22 Buck’s tormentor, the man in the red sweater, is a harsh man. He does not fear
Buck will attack him back. Moreover, he uses a club, something that easily weakens Buck.
For the last time he rushed. The man struck a shrewd blow he had purposely withheld for so long, and Buck crumpled up and went down,
knocked utterly senseless p. 27.
The last strike sends Buck to the ground and ends the fight between him and the man in the red sweater. After Buck seems to understand how things work
in his new life, he tries to set aside his anger and fury, and focuses more to himself. After all, his anger and fury will not rid him from hunger and thirst. He
still is a living thing that needs to eat and drink, and in his current condition he only gets those essential needs from human, even from the one who just tortures
him. Buck learns his lesson about a man with a club in a hard way, but the important thing is that now he knows how to behave around a man with a club. As
stated by Hammond 2010 that an external conflict is more complicated than an internal conflict, this conflict which is faced by Buck nearly knocks him down.
Buck’s first encounter with a man and a club in his hand nearly causes him his death. If only Buck does not back down, the man in the red sweater might beat
him to death.
d. The Conflict between Buck and Spitz
Buck is bought by a Canadian Government from the man in the red sweater. The Canadian Government, Perrault, then brings Buck in the deck to go
into Dyea Beach. In the deck, Buck meets two other dogs, Spitz and Dave. Spitz is a big snow-white dog, friendly but slippery at the same time. Buck’s first
23 conflict with another dog is with Spitz. Even though Buck gets involved in a fight
a lot with Spitz, those fights are not the toughest conflicts encountered by Buck. However, Buck’s conflicts with Spitz are complicated because Francois, who
works for Perrault as the sled’s driver, most of the time, comes in between the two to prevent the fight from happening.
He was friendly, in a treacherous sort of way, smiling into one’s face the while he meditated some underhand trick, as, for instance, when he stole
from Buck’s food at the first meal. As Buck sprang to punish him, the lash of Francois’s club sang through the air, reaching the culprit first; and
nothing remained to Buck but to recover the bone p. 30.
Buck knows three other dogs, Toots and Ysabel, the two terriers back in Judge Miller’s home, and Curly, a good-natured Newfoundland who Buck meets
in the man in the red sweater’s house. Buck never encounters any problem with any of the other dogs. Therefore, having a problem with another dog is a new
thing for Buck. Spitz is the first dog bought and brought into the deck by Perrault, which makes him be the leader of Perrault’s team of sled-dogs. Spitz always tries
to pick a fight with Buck, and most of the time, Buck welcomes Spitz’s challenge. However, Francois, a black-faced giant and a French-Canadian, always gets into
the two and prevents the fight from happening. Buck knows that Spitz is not a good friend, and that he has to be careful around him. Still, Spitz is getting more
and more thrilled to get into Buck’s nerves. But when Buck finished his ration and returned, he found his nest
occupied. A warning snarl told him that the trespasser was Spitz. Till now Buck had avoided trouble with his enemy, but this was too much. The
beast in him roared. He sprang upon Spitz with a fury which surprised them both, and Spitz particularly, for his whole experience with Buck had
gone to teach him that his rival was an unusually timid dog, who managed to hold his own only because of his great weight and size p. 41.
24 The external conflicts of Buck with Spitz are all in form of physical
violence, and that kind of conflict has been stated by Hammond 2010 before. However, the previous quotation shows that Buck always tries to shrug off any
possible trouble with him. However, this kind of effort is one-sided only, on the one hand, Spitz keeps doing what he likes because he thinks Buck will never burst
out. On the other hand, Buck is getting tired of tolerating Spitz’s behavior, one time Buck attacks Spitz spontaneously until Spitz himself is startled.
Spitz was equally willing. He was crying with sheer rage and eagerness as he circled back and forth for a chance to spring in. Buck was no less eager,
and no less cautious, as he likewise circled back and forth for the advantage p. 41.
After recovering from the shock, Spitz starts to face Buck. Even though Spitz is startled, he himself is keen to fight Buck. Buck, however, is angry and
cannot hold his patience any longer. Another fight initiated by Spitz erupts, and it is about to break when a pack of hungry huskies barging into the camp because of
the smell of the food. Buck and Spitz’s fight has to wait because they have to fight the hungry huskies that are already sneaking in to steal the food. However, if the
hungry huskies are not barging in, there must have been a big fight between Buck and Spitz. Hammond 2010 mentions that an external conflict is more
complicated than an internal conflict and the presence of the hungry huskies makes the situation more complicated. Buck, who gets hurt more than the others
from fighting the hungry huskies, is an easy target for Spitz. As Buck drew himself together to spring after them, out of the trail of his
eye he saw Spitz rush upon him with the evident intention of overthrowing him. Once off his feet and under that mass of huskies, there was no hope
for him. But he braced himself to the shock of Spitz’s charge, then joined the flight out on the lake p. 42.
