Chapter 4: Who Has Won to Mastership Practice Quiz — The Call of the Wild
by Jack London — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 4: Who Has Won to Mastership
What does Francois discover at the start of Chapter 4?
He discovers Spitz is missing and Buck is covered with wounds, confirming that Buck killed Spitz in the fight from the previous chapter.
Who does Francois initially try to place in the lead dog position?
Francois places Sol-leks at the front of the team, judging him the best lead dog remaining.
How does Buck win the lead position from Francois?
Buck refuses all other positions and circles just out of club range for over an hour until both men give up and place him at the front of the team.
What record does the team set under Buck's leadership?
They average forty miles per day for fourteen consecutive days on the run from Dawson to Skaguay, setting a new record for the trail.
What two new dogs are added to the team at Rink Rapids?
Two native huskies named Teek and Koona are added, and Buck breaks them in with impressive speed.
What happens when Francois and Perrault arrive in Skaguay?
They celebrate for three days before receiving official orders that reassign them, and they leave Buck's life permanently.
What does Dave do when the driver removes him from the traces?
Dave bites through Sol-leks's traces and stands in his old position, refusing to accept being replaced despite his illness.
How does Dave's story end in Chapter 4?
Unable to stand the next morning, Dave is left behind. The Scotch half-breed walks back to camp alone, and a revolver shot tells the other dogs Dave has been put down.
How does Buck demonstrate leadership beyond physical dominance?
Buck enforces discipline, punishes shirkers like Pike for loafing, subdues defiant dogs like Joe, and shows superior judgment and quick thinking on the trail.
How is the Scotch half-breed characterized as a dog driver?
He is fair and conscientious, always feeding the dogs before himself and checking their feet before sleeping, though he works them on an exhausting schedule.
What does Francois's reaction to leaving Buck reveal about their relationship?
Francois throws his arms around Buck and weeps, showing genuine affection and respect for the dog despite their earlier power struggle over the lead position.
How has Pike's behavior changed by the end of Buck's first day as leader?
Pike, who previously never put more effort than absolutely necessary into pulling, is pulling harder than ever before after Buck repeatedly shakes him for loafing.
What motivates Dave to fight his way back into the traces despite being fatally ill?
Dave's entire identity is built around his work in the traces. Being denied his position causes him more suffering than his physical illness.
How does Chapter 4 illustrate the theme of earned versus assigned authority?
Buck refuses the position Francois assigns him and insists on the leadership he won through combat, proving that in the primal world, authority must be earned, not granted.
What does Dave's death suggest about the relationship between purpose and survival?
Dave's story shows that losing one's purpose can be worse than death itself. The drivers recognize that denying a working dog its role can break its heart.
How does the chapter develop the theme of atavism?
Buck's fireside visions of a primitive, hairy ancestor show his psychological regression toward primal instincts, while memories of Judge Miller's home grow dim and powerless.
What does the expendability of the sled dogs reveal about life in the Klondike?
The relentless pace, accumulating eighteen hundred miles without rest, shows that both animals and men are consumed by the frontier's demands, valued only for their usefulness.
What literary device does London use when Buck "laughed, as dogs laugh"?
Personification. London attributes human emotional expression to Buck, suggesting his triumph and satisfaction are as complex as human feelings.
What is the function of the primitive man vision as a literary device?
It serves as both foreshadowing and symbolism, prefiguring Buck's eventual return to the wild and symbolizing the ancient instincts awakening beneath his domesticated nature.
How does London use irony in Dave's subplot?
The work in the traces is simultaneously killing Dave and giving him his only reason to live, creating a tragic irony where his salvation and destruction are the same thing.
What narrative technique does London use to convey Dave's death?
London uses understatement and indirection. The death occurs offscreen, communicated only by a single revolver shot behind a belt of trees, making it more powerful through restraint.
What does "obdurate" mean in the context of Francois's refusal to let Buck lead?
Obdurate means stubbornly refusing to change one's mind. Francois is determined to keep Sol-leks in the lead despite Buck's protests.
What does "celerity" mean when describing how Buck broke in Teek and Koona?
Celerity means swiftness or speed. It emphasizes how quickly and efficiently Buck trained the two new huskies.
What does "lugubriously" mean when Dave howls as the sled train passes?
Lugubriously means in a mournful, sorrowful, or gloomy way. It conveys the depth of Dave's grief at being left behind.
Who says "Never such a dog as dat Buck! Him worth one thousand dollair" and what does it reveal?
Francois says this to Perrault, showing his complete reversal from opposing Buck's leadership to recognizing him as the finest dog he has ever driven.
What is the significance of the closing line: "Buck knew, and every dog knew, what had taken place behind the belt of river trees"?
It shows the dogs' intuitive understanding of death, conveyed without sentimentality. The shared knowledge unites the team in silent acknowledgment of Dave's fate.