The Call of the Wild is narrated in third person but stays remarkably close to Buck's internal experience, rendering his thoughts, instincts, and emotional responses in ways that feel almost human. This narrative choice, a form of anthropomorphism, is worth its own dedicated essay assignment rather than treating it as a minor stylistic footnote.

An essay prompt built around this technique might ask students to evaluate why London chose to render a dog's inner life in such human terms, and what effect that choice has on reader sympathy that a more detached, purely behavioral narration would not achieve.

This assignment works well for students who have already studied point of view as a literary concept, since it applies that abstract idea to a concrete and somewhat unusual case: a non-human protagonist granted human-like interiority.

Framing the central question

The strongest version of this prompt does not simply ask students to identify anthropomorphism, since that is fairly easy to spot. It asks them to evaluate the technique's effect and whether it strengthens or complicates the novel's larger themes about instinct and civilization.

• Ask students to identify at least two specific passages where Buck's internal experience is rendered in human terms
• Require an argument about the effect of this technique on reader sympathy, not just its presence
• Ask whether anthropomorphism ever conflicts with the novel's naturalist, instinct-driven themes
• Require students to consider how a more detached, behavioral narration would change the reading experience
• Score analysis of narrative distance as a distinct criterion from general theme analysis

A useful in-class comparison exercise

Before the essay, having students rewrite a short passage from a purely external, behavioral point of view, removing any language suggesting internal thought or emotion, makes the effect of London's original choice much more visible and concrete than discussing it in the abstract.

This kind of transformation exercise tends to generate strong material for the eventual essay, since students end up with a direct point of comparison they wrote themselves, rather than only an abstract concept to describe secondhand.

Grading nuance around the naturalism tension

The most sophisticated essays on this topic notice a real tension: London's naturalist framework treats Buck as driven by instinct and heredity, yet the anthropomorphic narration keeps granting him something like human reflection and choice. Essays that catch and explore this tension deserve top marks even if their conclusions remain open-ended.

Essays that treat anthropomorphism as a simple, uncomplicated storytelling device, without noticing this tension, are not wrong, but they are working at a shallower level of analysis that a well-calibrated rubric should reflect in the score.

Broader applications of this skill

Point of view and narrative distance are skills that transfer well beyond this single novel, and framing the assignment explicitly as practice with a transferable literary concept, rather than a novel-specific task, helps students see its relevance to future reading across the curriculum.

Teachers building a broader point of view unit can use this assignment as one data point among several texts, comparing how different authors handle narrative distance and what effects those choices produce for readers.