London's language is straightforward and easy to
understand. Despite its dispassionate tone the story is not deprived
of expressive means and stylistic devices.
In order to present the character, to describe the setting, to
reveal the main idea the author of the analyzed story resorts to the following
devices:
Lexical means:
The story is rich in similes. They contribute to the
description of the setting and of the character’s actions and states: Once, coming around a bend, he shied
abruptly, like a startled horse.
The
blood was alive, like the dog, and like the dog it wanted to hide away and
cover itself up from the fearful cold.
The thick German socks were like sheaths
of iron half-way to the knees; and the mocassin strings were like rods of steel
all twisted and knotted as by some conflagration. If
he fell down it would shatter itself, like glass, into brittle fragments. It grew like an avalanche, and it
descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted
out! It was like taking an anaesthetic. Simile is also used to convey the character’s thoughts:
His
idea of it [death]
was that he had been making a fool of himself, running around like a chicken
with its head cut off – such
was
the simile that occurred to him.
Metaphor is used
to emphasize the importance and necessity of the sun in the Arctic: It
had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must
pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the sky- line
and dip immediately from view.
Oxymoron: the only caresses [the dog] had ever
received were the caresses of the whiplash and of harsh and menacing throat
sounds that threatened the whiplash. The dog obeys the man not only because he
provides fire and food, and with the help of oxymoron we are reminded that
there is no love at all in the dog's obedience to the man, only violence and
self-interest.
Personification adds to the vividness of the description
and makes it dramatic. For instance, the numbness laid hold
of the exposed fingers;
he noted
the numbness creeping into the exposed fingers. The blood of his body recoiled
before it [the cold].
The
blood was alive, like the dog, and like the dog it wanted to hide away and
cover itself up from the fearful cold. There was the fire, snapping and crackling and
promising life with every dancing flame. Sometimes it [the thought] pushed itself forward
and demanded to be heard.
It [frost] was creeping into his
body from all sides. We can
assume that personification is also used to describe northern lights – a
wonderful natural phenomenon: the stars that leaped and danced
and shone brightly in the cold sky.
Epithets can be found throughout the entire story.
They are used to characterize the things and events precisely. For example, an
intangible pall over the face of things, gentle undulations, a
sharp, explosive crackle,
a
generous slice of fried bacon,
amber beard, a vague but menacing
apprehension,
the
mysterious prompting,
a
roaring fire,
helpless
hands, fearful cold, tremendous
cold,
treacherous
tree, sharp
wolf-ears,
its
wolf-brush of a tail.
Syntactical
means:
Climax or
gradation is employed to create emotional and logical influence upon the readers,
to make them understand the seriousness of the situation the character is in. “But
all this – the mysterious, far-reaching hairline
trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness
and weirdness of it all – made
no
impression on the man.”
“In
reality, it was not merely colder than fifty below zero; it was colder than
sixty below, than seventy below.”
“Several
times he stumbled, and finally he tottered, crumpled up, and fell.”
Repetition attracts
the readers’ attention to the fact that is the most important. “Day
had broken cold and grey, exceedingly cold and grey…” “This man did not know cold.
Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real
cold, of cold one hundred and seven degrees below freezing-point.”
Inversion is
used to make the narration emotional, fresh and to underline the things that
are significant. “And
again, in the air, before it could fall to the snow, the spittle crackled”. “All this the man knew.” “Lifeless they were”. “And all the time, in his
consciousness, was the knowledge that each instant his feet were freezing”. “A certain fear of death, dull and
oppressive, came to him”.
Polysyndeton
makes the text more rhythmical and
contributes to the vivid description of the setting. “This dark hair-line was
the trail--the main trail--that led south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot
Pass, Dyea, and salt water; and that led north seventy miles to Dawson, and
still on to the north a thousand miles to Nulato, and finally to St. Michael on
Bering Sea, a thousand miles and half a thousand more”.