ATAVISMBy: Melanie D, Katie S, Sarah M,

Logan F, and Samiha A.

AFRO-AMERICAN FRAGMENTBY LANGSTON HUGES

So long,So far awayIs Africa.Not even memories aliveSave those that history book create,Save those that songsBeat back into blood--Beat out of blood with words sad-sungIn stranger un-Negro tongue--So long,So far awayIs Africa.

Subdued and time-lostAre the drums--and yetThrough some vast mist of raceThere comes this songI do not understand.This song of atavistic land,Of bitter yearnings lostWithout a place--So long,So far awayIs Africa’s Dark face.

THEME, MOOD, AND TONEAfro-American Fragment Jack London’s Literature

Theme: Lost, confused, Atavism (reflecting back on Africa)

Mood: Depressed, homesick, alone

Tone: Isolation from his culture

Theme: Lost in the world (the wild/Klondike), Atavism (instincts)

Mood: Homesick (Buck missing his home in California and White Fang missing the wild)

Tone: Ominous, isolation from his culture ( not used to the wild)

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEAfro-American Fragment Jack London’s Literature

Personification: “Africa’s dark face”, “not even memories alive”

Metaphors: “beat back into the blood”, “ beat out of blood with words sad-sung”

Metaphors: “Batard was a devil”

Personification: “Camp must be broken”

SOUND DEVICESAfro-American Fragment Jack London’s Literature

Alliteration: “Beat back into the blood”, “Sad-sung” , “those that”

Repetition: “So long, so far away is Africa” (repeated in the poem)

Alliteration: “One of the grooms ran to the rescue”, “Matt shrugged his shoulders”

Repetition: “a wall” (grey cub repeats this, referring to the “wall of bright light”)

IMAGERYAfro-American Fragment Jack London’s Literature

“Dark face” “So long, so far

away is Africa” “of bitter yearnings

lost without a space”

“The sharp nudge of his mother’s paw”

“Already the canoes were departing, and disappearing into the river”

“…and that his club-hand had been ripped wide open by White Fang’s teeth”

EXAMPLES OF ATAVISMAfro-American Fragment Jack London’s Literature

“Save those that history books create”

“So long, so far away, is Africa”

“This song of Atavistic land”

“Buck’s first day on the Dyea beach was a nightmare.”

“He was carnivorous animal. He came from a breed of meat-killers and meat-eaters.”