hatred.”

“Görünürde hiçbir değişiklik olmadığı, her şeyin tekdüze yaşandığı günlerde Buck, havanın yavaş yavaş soğuduğunu hissediyordu. Bir sabah geminin pervanesi durdu ve heyecanlı bir hareketlilik başladı. Buck ve diğer köpekler gemideki bu hareketliliğin farkına vardılar. Ne olduğunu anlamaya çalışırken, François geldi, hepsinin boynuna birer ip bağladı, onları güverteye çıkardı. Buck adımını atınca, çamura basmış gibi oldu. Hırlayarak ayağını geri çekti. Yerdeki bu beyaz çamur gökyüzünden dökülüyordu. Buck, anlam vermeye çalışarak başını indirip kokladı, sonra yaladı, dilinde önce soğuk, ardından yakıcı bir etki bırakı ve hemen suya dönüştü. Ne olduğunu bir türlü anlayamadı. Birkaç kez aynı şeyi yaptı. Çevreden izleyenler bu haline çok güldüler; Buck neden güldüklerini anlamadı ve utandı. O gün hayatı boyunca ilk kez kar gördü.”

“This man had saved his life, which was something; but, further, 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 if 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 ("gas" he called it) was as much his delight as theirs. 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, the while calling him ill names that to Buck were love names. Buck knew no greater joy than that rough embrace and the sound of murmured oaths, and at each jerk back and forth it seemed that his heart would be shaken out of his body so great was its ecstasy. And when, released, he sprang to his feet, his mouth laughing, his eyes eloquent, his throat vibrant with unuttered sound, and in that fashion remained without movement, John Thornton would reverently exclaim, "God! you can all but speak!"Buck had a trick of love expression that was akin to hurt. He would often seize Thornton's hand in his mouth and close so fiercely that the flesh bore the impress of his teeth for some time afterward. And as Buck understood the oaths to be love words, so the man understood this feigned bite for a caress.”

“He was a ferocious man. He had been ill-made in the making. He had not been born right, and he had not been helped any by the molding he had received at the hands of society. The hands of society are harsh, and this man was a striking sample of its handiwork. He was a beast - a human beast, it is true, but nevertheless so terrible a beast that he can best be characterized as carnivorous.”