# Manuel — The Call of the Wild

*Manuel in The Call of the Wild by Jack London — spoiler-safe, known to Ch.1.*

> Manuel is a gardener's helper on Judge Miller's California estate in The Call of the Wild whose gambling debts drive him to steal Buck and sell him into the northbound dog trade.

## About

Manuel is one of the gardener's helpers on Judge Miller's estate in the Santa Clara Valley, where Buck lives at the opening of The Call of the Wild by Jack London. His wages do not stretch to cover the needs of his wife and children, and he is given to gambling, with a weakness for playing Chinese lottery on a system.

Pressed for money, Manuel leads Buck off through the orchard one night and, at a small flag station, hands him over to a stranger in exchange for cash. It is this quiet act of treachery that pulls Buck out of his comfortable Southland life and sets the events of the book in motion.

## Quick facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Manuel |
| Book | The Call of the Wild |
| Author | Jack London |
| Role | Minor character |
| Salience | 14 |
| First seen | Ch.1 |
| Known connections | 1 so far |
| Spoiler ceiling | known to Ch.1 |

## Connections

- [Buck](https://litgraph.io/books/the-call-of-the-wild/characters/buck) — co present at

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**Source:** [LitGraph](https://litgraph.io/books/the-call-of-the-wild/characters/manuel)

Canonical URL: https://litgraph.io/books/the-call-of-the-wild/characters/manuel
Book: [The Call of the Wild](https://litgraph.io/books/the-call-of-the-wild)
All characters: https://litgraph.io/books/the-call-of-the-wild/characters

All content is spoiler-safe and bounded to the public reading position. The prose is public domain; the spoiler-aware graph is LitGraph's.