The Social Convention Of Death In Literature

Our environment dictates how we live our lives and how we handle situations. Our environment also dictates how the people around us handle our death. Death is one important social convention of a society depicted in The Call of the Wild, Garden Party, the Great Gatsby, Bone, and Dulce Et Decorum Est. Death and the handling of death is a social convention portraying values and ways of living in two main ways: “respect” of the body and acceptable manners to die such as through violence, illness, caring, etc.

In the Call of the Wild, by Jack London, death is a game where survival is a tactic, kill or be killed (manner of death) and the body is a trophy (“respect” for the body). For example, “He [Buck] was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood.” (London 49). This game Buck played with the other dogs was a challenge of who will catch the snowshoe rabbit. It shows a twisted regard for life. Buck wanted to wash his nose in the rabbit’s blood to smell the kill. In this game, the only respect for life is the trophy that the body will make in death. Another example of the game is “From then on, night and day, Buck never left his prey, never gave it a moment’s rest, never permitted it to browse the leaves of trees… Nor did he give the wounded bull opportunity to slake his burning thirst in the slender trickling stream they crossed.” (London 95). Buck played with the bull’s fear and he showed no mercy. He showed no respect, he gave the bull no honor and the bull finally died of exhaustion, falling over, only to become Buck’s prize that also fed him. “For a day and a night he remained by the kill [moose], eating and sleeping, turn and turn about. Then rested, refreshed and strong,” (London 96). Buck nourished himself off the bull and became stronger and more resilient. To eat Buck must hunt his food in the uncaring wild, it was his only choice for survival. The game that Buck played with life did not always give respect to the dying, though this seemed necessary to his survival, giving the deaths more acceptability as a source to nourish the winner of the game.