As Bobby completed reading the novel over the weekend, we today reviewed the final chapters, and in preparation for a vocabulary quiz tomorrow reviewed vocabulary words from the novel. We first discussed whether the book's ending was happy or sad. Buck has returned to his natural wild wolf-like state but has forfeited the comforts of civilization. Bobby discussed how the ending was both happy and sad given the violent death of Buck's beloved owner, John Thornton. I then elaborated on how, in the final chapter, Buck becomes a mythic figure or a legend. We read aloud those passages where the legend of Buck becomes part of the native mythology about a "Ghost Dog" that roams the wild. Bobby's homework answers aptly noted how before the death of John Thornton Buck is torn between two worlds ,Man and the Wild, We supplemented his notes to indicate that the death of John Thornton frees Buck from his tie to Mankind. I then defined "motif" and discussed how we will be studying Jack London's iconic short story"To Build a Fire " and tracing motifs that run through the novel and the short story. For homework study for the quiz and read the first 4 pages of the short story.