How Does Jack London Use Metaphors In The Call Of The Wild
The World: As London Sees It The world as a conscious being stupefies some, as it is an awesome thought that many people ponder. The thought of the universe as a thing that picks and chooses who lives and dies terrifies some, while some welcome the idea and coexist with it. Jack London, the author of such books as The Call of the Wild, and The Sea Wolf, is one such man who lives with the idea. London views the world as a Darwinist, or with the theory of natural selection. He sees the world with a sense of cold reality, where the strongest must fight and thrive to keep a place in the world. Jack London uses simile and metaphor to describe the cold reality that the world is a harsh place to live in. London conveys how he feels about
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the world by connecting to people through the use of his literature, in The Sea Wolf London says, “Life is a piggish existence”(81). London uses pigs as a metaphor for life because life is dirty, and in some instances must eradicated in order for one organism to progress its own existence. These pigs also connect with the sluggishness that life carries with it. Life transforms beings into what they need to be to survive, otherwise they cannot progress existence out of stagnancy. London allies this situation in The Call of the Wild when Francois says, “ Dat Buck he’m fight lak the devil”(19). Buck fights the way he needs to fight, and he fights a product of nature. The universe transforms buck into what he became. This simile shows that London feels that organisms are born of nature, not nurture. London uses different literary tools other than simile and metaphor, like syntax symbols and, to show life as cold and selective. Though London uses the devices in his own way, because he is “A writer untouched by bookishness”(Edward W. Pritcher). London not only uses a wide selection of words, but also arranges them in syntactic perfection. London says, “The world is run by the law of club and fang.”(14). The way London puts this natural law of the world reverberates through the soul and shows how good a writer he is as well as the natural order of the world. This law is in one simple phrase, sums up how London feels the world is run. This law revels the true psychology of a genius. This law is the meaning of evolution. The club beats the fang so the fang must not try to overcome, until the fang can become strong enough to do so, but fate does not care if the club beats the fang, or vise versa. Either way fate continues unimpeded. In The Sea Wolf, Humphrey Van Weydon feels some of this neglect when he reminisces on his knee injury, “ I had injured my knee and yet the I gained no sympathy from the hunters.” (57). The hunters in the text symbolize the cold uncaring world that people inhabit, because hey live their own lives and go the way they need to go. The hunters live with out many of the modern conveniences of the day, symbolizing the simplicity of life and the absolute basic needs: food and sleep. The hunters live their lives separate of all things, the other crewmembers as well as each other. Even though life lives independently of all other things it still manages to inadvertently throw things at people to interrupt life. When that happens though one must fight to bring life back to equilibrium. Humphrey, of The Sea Wolf laments about the one thing that truly challenges his life, “For the first time in my life I truly wanted to kill a man”(123). Thomas Mugridge is the only thing that defies Van Weydon’s right to live. London uses the cook, Thomas Mugridge to show what one must do when an outside force tries to impede one’s progression of them self. Survival must be the ultimate concern of some thing, because that is the only thing that an organism has in the world its own existence. One must be able to do things to ensure its survival, which includes interpreting the natural laws of the Earth in a special ways. Buck from Call of The Wild has to break these rules in order to maintain his own dominance in his world, “ Buck flew into a rage slashing at the necks of the Indians.”(90). Buck sees that the Indians conquer the life of his one true love John Thornton, and they look to conquer his own life. Buck cannot let any other person or thing do that so he must do his own to interpretation that law of club and fang, London’s description of the world. Buck kills the ultimate form of life: man, in order to preserve himself. These literary devices that London utilizes are all apart of the overall image of the world that he describes. To London there exist some exceptions to the rules established by nature. Women, to London, exemplify that not every organism has to be the strongest or most fit to compete or survive. Women prove that one can live symbiotically off another, as London feels that they cannot live without the help and assurance of men. Women in his work often show some form of inferior life form that need to live dependently I order to survive. By doing this, London perpetuates all the stereotypes about women in that hold true in his era. One of these stereotypes that he describes is that all women are dependant on men. When Humphrey and Maud get stuck on Endeavor Island Maud says to Humphrey, “Oh Humphrey how will we ever get off this island.”(212). Maud is completely lost and totally dependant on her man, and it does not matter that it is Humphrey she calls on, were it any man on the island she would have asked the same question with a different name. Women are not strong individuals, and they need to be constantly protected, from London’s view. Maud symbolizes all women, as she is the picture perfect woman, delicate, beautiful, and graceful. Maud and all other women are the sole exception to the law of club and fang. Theses women come off as stubborn individuals who thrive because men thrive. The perfect description comes from The Call of the Wild when Hal and Charles try to throw the unnecessary things that Mercedes packed on the voyage, “She sat down in the snow and would not move until the men came back for her.” (68). Mercedes is London’s depiction of the childish behavior that helps to characterize women, in a generalization. She acts as a child acts and lives the way a child lives, by surviving off of another life form greater than her. Another stereotype that London continues is that women, in some instances like a child, are ignorant of the context of a situation. In call of the wild John Thornton warns Mercedes by saying, “You won’t be able to cross the lake this time of year”(77). John Thornton tries to warn the women, and her actions cause the deaths of her and her dogs. She does not head the words of John Thornton, an obviously superior human being and it results in her death as well as the deaths of her dogs. Women, in London’s mind, always need to be saved because of their delicacy, and grace. When Humphrey first finds Maud out at sea his duty is to take her down to an extra room. In the room Humphrey talks of her as though in awe of the girl, “She lay there unconscious and delicate”(143). Maud is dependent on men the whole way through the text and her situation now is no different than that of the island. This shows that all the problems of women in this ear are the same, a lack of male support. When they have this lack of men either the gap is filled and they survive or the whole remains empty and the problem deepens to the point of downfall. The heroines of London’s work always need to be rescued in some way showing the frailty of their lives, when Maud is first discovered the men say, “we found her lying in the water in a makeshift raft”(139). Maud’s situation is totally dependant on the men that surround her, with out these men she never would have made it to a ship and found refuge. Without men her situation is a dead body on a raft, and another dead women at sea. The fate of men is to be the grand protector of the women, to be the hero to the damsel in distress. Ultimately women act as dead weight to men another thing to distract them from their own quest to survive. For example the extra things that Mercedes brought with her and packed on the dogs, “she packed all the things she would not use but still need”(67). She acts as a figurative weight as well as a literal weight on the group of dogs. This symbolizes the impact that women have on the men of the era. Women to London are nothing more than dead weight that progress the human race. They are a necessity, but a costly one at that. Sometimes man needs an external force to get them to go on their own way, because even London acknowledges that one can not survive completely on their own.
Man must maintain independence and control of his own life, yet he can get help if it means survival. In The Sea Wolf, London uses Wolf Larsen in describing the push that push that a man can need, “some seeds fall into the soil and some seeds fall into the soil and sprout, while some seeds fall into the rocks and become nothing”(100). The captain opens up his heart to Humphrey, and explains that his life became nothing because he never has a driving force to propel him down the road of success. Theses seeds symbolize the captain’s unlived life and the soil represents the environment where a mind can grow and become something great. Whereas the rocks are the place where dreams die and the world turns someone into a mere commoner peasant. Wolf Larsen is one such example of human waste, because through his vast knowledge and potential he never becomes what he needs to become to be whole. To London the forces to push a man come from anywhere, including the human heart. Buck finds his true life’s fulfillment when he discovers the love that is his master John Thornton and Buck knows this is love because, “ Buck would do anything for John Thornton”(71). This love that buck has for John Thornton is a deeper emotion that he can understand, and this shows that London does not just see the world as a cold empty place where the strongest organism lives for tomorrow, but that there exists a more ethereal substance in the world that causes people to do things and drive them toward tomorrow. Buck’s soul insists on having this love because he discovers his share of turmoil on his epic journey to the north. One such instance was on the train ride up to the border when, “Buck’s throat was sore from dehydration…and the men would kick him” these tragedies that the men of the train ride throw at him show Buck only the side of
life that is empty cruel while still there is love at his disposal waiting for him. The dehydration, the sore throat, and the constant harassment are examples of the world throwing those accidental obstacles at someone, and they must be overcome. In some instances the driving force is totally a physical thing, like a man or a crew. Humphrey’s own personal devil coalesces as the cook Thomas Mugridge. Things come to a climax between them and the crew does not believe Humphrey strong enough to overcome the cook by himself. The crew took it upon themselves to drive Humphrey to point where he would be able to defend himself well,” Even the mild mannered helms man was giving me advice on how to defend myself.”(134). Theses men do not think that Humphrey can win in any sort of fight, so they do the best job possible to ensure that Humphrey is the victor. The crew takes the form of the impetus that wills Humphrey to the best possible chance to survival. Often times the thing that makes one survive is the urge to do so in their own primordial mind. London equates this with the most basic of basic organisms, “yeast must continue to crawl and to survive”(114). This picture that London paints so well of yeast overcomes another is a perfect way to describe all living things survival. The yeast has no one but itself and its own need to be the best and the strongest. This will power comes from only the yeast as lives a life of solitude, because yeast is not a sentient being one can look at it as the most basic of basic organisms and the actions taken by the yeast are the most basic of all animal actions it exists as the sole example of true existence. The only thing that the yeast needs to drive it to tomorrow is the natural actions it takes. The law of club and fang is the only thing that drives the yeast, the most basic of the natural laws, “The world is run by the law of club and fang. “(18). This natural law is the driving force behind all of which is done, in London’s eyes. Whenever a man loses anything it is because he cannot compete so he must hone his craft and become stronger, by any means necessary. Life, in all forms needs to be pushed to be able to thrive towards the next challenge. The source of the push does not matter because it can come from anywhere, as long as the job is done, and the challenge is completed.
Life rolls on regardless of circumstance or esthetic purity. London’s view of society centers on the idea that the weak die off when they cannot stand up to the challenges that life inadvertently throws at someone. This world promotes growth as a means to drive someone to be strong. The world ultimately does not care whether one is strong or not because no one remembers the legacy of ordinary men not even the almighty himself. What does matter in this circumstance is that the world is happening now and one must live for that now and seize every opportunity one has because the world rolls over any man who waits too long. This is not even a malicious act this is the accident that slip out of the wake that the world creates as it goes in orbit. The world selects and chooses who goes on to live a better life tomorrow and winners are created as well as losers.. The losers are only those, who are not good enough to move to the next stage. These people must work to attain the status of winner because the world follows winners and the world respects the best.
Knight, Micheal . "Jack London." (2006): 59-56.
Keepos, Paula. "Review of The Call of the Wild." The Atlantic Monthly (1991): 65-66.
London , Jack . The Call of the Wild. San Fransisco : Random House Publishing Group, 1903.
London , Jack . The Sea Wolf. New York: Tom Dohery Associates Publishing, 1907
Pritcher, Edward. "The Sea Wolf: Jack Londo's Swinish Title." p42. (2003)
the world by connecting to people through the use of his literature, in The Sea Wolf London says, “Life is a piggish existence”(81). London uses pigs as a metaphor for life because life is dirty, and in some instances must eradicated in order for one organism to progress its own existence. These pigs also connect with the sluggishness that life carries with it. Life transforms beings into what they need to be to survive, otherwise they cannot progress existence out of stagnancy. London allies this situation in The Call of the Wild when Francois says, “ Dat Buck he’m fight lak the devil”(19). Buck fights the way he needs to fight, and he fights a product of nature. The universe transforms buck into what he became. This simile shows that London feels that organisms are born of nature, not nurture. London uses different literary tools other than simile and metaphor, like syntax symbols and, to show life as cold and selective. Though London uses the devices in his own way, because he is “A writer untouched by bookishness”(Edward W. Pritcher). London not only uses a wide selection of words, but also arranges them in syntactic perfection. London says, “The world is run by the law of club and fang.”(14). The way London puts this natural law of the world reverberates through the soul and shows how good a writer he is as well as the natural order of the world. This law is in one simple phrase, sums up how London feels the world is run. This law revels the true psychology of a genius. This law is the meaning of evolution. The club beats the fang so the fang must not try to overcome, until the fang can become strong enough to do so, but fate does not care if the club beats the fang, or vise versa. Either way fate continues unimpeded. In The Sea Wolf, Humphrey Van Weydon feels some of this neglect when he reminisces on his knee injury, “ I had injured my knee and yet the I gained no sympathy from the hunters.” (57). The hunters in the text symbolize the cold uncaring world that people inhabit, because hey live their own lives and go the way they need to go. The hunters live with out many of the modern conveniences of the day, symbolizing the simplicity of life and the absolute basic needs: food and sleep. The hunters live their lives separate of all things, the other crewmembers as well as each other. Even though life lives independently of all other things it still manages to inadvertently throw things at people to interrupt life. When that happens though one must fight to bring life back to equilibrium. Humphrey, of The Sea Wolf laments about the one thing that truly challenges his life, “For the first time in my life I truly wanted to kill a man”(123). Thomas Mugridge is the only thing that defies Van Weydon’s right to live. London uses the cook, Thomas Mugridge to show what one must do when an outside force tries to impede one’s progression of them self. Survival must be the ultimate concern of some thing, because that is the only thing that an organism has in the world its own existence. One must be able to do things to ensure its survival, which includes interpreting the natural laws of the Earth in a special ways. Buck from Call of The Wild has to break these rules in order to maintain his own dominance in his world, “ Buck flew into a rage slashing at the necks of the Indians.”(90). Buck sees that the Indians conquer the life of his one true love John Thornton, and they look to conquer his own life. Buck cannot let any other person or thing do that so he must do his own to interpretation that law of club and fang, London’s description of the world. Buck kills the ultimate form of life: man, in order to preserve himself. These literary devices that London utilizes are all apart of the overall image of the world that he describes. To London there exist some exceptions to the rules established by nature. Women, to London, exemplify that not every organism has to be the strongest or most fit to compete or survive. Women prove that one can live symbiotically off another, as London feels that they cannot live without the help and assurance of men. Women in his work often show some form of inferior life form that need to live dependently I order to survive. By doing this, London perpetuates all the stereotypes about women in that hold true in his era. One of these stereotypes that he describes is that all women are dependant on men. When Humphrey and Maud get stuck on Endeavor Island Maud says to Humphrey, “Oh Humphrey how will we ever get off this island.”(212). Maud is completely lost and totally dependant on her man, and it does not matter that it is Humphrey she calls on, were it any man on the island she would have asked the same question with a different name. Women are not strong individuals, and they need to be constantly protected, from London’s view. Maud symbolizes all women, as she is the picture perfect woman, delicate, beautiful, and graceful. Maud and all other women are the sole exception to the law of club and fang. Theses women come off as stubborn individuals who thrive because men thrive. The perfect description comes from The Call of the Wild when Hal and Charles try to throw the unnecessary things that Mercedes packed on the voyage, “She sat down in the snow and would not move until the men came back for her.” (68). Mercedes is London’s depiction of the childish behavior that helps to characterize women, in a generalization. She acts as a child acts and lives the way a child lives, by surviving off of another life form greater than her. Another stereotype that London continues is that women, in some instances like a child, are ignorant of the context of a situation. In call of the wild John Thornton warns Mercedes by saying, “You won’t be able to cross the lake this time of year”(77). John Thornton tries to warn the women, and her actions cause the deaths of her and her dogs. She does not head the words of John Thornton, an obviously superior human being and it results in her death as well as the deaths of her dogs. Women, in London’s mind, always need to be saved because of their delicacy, and grace. When Humphrey first finds Maud out at sea his duty is to take her down to an extra room. In the room Humphrey talks of her as though in awe of the girl, “She lay there unconscious and delicate”(143). Maud is dependent on men the whole way through the text and her situation now is no different than that of the island. This shows that all the problems of women in this ear are the same, a lack of male support. When they have this lack of men either the gap is filled and they survive or the whole remains empty and the problem deepens to the point of downfall. The heroines of London’s work always need to be rescued in some way showing the frailty of their lives, when Maud is first discovered the men say, “we found her lying in the water in a makeshift raft”(139). Maud’s situation is totally dependant on the men that surround her, with out these men she never would have made it to a ship and found refuge. Without men her situation is a dead body on a raft, and another dead women at sea. The fate of men is to be the grand protector of the women, to be the hero to the damsel in distress. Ultimately women act as dead weight to men another thing to distract them from their own quest to survive. For example the extra things that Mercedes brought with her and packed on the dogs, “she packed all the things she would not use but still need”(67). She acts as a figurative weight as well as a literal weight on the group of dogs. This symbolizes the impact that women have on the men of the era. Women to London are nothing more than dead weight that progress the human race. They are a necessity, but a costly one at that. Sometimes man needs an external force to get them to go on their own way, because even London acknowledges that one can not survive completely on their own.
Man must maintain independence and control of his own life, yet he can get help if it means survival. In The Sea Wolf, London uses Wolf Larsen in describing the push that push that a man can need, “some seeds fall into the soil and some seeds fall into the soil and sprout, while some seeds fall into the rocks and become nothing”(100). The captain opens up his heart to Humphrey, and explains that his life became nothing because he never has a driving force to propel him down the road of success. Theses seeds symbolize the captain’s unlived life and the soil represents the environment where a mind can grow and become something great. Whereas the rocks are the place where dreams die and the world turns someone into a mere commoner peasant. Wolf Larsen is one such example of human waste, because through his vast knowledge and potential he never becomes what he needs to become to be whole. To London the forces to push a man come from anywhere, including the human heart. Buck finds his true life’s fulfillment when he discovers the love that is his master John Thornton and Buck knows this is love because, “ Buck would do anything for John Thornton”(71). This love that buck has for John Thornton is a deeper emotion that he can understand, and this shows that London does not just see the world as a cold empty place where the strongest organism lives for tomorrow, but that there exists a more ethereal substance in the world that causes people to do things and drive them toward tomorrow. Buck’s soul insists on having this love because he discovers his share of turmoil on his epic journey to the north. One such instance was on the train ride up to the border when, “Buck’s throat was sore from dehydration…and the men would kick him” these tragedies that the men of the train ride throw at him show Buck only the side of
life that is empty cruel while still there is love at his disposal waiting for him. The dehydration, the sore throat, and the constant harassment are examples of the world throwing those accidental obstacles at someone, and they must be overcome. In some instances the driving force is totally a physical thing, like a man or a crew. Humphrey’s own personal devil coalesces as the cook Thomas Mugridge. Things come to a climax between them and the crew does not believe Humphrey strong enough to overcome the cook by himself. The crew took it upon themselves to drive Humphrey to point where he would be able to defend himself well,” Even the mild mannered helms man was giving me advice on how to defend myself.”(134). Theses men do not think that Humphrey can win in any sort of fight, so they do the best job possible to ensure that Humphrey is the victor. The crew takes the form of the impetus that wills Humphrey to the best possible chance to survival. Often times the thing that makes one survive is the urge to do so in their own primordial mind. London equates this with the most basic of basic organisms, “yeast must continue to crawl and to survive”(114). This picture that London paints so well of yeast overcomes another is a perfect way to describe all living things survival. The yeast has no one but itself and its own need to be the best and the strongest. This will power comes from only the yeast as lives a life of solitude, because yeast is not a sentient being one can look at it as the most basic of basic organisms and the actions taken by the yeast are the most basic of all animal actions it exists as the sole example of true existence. The only thing that the yeast needs to drive it to tomorrow is the natural actions it takes. The law of club and fang is the only thing that drives the yeast, the most basic of the natural laws, “The world is run by the law of club and fang. “(18). This natural law is the driving force behind all of which is done, in London’s eyes. Whenever a man loses anything it is because he cannot compete so he must hone his craft and become stronger, by any means necessary. Life, in all forms needs to be pushed to be able to thrive towards the next challenge. The source of the push does not matter because it can come from anywhere, as long as the job is done, and the challenge is completed.
Life rolls on regardless of circumstance or esthetic purity. London’s view of society centers on the idea that the weak die off when they cannot stand up to the challenges that life inadvertently throws at someone. This world promotes growth as a means to drive someone to be strong. The world ultimately does not care whether one is strong or not because no one remembers the legacy of ordinary men not even the almighty himself. What does matter in this circumstance is that the world is happening now and one must live for that now and seize every opportunity one has because the world rolls over any man who waits too long. This is not even a malicious act this is the accident that slip out of the wake that the world creates as it goes in orbit. The world selects and chooses who goes on to live a better life tomorrow and winners are created as well as losers.. The losers are only those, who are not good enough to move to the next stage. These people must work to attain the status of winner because the world follows winners and the world respects the best.
Knight, Micheal . "Jack London." (2006): 59-56.
Keepos, Paula. "Review of The Call of the Wild." The Atlantic Monthly (1991): 65-66.
London , Jack . The Call of the Wild. San Fransisco : Random House Publishing Group, 1903.
London , Jack . The Sea Wolf. New York: Tom Dohery Associates Publishing, 1907
Pritcher, Edward. "The Sea Wolf: Jack Londo's Swinish Title." p42. (2003)