Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

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”.