The Conflict between Buck and Spitz
26 one night and Pike, the malingerer, does not appear. Through the night until
morning Pike is securely sleeping in his nest under the snow. Francois looks for him in vain, while Spitz in his wrath starts to make Pike frightened in his nest.
When Pike appears, Spitz launches at him and about to punish him when Buck comes in between them.
Pike, who had been trembling abjectly, took heart at this open mutiny, and sprang upon his over-thrown leader. Buck, to whom fair-play was a
forgotten code, likewise sprang upon Spitz. But Francois, chuckling at the incident while unswerving in the administration of justice, brought his lash
down upon Buck with all his might p. 47.
From the quotation above, it is known that the trigger of the fight this time is Spitz’s arbitrary attitude toward the other dogs. Buck stands for Pike, because
as a leader of the team Spitz does not bring any comfort for the team. Francois comes in the middle of the fight and put an end to the fight before it begins.
Buck’s decision to strike Spitz is not based on the things that Spitz does to him, but also to the other dogs. The other dogs are too scared to take a stand to their
leader, but Buck is not scared. Since then, the other dogs are not scared anymore with Spitz, which leads to a condition where Francois backs up Spitz with his
club, while Buck backs up the rest of the dogs. Even though Buck really wants to challenge Spitz and his leadership status, he knows that he cannot start a fight in
front of Francois and his club. One day, at the mouth of Tahkeena, the last fight between Buck and Spitz breaks. Buck leads the pack, sixty in total, with the fifty
huskies of Northwest Police, whose camp is a hundred yards away, in a hunting of rabbit in the woods. Buck is chasing a rabbit when all of a sudden Spitz comes in
27 front of him and catches the rabbit. Without any hesitation, Buck launches himself
at Spitz. He did not check himself, but drove in upon Spitz, shoulder to shoulder, so
hard that he missed the throat. They rolled over and over in the powdery snow. Spitz gained his feet almost as though he had not been overthrown,
slashing Buck down the shoulder and leaping clear. Twice his teeth clipped together, like the steel jaws of a trap, as he backed away for better
footing, with lean and lifting lips that writhed and snarled p. 51.
Hammond 2010 claims that a conflict is the centre of a novel which is capable of telling the character’s struggle to overcome any conflicts he
encounters. The conflicts between Buck and Spitz are the conflicts which play a strong role in the novel, the conflicts are described in detail by the author, and
how Buck and Spitz cannot stand each other. All those conflicts of Buck with Spitz lead Buck to challenge Spitz’s leadership status of the team. Buck is waiting
for a chance to defy Spitz, to finish him once and for the last time. The quotation above shows that Buck finally finds his chance, there is no Francois or Perrault
around to come between them. Moreover, Buck is in fury because Spitz is meddling in his rabbit hunting. Both Buck and Spitz are looking forward to fight
each other. Buck is eager on beating and defeating Spitz so that he can seize the leadership status and prevent the team of sled-dogs from getting into a worse
condition. Buck fights not only for himself but also for the other dogs. Hammond 2010 states that an external conflict is a conflict which mostly is in a form of a
fight between one character and another, and Buck’s conflicts with Spitz are mostly fights and physical violence.
As they circled about, snarling, ears laid back, keenly watchful for the advantage, the scene came back to Buck with a sense of familiarity. To
28 Buck it was nothing new or strange, this scene of old time. It was as
though it had always been, the wonted way of things p. 51.
Buck starts to realize that he is a fighter, circumstances in his new life force him to be one. Facing Spitz does not make Buck scared, on the contrary,
Buck feels eager to have a last fight with Spitz. However, on the one hand, Spitz is a good fighter, he knows when to attack and how to harm his opponent. On the
other hand, Buck might be strong, but he rarely learns how to fight. Fang clashed fang, and lips were cut and bleeding, but Buck could not
penetrate his enemy’s guard. Then Buck took to rushing, as though for the throat, when, suddenly drawing back his head and curving him in from the
side, he would drive his shoulder at the shoulder of Spitz, as a ram by which to overthrow him. But instead, Buck’s shoulder was slashed down
each time as Spitz leaped lightly away p. 52.
The quotation above shows Buck’s non-stop efforts in fighting Spitz. It is also clear that Buck is left behind in fighting skill, compared to Spitz. Spitz has
strategies, while Buck does not have any. As a house-dog in Judge Miller’s house back in California, Buck never learns how to fight, let alone learns any kind of
strategies in fighting. Even though Spitz has not launched any strikes yet, he is two steps ahead of Buck. There is one time when Buck almost knocks down and
the other sixty dogs are ready to finish him. Spitz was untouched, while Buck was streaming with blood and panting
hard. The fight was growing desperate. And all the while the silent and wolfish circle waited to finish off whichever dog went down. As Buck
grew winded, Spitz took to rushing, and he kept him staggering for footing. Once Buck went over, and the whole circle of sixty dogs started
up; but he recovered himself, almost in mid air, and the circle sank down again and waited p. 52.
Buck is starting to lose some blood and getting bruised all over his body. He is starting to get tired. The sixty dogs circled around Buck and Spitz is waiting
29 to finish the defeated dog. Hammond 2010 mentions that a character can have an
external conflict with society. In this conflict Buck almost deals with society, which is the Northwest Police’s team of dogs. The other sixty dogs are waiting for
either Buck or Spitz to fall down. The fight among dogs is harsh. The fifty dogs of the Northwest Police do not care which one between Buck and Spitz will be the
loser, they are eager to participate to finish the loser even though they are not the part of the pack. The ten dogs, of which Buck is also fighting for, also are not
standing up for anyone, not even for Buck. The ten dogs know that Spitz is not a good leader, but if Buck lost those ten dogs should take part in finishing Buck.
Therefore, Buck realizes that he cannot lose the battle, because once he is down the other dogs will finish him.
His tooth closed on Spitz’s left fore leg. There was a crunch of breaking bone and the white dog faced him on three legs. Thrice he tried to knock
him over, then repeated the trick and broke the right fore leg. Despite the pain and helplessness, Spitz struggled madly to keep up. He saw the silent
circle, with gleaming eyes and lolling tongues, and silvery breaths drifting upward, closing in upon him as he had seen similar circles close in upon
beaten antagonists in the past p. 52.
Buck is a tough fighter, seeing that he is left behind in the fight, he starts to think for the best ways to infiltrate Spitz’s strong defense. Following his
instincts, Buck starts to plan his next moves. Buck learns so many things by his own since the day he is kidnapped, and this fight is not any different. Buck
realizes that all his attempts are in vain so far, therefore he decides to change his ways. The fight is starting to take a turn when Buck starts to camouflage his
attacks. After some moves, Spitz finally is getting weaker, two of his legs are PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
30 broken. When Spitz is getting impossible to fight any longer, the circle of the
sixty dogs is starting to close in around him. Only Spitz quivered and bristled as he staggered back and forth, snarling
with horrible menace, as though to frighten off impending death. Then Buck sprang in and out, but while he was in, shoulder had at last squarely
met shoulder. The dark circle became a dot on the moon-flooded snow as Spitz disappeared from view. Buck stood and looked on, the successful
champion, the dominant primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good p. 53.
The quotation above shows the final encounter between Buck and his enemy, Spitz. Buck succeeds to defeat Spitz, and therefore gains the leadership
status of the team. Despite of the harms Spitz brings for Buck, at the same time he forces Buck to learn to survive through the wild things of Buck’s new world.
Buck learns how to control his anger, to act with a plan, and to give empathy toward others, by looking out for the other dogs when they are in trouble with
Spitz’s arbitrary behavior.