Examples Of Diction In The Call Of The Wild

In the story The Call Of The Wild By Jack London, Buck, a dog from the South Santa Clara Valley who lives an easy trouble free life, is captured and sold off into the Alaskan Gold Rush Force as a sled dog. He passes through the hands of many owners, some of which he loves and some of which he hates, but they always pass out of his life good or bad. At the end of the story his favorite new owner John Thornton is killed by Indians along with Buck’s companions Skeet and Nig. This causes Buck to become more indigenous and eventually leave all his domestic traces behind. This novel contains an abundance of diction to help set the tone and mood. Diction helps develop a vengeful tone after a rival dog Spitz kills Curly, one of Buck’s teammates, when it says “Spitz ran out his tongue and laughed again, and from that moment Buck hated him with bitter and deathless hatred.”(London, 9). This diction helps convey the author's tone through Buck, helps develop Buck as a character, and Spitz as a rival. Also it foreshadows Buck’s revenge later on when he kills Spitz. Diction also helps develop a stubborn and triumphant tone after Buck kills Spitz when it says “But Buck was in open revolt. He wanted, not to escape a clubbing, but to have the leadership. It was his right. He had earned it, and would not be content with
Death, as a cessation of movement, as a passing out and away of the lives of the living, he knew, and he knew John Thornton was dead. It left a great void in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a void which ached and ached, and which food could not fill.”(London, 60). This diction conveys such a sorrowful tone and mood. The author truly feels hurt by the death of John Thornton which is channeled through Buck. The reader also feels sad at the death of John Thornton and shares the author's