London writes, in chapter three, that, "But Buck possessed a quality that made for greatness--imagination" (London 50). Discuss the power of imagination and how it makes Buck great. Think also of how imagination can make humans great.
Imagination is that thing we are encouraged to have throughout childhood, but then it becomes that thing that can get us into trouble as we get older and start going to school. We become suddenly encouraged not to follow the beat of our own drummer, rather we are persuaded to follow others and conform. In those rare instances when we are placed in stressful situations though, our imagination can come in and save the day. In a sense, I think that is part of what London is referring to when he writes, "But Buck possessed a quality that made for greatness--imagination" (50).
We hear inspirational stories of businessmen who really made it big because they possessed the imaginative capacity to think outside of the box. Part of thinking outside of the box and being imaginative is also being brave enough to take a risk. Possibly, having a strong sense of imagination allows us to be braver--we can imagine the outcome and we are not as afraid of it because we are imaginative enough to look past it and begin to understand that which we don't fully understand (if that makes any sense).
However, I wonder to if imagination can actually lead to downfall. Imagine, if you will, Buck fighting Spitz, and using his imagination to think of all the terrible outcomes that could come from this fight. Would he have the courage still to keep fighting? Would he have even started fighting?
Looking back to that scene in The Call of the Wild, we learn that Buck fights both by instinct as well as by imagination. I wonder if that instinct part is what gives him the courage to enter this fight. The pure instinct allows Buck to block out all the imagination and be able to focus just on those ideas that will allow him to succeed, and thus achieve his greatness.
3 comments:
Buck uses his imagination to come up with a plan to take out Spitz. People use imagination quite often. We use it without knowing sometimes. When you look at Columbia College, the whole school is rn off of imagination. Everyone is an artist in a way. We all use this tool to come up with new designs, drawings, etc. I'm almost certai that Lynn used her imagination when she gave us this assignment. Like one of the students said, imagination is basically whats keeping us alive. We function normally with it. I would have to say that without it, we would all be dumb slugs struggling to survive.
imaginations are really important to a persons personality. it gives you character because everybody's unique and so different. if you could name two people with the same imagination that world be amazing. imagination makes buck great because he uses his imagination to his advantage and he's not afraid to do so. thats what he had in common with humans because humans are not afraid to use their imagination. that is why humans are the dominant species.
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