Character guide

Buck

major

Also known as Fang Buck, Dat Buck

Buck begins as king of Judge Miller's place, a hundred and forty pounds of dignity who has never known a club or a hungry night. Kidnapped and sold north, he learns the law of fang and trace, discovering in himself a ferocity and cunning that his civilized life never demanded. His slow awakening—from snow-buried terror to open revolt for the lead—drives the novel's central question of how far a domesticated creature can travel back toward the wild.

John Thornton

major

Also known as Thornton

Thornton enters Buck's life as a rescuer, a man who lives close to the earth and thinks simply, and Buck's devotion to him becomes total—he tolerates Thornton's partners only because they belong to Thornton. Their bond is tested by Thornton's reckless whim at the cliff's edge, where Buck obeys a command to jump and nearly dies for it, and by the barroom brawl where Buck mauls a man for striking his master. Thornton alone holds Buck to the fire when the forest calls, making him the measure of everything Buck would lose by answering it.

Spitz

supporting

Also known as Dat Spitz

Spitz is the trail-wise leader of François and Perrault's team, a fighter who laughs at hell and tolerates no rival near his place at the front. He and Buck circle each other from the first days in harness, their rivalry sharpened by stolen food, snapped warnings, and the unspoken knowledge that only one of them can lead. When the showdown finally comes, François's verdict—'Dat Spitz fight lak hell, an' dat Buck fight lak two hells'—marks the moment Buck seizes the leadership he believes is his by right.

Dave

supporting

Dave is one of the veteran sled dogs Buck joins on the mail run, a creature utterly transformed by harness—alert, irritable at delay, and happiest when the toil of the traces is going well. He pulls as wheeler just ahead of Buck, embodying the trail's strange religion of work for its own sake. His fate becomes one of the book's quietest devastations: a dog who cannot conceive of a life without the sled, and whose body finally refuses what his will will not surrender.

Mercedes

supporting

Also known as Mercy

Mercedes arrives at the camp of Buck's new owners as part of a 'nice family party,' fluttering and chattering while the men load a sled so top-heavy it cannot move. She wrenches the whip from her brother Hal's hand to spare the dogs, yet her helplessness and refusal to abandon a single comfort—the tent, the clothes-sack, the unwashed dishes—make the journey harder for everyone, dogs included. Her good intentions and her uselessness are the same thing, and the trail will not forgive either.

François

supporting

François handles the dogs on the Dyea trail with a driver's pragmatism—he praises Buck's quick learning, wields the axe when mad Dolly charges, and judges Sol-leks the best lead dog left after Spitz is gone. His running battle with Buck over the leadership is half exasperation, half admiration; he grins and slaps his thighs when Buck displaces Sol-leks, then curses and throws clubs when the dog will not relent. He is the first human to see what Buck is becoming, and the first to be beaten by it.

Hal

supporting

Hal arrives in the Northland with his sister and brother-in-law, hauling a ludicrously overloaded sled and a fortune in misplaced confidence. Where seasoned mushers read the ice and the dogs, Hal reads only his own impatience, and his temper curdles into blows when the team falters. His refusal to heed warnings about the thawing river turns him into the story's sharpest lesson in how not to survive the wild.

Perrault

supporting

Perrault buys Buck in the Yukon and pairs him with the veteran lead dog Spitz, running mail between Dawson and the coast with a fairness the other drivers lack. He reads his dogs the way he reads the trail, rewarding effort and punishing only what must be punished, and his quiet competence becomes the standard against which Buck measures every later human. His brief tenure marks the hinge between Buck's pampered past and the ferine life ahead.

The Yeehats

supporting

They move through the forest as Buck himself has learned to move, silent and sure, and their attack on the mining camp is swift and total. To Buck they are not villains but forces of the same wild he has been answering all along, and their arrows and shouts become the final severing of his ties to mankind. Their raid is the pivot on which his story turns from loyalty toward the deep forest and the call that has haunted him.

Sol-leks

minor

A one-eyed, irritable sled dog who respects strength.

Pike

minor

A sly and lazy sled dog who steals food when possible.

Pete

minor

John Thornton's loyal friend and fellow prospector.

Hans

minor

John Thornton's other loyal friend and prospecting partner.

Manuel

minor

A gardener's helper who steals Buck and sells him into the Klondike.

Matthewson

minor

A gambler who bets against Buck in a pulling contest.

Skeet

minor

John Thornton's gentle Irish setter who befriends Buck.

The Judge

minor

Also known as Judge Miller

Buck's original owner, a wealthy California judge.

Curly

minor

A friendly Newfoundland dog killed by a pack of huskies upon arrival.

Nig

minor

John Thornton's large black dog, a bloodhound and deerhound mix.

Charles

minor

Mercedes' husband and Hal's brother, an incompetent gold seeker.

Billee

minor

A good-natured and friendly sled dog in Buck's team.

Joe

minor

A quarrelsome and ill-tempered sled dog.

Dub

minor

A clumsy but willing sled dog who often gets into trouble.

Dolly

minor

Also known as mad Dolly

A sled dog who goes mad with rabies and chases Buck.

Teek

minor

A sled dog mentioned briefly in the team.

Toots

minor

One of Judge Miller's dogs at the California estate.

Ysabel

minor

One of Judge Miller's dogs at the California estate.

Jim O'Brien

minor

Also known as O'Brien

A man who briefly owned Buck after he was stolen.