25 pages • 50 minutes read
Jack LondonA Piece of Steak
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1909A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Zoomorphism
Where personification means to ascribe human traits to nonhuman things, zoomorphism means to ascribe animal features to human things. The term is derived from the Greek words “zoon” and “morphe,” which mean “animal” and “form,” respectively.
In “A Piece of Steak,” London uses animalistic imagery to describe Tom and his struggles. Early in the story, the narrator calls Tom a “sheer animal” and describes him as possessing “sleepy, lion-like” eyes, like those “of a fighting animal” (1). Later, the story likens one of his punches on Sandel to “a sleepy-seeming lion suddenly thrusting out a lightning paw” (11). The narration even frames Tom’s journey to the Gayety as being akin to an animal’s: He is leaving “to get meat for his mate and cubs […] in the old, primitive, royal, animal way, by fighting for it” (4). The sport of boxing itself is quite brutal and conjures up images of two jungle animals fighting for supremacy. Indeed, the way the story unfolds—with a young challenger finally defeating an old “King”—recalls the popular conception of a young lion taking over a pride by challenging the older, current alpha male. Thus, zoomorphic terms structure the entire story.
The animal imagery helps convey one of the messages of the story: that the world is a struggle in which only the strong survive. This social Darwinist idea is one London employs in other writings, and it is common to the naturalist genre.
Dialect
A dialect is the language used by a distinct group of people from the same area, ethnicity, or class. In literature, dialect involves phonetic spelling that mimics the way the characters would sound if they were real. Thus, the use of dialect adds realism and authenticity to a story while also providing depth to a character, as it provides additional information about that character’s background.
“A Piece of Steak” uses dialect to convey the conversations Tom and his wife have and to indicate Tom’s personal thoughts. For example, when Tom’s wife explains why she could not get steak, the narration quotes them:
‘Not a ha'penny. Burke said—’ She faltered.
‘G'wan! Wot'd he say?’
‘As how 'e was thinkin' Sandel ud do ye to-night, an' as how yer score was comfortable big as it was’ (3).
This captures the way the conversation would sound in real life. It also indicates that Lizzie and Tom are of a working-class background. They do not use proper grammar or enunciation. This lends depth to their characterization, as it implies that their current poverty is not necessarily new to them (i.e. that they grew up and learned to speak in a working-class environment).
The text also frequently conveys Tom’s own thoughts in dialect. This separates the narrator’s voice from Tom’s thoughts. As an example, the narration includes the following two contrasting lines: “And, as any man knew, a hard two miles was not the best preliminary to a fight. He was an old un, and the world did not wag well with old uns” (5). The first sentence is clearly the narration, while the second is Tom’s thoughts. Dialect draws the reader closer to Tom as a character, making the third-person limited narration seem more authentic.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary device that compares two dissimilar things without the use of words such as “like” or “as.” A metaphor, unlike a simile, suggests that the things being compared are identical rather than just similar, as one can literally stand in for the other. The use of metaphor can illustrate abstract ideas through imagery.
In “A Piece of Steak,” London uses several metaphors. Most obvious is the way the narrative describes Sandel less as a person than as youth itself: The story states rather bluntly that “Sandel was Youth” (10). Tom sees Sandel this way almost immediately. From across the ring, he observes “Youth incarnate, deep-chested, heavy-thewed, with muscles that slipped and slid like live things under the white satin skin” (8). Given Tom’s belief that “Youth will be served” (14), the outcome of the fight between Tom and Sandel seems preordained.
The text uses other metaphors as well. For example, the ring serves metaphorically as a stand-in for the whole world. The ring is a place where anyone can do what is necessary to survive because the ring itself is a fight for survival, just as the world is. In the ring, Tom “struck to hurt, struck to maim, struck to destroy” (2). If, as the social Darwinists believed, the world is dog-eat-dog, then the ring embodies that world: It is a space where men go to get the tools to survive in “the old, primitive, royal, animal way, by fighting for it” (4).
Even the titular piece of steak is a metaphor. Its absence signifies Tom’s plight and his poverty. He could win the fight if he had steak, but he can only get steak by winning the fight. Such is, metaphorically, the cruelty of the world.
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By Jack London
