Why is bucks challenge of spitzs leadership important

In the moments that follow, Spitz fights for his survival with all of his will and might. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Mini Essays Suggested Essay Topics. Quotes Spitz Quotes. Spitz was the leader, likewise experienced, and while he could not always get at Buck, he growled sharp reproof now and again, or cunningly threw his weight in the traces to jerk Buck into the way he should go.

So terrible was his appearance that Spitz was forced to forego disciplining him; but to cover his own discomfiture he turned upon the inoffensive and wailing Billee and drove him to the confines of the camp. An ultimate confrontation between Buck and Spitz seems inevitable, and in this chapter, we are first given a short, but vicious encounter between Buck and Spitz, when Buck returns to his nest to find Spitz occupying his sleeping hole.

This arouses the "beast" in Buck, and he springs upon Spitz "with a fury which surprised them both. At the same time, however, the fight between the two dogs is delayed by the sudden appearance of "four or five score of starving huskies" who invade the camp.

These starving huskies ignore the clubs which flail them, and they attempt to consume all of the food supplies. In the meantime, the sled dogs have burst from their nests in order to protect their food. Then, however, all of the team dogs are attacked by the wild dogs and even the team dogs revert to primitive behavior. London tells us that they "fought the wild dogs with a fierceness.

The taste of blood goads him to "greater fierceness. Half of the food supply, however, is gone. This key incident shows the wild, untamed fury of the starving animals who contain a fury which indicates the instinctual desire for survival.

Furthermore, in the encounter with the wild huskies, Spitz, rather than fight against a common enemy, uses the opportunity to attack Buck — on two different occasions. The first time occurs when Buck is fighting a wild huskie, and Spitz viciously attacks him from the side; the second time occurs when Spitz rushes upon Buck in an attempt to throw Buck in the path of the wild huskies, an event which Buck realizes would have meant certain death.

There have now been three encounters between Buck, the dog of the Southland, and Spitz, the opportunistic dog of the Northland. It takes the sled team six days to cross the thirty miles that make up the "Thirty Mile River" because the ice keeps breaking under them, and they have to stop and build fires to dry out or else they will freeze to death. At one time, the ice breaks and Spitz, the lead dog, falls in, dragging the entire team, except Buck, in with him.

During the rescue, which requires most of the day, another day of travel is lost. They are a great relief to the dog. One morning, a surprising event occurs.

The dog Dolly, a particularly mild-mannered dog, suddenly begins "a long, heartbreaking wolf howl," which indicates that she has suddenly gone mad. Frothing at the mouth and snarling, Dolly begins to chase Buck, who flees in confused terror from her. Buck leads the pack, but Spitz, unbeknownst to Buck, leaves the pack and cuts across a narrow piece of land. Buck thinks that he will catch the rabbit but then sees Spitz cut him off.

Buck realizes that they are locked in a battle to the death. After a few minutes, Buck is dripping with blood, while Spitz is virtually untouched. Crippled, Spitz soon goes down and, as the other dogs gather to watch, Buck finishes him off. This chapter emphasizes the external dangers of the wild. But worse threats lurk beyond the confines of camps and mail routes—wild dogs, for one thing, and madness, for another.

Hunger also threatens, a terrible enemy that has transformed the wild dogs into weird, skeletal, half-mad creatures. At this point, hunger is not a direct threat to Buck, since Francois and Perrault are responsible masters. Thus, he paves the way for his own leadership even before the final confrontation arrives.

Nietzsche argued that all of society was divided up into those who were naturally masters and those who were naturally slaves.

Nietzsche further argued that life was a constant struggle either to rule or be ruled; the "will to power," as he termed it, replaced a conventional system of morality or ethics.

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