Imagery and Events in The Call of the Wild

Question 6 • *NBHS FL-1001070-M/J Language Arts 3 A

Which excerpt from The Call of the Wild best uses sensory details to show readers that the dogs are close to death?

Answer

And through it all Buck staggered along at the head of the team as in a nightmare. He pulled when he could; when he could no longer pull, he fell down and remained down till blows from whip or club drove him to his feet again.

All the stiffness and gloss had gone out of his beautiful furry coat. The hair hung down, limp and draggled, or matted with dried blood where Hal’s club had bruised him.

The pain of the beating was dull and distant, just as the things their eyes saw and their ears heard seemed dull and distant. . . . They were simply so many bags of bones in which sparks of life fluttered faintly.

But the team did not get up at the command. It had long since passed into the stage where blows were required to rouse it. The whip flashed out, here and there, on its merciless errands.

Explanation

Choice C uses sensory details about what the dogs feel, see, and hear: the beating feels “dull and distant,” and sights and sounds seem distant too. The image of “bags of bones” with life flickering faintly emphasizes how close to death they are. Choice B describes Buck’s damaged coat, but it does not convey the team’s near-death condition as strongly.

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