Zonca 1

Glen Zonca
Mr. Salow
English 11
16 November 2015

The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild written by Jack London is broken up into average sized chapters.
The beginning of this book starts out with a poem. Old longings, nomadic leap, Chafing at
customs chain; Again from its brumal sleep Wakens the ferine strain.
Jack London writes The Call of the Wild with very much imagery. Buck, the main
character that is a dog, is affiliated with a lot of violence throughout the book. An example in this
book that shows imagery with Bucks violence is, In quick rage he sprang at the man, who met
him halfway, grappled him close by the throat, and with a deft twist threw him over on his back.
Then the rope tightened mercilessly, while Buck struggled in a fury, his tongue lolling out of his
mouth and his great chest panting futilely. Writing with such an image-based structure like this
enhances the reader's capability of understanding how each scene in the book is occurring. This
is important because this book is about a dog, and writing a book about a dog without providing
detailed imagery would be very difficult to understand.
The Call of The WIld is written in present tense. This is told through the narration of a
dog named Buck. An example of this is, Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have
known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide- water dog...Because
men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal. This is an effective way to tell

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this story because dogs in fact can not talk in our language, and to be able to understand what is
happening in this book the dogs voice has to be narrated.
Jack London rarely uses dialogue in The Call of the Wild. Dialogue is rarely used
because The Call of the Wild is a book about a dog, and dogs do not speak our language.
Although dialogue is not vastly used, it is often used when human characters talk to each other in
this book. An example of this is, The bottoms likely to drop out at any moment. Only fools,
with the blind luck of fools, could have made it. I tell you straight, I wouldn't risk my carcass on
that ice for all the gold in Alaska. This affects the book by understanding what the humans are
talking about. Jack Londons word choice is appropriately challenging for me because it can vary
from dull to serious. It always keeps me interested in how he will write every sentence. I am not
into a lot of serious writing, but I love Jack Londons style because his seriousness sounds poetic.