This can be seen as a foreshadowing of Buck's relationship with John Thornton, who he ends up saving multiple times. Despite this, the details about Buck's relationship with Judge Miller are never truly revealed. Though the relationship, which lasts for four years before the events of the novel unfold, seems picture perfect, it is never revealed how influential the relationship with Miller is on Buck's eventual return to the wild. However, the reader gets an idea of how loyal Buck is when he is given love and treated with respect. .
Buck's abduction and care under the man in the red sweater is anything but care. Buck's entrapment in the cage and the torment from his captors gave Buck his first experience of pain. This itself is his first exposure to the call of the wild and will affect his relationship with John. In a sense, this first encounter can be seen as the first stepping stone to Buck's eventual return to the wild. The abuse Buck endured was so severe that he experienced a sickness that he was not accustomed to: "When he flung himself against the bars, quivering and frothing, they laughed at him and taunted him. They growled and barked like detestable dogs, mewed, and flapped their arms and crowed. It was all very silly, he knew; but therefore the more outrage to his dignity, and his anger waxed and waxed. He did not mind the hunger so much, but the lack of water caused him severe suffering and fanned his wrath to fever-pitch. For that matter, high-strung and finely sensitive, the ill treatment had flung him into a fever, which was fed by the inflammation of his parched and swollen throat and tongue." (London, 4).
The abuse from the abductors was just the beginning and from the man in the sweater Buck learned how blessed he was to have a caring owner in Judge Miller. The abuse from the man in the sweater only strengthened Buck and his instinct to go back to the wild as he was beaten, but not broken (London, 6).
