Call of the Wild Essay: Imagery

More of this type of imagery can be found on page 77, when Buck saved John Thornton from the rapids. Examples of the sense of sight are when it says, “a ledge of barely submerged rocks jutted out into the river,” and “flying down-stream in a current as swift as a mill-race.” This section mostly contains sound imagery, like when saying, “The suck of the water as it took the beginning of the last steep pitch was frightful,” and “From below came the fatal roaring where the wild current went wilder.” This section also contains a lot of the sense of touch, as it describes, “sprayed by the rocks which thrust through like the teeth of an enormous comb,” and “scraped furiously over a rock, bruised across a second, and struck a third with crushing force.” There didn’t seem to be any imagery dealing with taste or smell. The sense of sound was important in this section because it was needed to describe the rapid waters, and the sense of touch was needed because it gave the reader a better idea of what the dogs and people went through.  

A final place in the book, though not the last, where there is much imagery is on page 84, when Buck pulled the 1,000 pounds of flour on a sled. This contained mostly the senses of sound and touch; because of the cracking of the snow with the movements of the sled, and the great efforts made by Buck to pull the sled. The type of imagery dealing with sound is mentioned when it says, “sharp in the tense silence,” “The load quivered, and from under the runners arose a crisp crackling,” and “A cheer began to grow and grow, which burst into a roar.” Examples of sight are when it says, “swung to the right,” “a plunge that took up the slack and with a sudden jerk,” and, “the sled pivoting and the runners slipping and grating several inches to the side.” The sense of touch is described as well, when it says, “tightening the traces with a jarring lunge,” and, “muscles writhing and knotting like live things under the silky fur.” Again, there was no apparent place where taste or smell was described.

In this story, there were many places where imagery was described. These are only a few of the numerous examples that can be found. The imagery helped because it gave the reader a perfect idea of what was going on, and it is next to the best way of actually being there. Similes and metaphors were used to help with describing the surroundings. What also seemed to help was that London wrote it with a sense of time as well. The tensest spots of each description seemed to have slight pauses in them, to relate to what it would really be like. This occurred when telling how buck pulled the sled inch by inch in the last example mentioned. The excellent imagery in this story has helped to make it a great book that everyone has enjoyed over the years.