Chapter 5: The Toil of Trace and Trail Practice Quiz — The Call of the Wild
by Jack London — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 5: The Toil of Trace and Trail
How much weight has Buck lost when the team arrives in Skaguay?
Buck has dropped from one hundred and forty pounds to one hundred and fifteen, a loss of twenty-five pounds over the grueling mail run.
Why are Buck and his teammates sold instead of given a long rest in Skaguay?
The congested mail had reached Alpine proportions and official orders required fresh Hudson Bay dogs to replace worn-out teams. The old dogs were sold because dogs count for little against dollars.
What happens on the trio’s first attempt to depart Skaguay?
The overloaded sled tips over on a steep turn, spilling half its load. The angry dogs bolt through town, scattering belongings along Skaguay’s main street.
How many dogs do Hal and Charles add to the team, and what is the total?
They buy six Outside dogs, bringing the total to fourteen when combined with the original six plus Teek and Koona from the Rink Rapids.
What mistake do Hal and Charles make with the dog food supply?
They overfeed at first—Hal doubles the orthodox ration and Mercedes secretly steals extra fish for the dogs—then are forced to drastically underfeed when supplies run out halfway through the trip.
Which dogs die during the journey, and in what order?
Dub is shot first. Then the Newfoundland, the three short-haired pointers, and the two mongrels starve. Billee is killed with an axe when he collapses. Koona also dies, leaving only five dogs.
What does John Thornton do when Hal beats Buck with a club?
Thornton springs upon Hal, hurls him backward, threatens to kill him if he strikes Buck again, knocks away Hal’s hunting knife, and cuts Buck free from the traces with an axe-handle.
How do Hal, Charles, and Mercedes die?
They continue onto the rotten spring ice of the Yukon. A quarter mile from Thornton’s camp, the ice gives way and all three, along with the remaining dogs and sled, plunge into the river.
What physical detail does London emphasize about Hal to suggest his inexperience?
Hal wears a belt bristling with cartridges, a big Colt’s revolver, and a hunting knife. London says this belt "advertised his callowness—a callowness sheer and unutterable."
How does Mercedes make the journey harder for the starving dogs?
She insists on riding the sled despite weighing one hundred and twenty pounds, adding a crushing burden to the load. When Charles and Hal physically remove her, she goes limp and refuses to walk until they carry her back.
What is Charles’s role within the trio?
Charles is passive and weak. He is Mercedes’s husband and Hal’s brother-in-law. He has watery eyes, sits down very slowly because of stiffness, and does not intervene even when Thornton confronts Hal.
How is John Thornton introduced in the novel?
Thornton is introduced whittling an axe-handle from birch at his camp on the mouth of White River. He gives terse, monosyllabic advice, knowing it will not be followed. He is quiet, capable, and compassionate.
What distinguishes Buck’s refusal to move from the behavior of his teammates?
While Buck’s mates are barely able to get up but eventually comply under the whip, Buck has made up his mind not to get up. His refusal is a conscious act of defiance driven by instinct, not mere physical inability.
How does the overloaded sled symbolize the trio’s broader failure?
The overloaded sled represents their refusal to adapt civilized habits to wilderness conditions. Just as they pack unnecessary luxuries, they bring Southland assumptions about comfort and control that the North will not tolerate.
What is ironic about the arrival of spring in this chapter?
Spring brings an explosion of new life—buds, birds, flowing water—while the dogs and humans are dying. The same thaw that awakens nature also weakens the ice, creating the trap that kills Hal, Charles, and Mercedes.
What does Buck’s refusal to cross the ice reveal about instinct versus obedience?
Buck’s primitive instinct for self-preservation overrides his trained obedience to human command. This marks a turning point where the wild within him proves more reliable than civilized submission.
How does London contrast Mercedes’s sentimentality with Thornton’s compassion?
Mercedes weeps over the dogs and embraces Buck but refuses to lighten their burden by walking. Thornton says little but acts decisively, risking confrontation to save Buck. London shows that genuine compassion requires action, not just tears.
How does London use dramatic irony in the ice-crossing scene?
Experienced men have warned Hal that the ice is rotten, and Thornton flatly states he would not risk it for all the gold in Alaska. The reader knows the danger, but Hal sneers at the warnings and drives forward to his death.
What narrative technique does London use during Buck’s beating?
London shifts to increasingly distanced, dissociative narration. Buck feels "strangely numb," hears the club "as though from a great distance," and senses "it was no longer his body." This mimics the experience of losing consciousness under trauma.
What is the effect of the extended spring nature passage in the chapter?
The long, lyrical passage about budding willows, singing birds, and thawing rivers uses pathetic fallacy in reverse—nature celebrates life while the characters march toward death, heightening the tragic irony.
What does "callowness" mean in the context of Hal’s description?
Callowness means inexperience and immaturity. London uses it to emphasize that Hal’s conspicuous weapons and cartridge belt reveal a young man playing at being a frontiersman rather than actually being one.
What does the word "malingerer" mean as applied to Pike?
A malingerer is someone who fakes illness or injury to avoid work. Pike had previously feigned hurt legs to escape pulling, but by Chapter 5 he is limping in earnest from genuine exhaustion.
What does "perambulating skeletons" mean in describing the dog team?
Perambulating means walking about. London calls the surviving dogs "perambulating skeletons" to convey that they are so emaciated their bones show through loose skin, yet they are still mechanically moving forward.
Who says "If you strike that dog again, I’ll kill you" and what is the significance?
John Thornton says this to Hal after intervening to stop Buck’s beating. It is the moment that saves Buck’s life and establishes Thornton as the moral counterpoint to Hal’s cruelty.
What does Thornton mean when he says "Only fools, with the blind luck of fools, could have made it"?
Thornton is telling Hal that surviving the rotten ice so far was pure luck, not skill. The warning implies their luck will run out—which it does moments later when the ice collapses beneath the sled.