Read this excerpt from part 2 of The Call of the Wild.
[The huskies] had crept in while Buck and Spitz were fighting, and when the two men sprang among them with stout clubs they showed their teeth and fought back. They were crazed by the smell of the food. Perrault found one with head buried in the grub-box. His club landed heavily on the gaunt ribs, and the grub-box was capsized on the ground. On the instant a score of the famished brutes were scrambling for the bread and bacon. The clubs fell upon them unheeded. They yelped and howled under the rain of blows, but struggled none the less madly till the last crumb had been devoured.
Which theme do the ideas in this excerpt support?
Good leaders are always strong and intelligent.
The natural world is a thing of beauty and wonder.
Humans become no different than beasts in the wild.
The need to survive is stronger than any punishment.
The theme that the ideas in this excerpt support is: The need to survive is stronger than any punishment.
The theme that the ideas in this excerpt support is: Humans become no different than beasts in the wild. The description of the huskies in the excerpt shows how, in their desperate hunger, they behave like wild animals, fighting for food and disregarding the punishment being inflicted on them. This suggests that in extreme circumstances, human beings can also revert to animalistic behavior.
To determine the theme supported by the ideas in this excerpt, we need to analyze the text. In this passage, we see a depiction of the huskies' behavior as they become desperate for food. Despite the two men trying to assert control with clubs, the hunger-driven huskies fight back, ignoring the blows and continuing to scramble for the food until it is all gone. This emphasizes the theme that the need to survive is stronger than any punishment.
To arrive at the answer, we first need to eliminate options based on the information provided. The theme of "Good leaders are always strong and intelligent" does not directly relate to the behavior of the huskies. The theme of "The natural world is a thing of beauty and wonder" is not supported because the passage focuses on the actions of the animals rather than the beauty or wonder of the natural world. Finally, while the theme of "Humans become no different than beasts in the wild" is somewhat related to the behavior of the huskies, it is not the central idea presented in this excerpt.
Therefore, the theme supported by the ideas in this excerpt is "The need to survive is stronger than any punishment."