I have chosen to discuss the first essay question regarding the significance of the sea in Martin Eden. The sea is prevalent throughout the story of Martin Eden. The first time that he is in the Morse home he is enthralled with a painting of the sea. Throughout the book Martin compares himself and whatever he happens to be doing to that of the sea, and life at sea. “When he looked back now from his vantage-ground, the old world he had known, the world of land and sea and ships, of sailor-men and harpy-women, seemed a very small world; and yet it blended in with this new world and expanded. His mind made for unity, and he was surprised when at first he began to see points of contact between the two worlds.” (p. 103). I believe this is when he first felt that he could make a change from one ‘world’ to another and that he could be accepted into the ‘upper class’ if he applied himself.
Throughout the book he not only compared himself to the sea, but also had to use the sea for his own personal gain. His job on a “deep-water vessel”
for “eight months earned him enough money to stay on land for many weeks…and enabled him to do a great deal of studying and reading.” (p. 113). He also used his experiences at sea to foster his writing career. His first stories were about treasure hunting, whaling, pearl diving, and turtle catching, all adventures that he had experienced or heard about while working on various ships. He also wrote a series of poems entitled ‘Sea Lyrics’ that he felt were “the best work he had yet done.” Martin Eden experienced many exploits while at sea, one in particular was when he described the Leper Colony that he was stranded on to Ruth and she became jealous of the girl who helped Martin escape the colony. He also fantasized about returning to voyages and places that he had been. Even when he was achieving great fame and success he felt “the visions of Tahiti were coming to him more frequently.” (p. 415) He longed to return to the place where, I believe, he felt accepted. He realized near the end of the story that he was no longer truly acc
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