London A Critical Analysis
Jack London was admired by many and thought only to live his life to the fullest, by whatever means necessary. He was born in San Francisco, in 1876. He was deserted by his father, "Professor" William Henry Chaney, an itinerant astrologer, and raised in Oakland by his mother Flora Wellman, a music teacher and spiritualist. London's stepfather John London, whose surname he took, was a failed storekeeper. As a boy poverty struck the London family. At the age of ten he constantly read, and borrowed books from the Oakland Public Library. Jack left school at the age of 14 and began work as a seaman, rode in freight trains, and adopted socialistic views. In 1894 he was arrested in Niagara Falls and jailed for vagrancy. These years made him determined to raise himself out of poverty but they also gave later material for such works as The Sea-Wolf (1904), which was partly based on his horrific experiences as a sailor in the Pacific Ocean. The Road (1907), a collection of short stories, inspired later writers like John Steinbeck and Jack Kerouac. London had required himself to write a thousand words a day, and he did not give up even during his travels and drinking periods. London's first novel, The Son of The Wolf, appeared in 1900. In
London was one of the first writers to write about realism and heroic conflict. Most of his books are based on events that happened to him. The main novels, the ones he is most known for, are the ones that came at a hard time or under pressure. He put much of him self in all of his books, " I had read, all the wisdom I had gathered, went glimmering …with strength and desire to out swine the swine"(Barltrop 45). This seems to allow him to put more feeling into his books, combined with his knowledge of different topics makes for a great novel. Jack has a major novel for almost every major event in his life that ties in with other ideas like: Darwinism, Nietzsche’s “superman”, socialism, and racism. Many of London’s own experiences went into his work as shown from Martin Eden, There are many examples of socialism and racism in London’s books. Many of his early critics did not emphasize the socialism or the racism. The concepts are in the novels but only after looking for them. The socialism is became one of his ideas based on his readings on David Starr Jordan, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin, and is supported with London‘s statement “The community branded me a "red shirt" because I stood for municipal ownership...And far be it from me to deny that socialism is a menace” (Kershaw 233). The socialism in the novel are influenced on the idea that most of the people of that time believed in socialism and London was one of those people. White Fang is a good book based on socialism and travels through the Klondike, which lead the story to include the struggle for life in the harsh environment and have to kill other “inferior” animals to survive. Raci
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Approximate Word count = 1134
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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