Comparsion of Jack Londons The Call of the Wild and John...

This is the four line epigraph present on the first page of The Call of the Wild by Jack London. Before you try to find how this section of â€Å"Atavism† by John Myers O’Hara, relates to the theme of The Call of the Wild, you must understand the words used. â€Å"Nomadic† means moving around and not staying in one place. O’Hara uses these words in a weird order, because it seems like it should say that your nomadic longings are leaping. The first line of this epigraph says that if you stay in one place for a long time, your instincts (old longings from ancestors) to move from place to place (to be nomadic) are going to flare up. â€Å"Chafing† means to cause annoyance. By using the phrase â€Å"Chafing at custom’s chain† O’Hara means that you are being annoyed by traditional ways. â€Å"Custom’s chain† refers to these traditional ways. Therefore the feelings to want to become nomadic are clashing with the fe elings of following tradition’s ways. â€Å"Brumal† means wintry. O’Hara is using this as a metaphor with the direct meaning being waking up from winter hibernation, but the deeper meaning is the realization or awakening of the need to break away from traditional ways. â€Å"Ferine† means wild and â€Å"strain† in this case means type. When O’Hara uses ferine as an adjective to describe strain, he is referring to the wild side we each have due to our natural instincts. All in all â€Å"Old longings nomadic leap, Chafing at custom’s chain; Again from its brumal sleep wakens the ferine strain,† means we are