Perrault

Character Analysis

You might have a hard time keeping Perrault and François straight—after all, they're both mushers, both good outdoorsmen, and both have a couple of the Frenchiest names known to man. 

One way to remember is that Perrault is the Batman to François' Robin. Perrault leads the team, he knows more about dogs, and he’s Buck’s own personal cheerleader. In fact, Perrault acts a bit like Buck's mentor—he knows that Buck is hot stuff:

Perrault grinned. Considering that the price of dogs had been boomed skyward by the unwonted demand, it was not an unfair sum for so fine an animal. The Canadian Government would be no loser, nor would its dispatches travel the slower. Perrault knew dogs, and when he looked at Buck he knew that he was one in a thousand-- "One in ten t'ousand," he commented mentally. (1.45)

But knowing that a mentee has potential is only half the battle. A good mentor needs to teach...and Perrault steps up to the challenge of molding Buck into the best sled dog ever:

"T'ree vair' good dogs," François told Perrault. "Dat Buck, heem pool lak hell. I tich heem queek as anyt'ing." (2.6)

Even though Perrault (and François) exit the novel before long, he's still a driving force in Buck's life. And we mean that literally—he's definitely cracking the whip.