The Call of the Wild The Call of the Wild discussion


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What lessons can be learned from Jack London's writing style in this book?

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message 1: by Ava (new)

Ava Many young readers, like students in my school, love this book, but Jack London's Call of the Wild contains a beautifully written story about Buck, a dog who wanders from his luxurious home in California and is taken north towards Alaska.
London's writing style, such as expressing accents with apostrophes and different forms of words, seems to take readers to the north to experience Buck's journey themselves.
This book inspires readers to write vividly, giving animals more emotion than you can imagine.
A lesson which we can infer from this book and the author's wording is that life changes. Life changed for Buck when he was passed from owner to owner, dog team to dog team, master to master, but in the end, his life changes the most when something dear to him is lost.


message 2: by Ryan (new) - added it

Ryan Gladney Hi Ava,
These are some very thoughtful insights into London's writing style. I just reread Call of the Wild for the first time in over a decade, and was struck by how London is able to convey so much vividness and emotion into his prose, which is fairly short and to-the-point. It reminded me of the advice Robert Olen Butler gives in his book on writing, "From Where You Dream." Butler talks a lot about eliminating the writer's tendency to analyze, interpret, and summarize her characters' feelings and experiences, and instead focus almost exclusively on the details of the visceral, physical experience a character is having at that moment. I think that's why Buck's journey is so potent: we feel every moment along with him.


Matthew Duncan This is one of the first novels that I read when I was a freshman in high school. Up until then I assumed that books that were considered "Great" used big words and 19th century, one English language. Jack London used everyday language and simple ideas that I, as a young man, could understand and enjoy. Later when I decided I wanted to be a writer, I would thing back to the books I loved and why I loved them. Call Of The Wild is one that truly influence my style. I do tend to use a larger vocabulary than Mr. London, but his work reminds me that it's okay to not be overly wordy, so long as I'm true to the story and the characters.


Karen Ryan wrote: "Hi Ava,
These are some very thoughtful insights into London's writing style. I just reread Call of the Wild for the first time in over a decade, and was struck by how London is able to convey so mu..."


Well said- I love Jack London's writing, Call Of The Wild is a beautifully written book- no over use of "big words" necessary.


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