What Is Jack London Essay

868 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reflective critique about jack london

Jack London was a brilliant well-known author of fictional adventure, Darwinian determinism, socialism, and mysticism. He was an avid writer of novels but he did write a few short stories and journals. London was an American naturalist whose writings were influenced by his personal experiences and also by the teachings of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Born to Flora Wellman in 1876, Jack always had a way with words. “His writing career essentially began in 1893 when his mother signed him up for a writing contest in which he wrote about being almost killed by a typhoon. He won the contest, beating numerous college students from Berkeley and other schools” (bio.com). At the age of 19, he enrolled in high school and completed the course work in just one year. With the aquirance of his diploma, he then enrolled in the University of California where he finished off his learning career and also joined the socialist workers’ party. Three years later, he travels to the Klondike in the Yukon because of the gold rush that was currently taking place there. Up north, he had a lot of experiences and encounters with the wilderness and the outdoor life. “He then would return home and write a sum of over 50 books, some of which he would use his experiences he encountered in the Yukon as fuel for the writing of his most famous novels” (Kershaw: Cover)
Commentators and critics had a lot of things to say about London and his writings. Most of which were positive and few had bad things to say. “Many of London’s stories explorate the struggles between the conflicting calls of civilization and barbarity.”- (TCLC 15:253). The Call of the Wild is a classic of American literature and is labeled as London’s greatest achievement. The no...

... middle of paper ...

...al Darwinism and scientific racism but he still seemed not supportive of the fact that the “white man” would destroy the rich cultures he had encountered over the years.
Jack London was an American naturalist whose writings were influenced by his personal experiences and also by the teachings of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche. Throughout his life he took other titles other than ‘writer’. “He was also a sailor, adventurer, explorer, sociologist, and rancher” (Hudson: Cover). “Later in his life, his passion became agriculture in which he bought Beauty Ranch in California. Here he brought over terracing and fertilizing techniques from Asia to test on his crops, which he was very prosperous with.” (london.sonoma.edu) His innovation, simplicity, and adherence to the principle of realism and naturalism would soon lay groundwork for upcoming writers.

Show More
Related

  • Beast In The Jungle Narcissism Essay

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perkins, George B., and Barbara Perkins. "The Beast in the Jungle." The American Tradition in Literature (concise). 12th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 1148-1177. Print.

    Read More

  • Love Portrayal of Jack London

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mann, John S. "The Theme of the Double in The Call of the Wild." The Markham Review 8 (Fall 1978): 1-5. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Paula Kepos. Vol. 39. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Jack London Stories, The Red O

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jack London was one of America’s greatest authors. His works were of tales from the unexplored savage lands of the Klondike to the cannibal infested Philippine Island chain of the vast Pacific, and even the far reaches of space and time. Jack London himself was a pioneer of the unexplored savage frontier. London wrote about this unknown frontier with a cunning sense of adventure and enthrallment. “He keeps the reader on tenterenters books by withholding facts in a way that makes him participate in the action'; (Charles Child Walcutt 16). He taunts the reader with unfulfilled information that subliminally encourages the reader to continue reading their selection. “The tortuously baroque style, it’s telling often proves an annoyance';(Gorman Beauchamp 297-303). London’s writing attributes are so deep in description and narration, the reader sometimes perceives the story-taking place with them included in the action. His ability to exclude just the very miniscule amount of information transforms his books into a semi-formal mystery. Mr. London’s tales deal with nature, the men and women who either neglected the fact that they are mere mortals, or they humbled themselves as being only a solitary one being on the earth. His stories satisfied the civilized American readers yearn for knowledge of what awaited them over the horizon, with either promise of prosperity or demise with a manifestation of dismay.

    Read More

  • Jack London Essay

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fang the main character is a gray cub wolf. Wolves in this novels were used

    Read More

  • Thoreaus Elements of American Romanticism

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.

    Read More

  • Jack London

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    His mother had a bad habit of wasting money on get rich quick schemes. Because of this, even as a boy Jack was forced to do part time work to help support the family. He held a wide range of jobs. Some were simple and part time like being a newspaper delivery boy. After finishing grade school however, he went to work at a cannery. He worked up to "eighteen hours a day at ten cents an hour stuffing pickles into jars" (DOLB 78). That experience was traumatic and it drove him to hate physical labor. He turned that trauma into a story called "The Apostate" which is regarded as one of his most powerful.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway As A Young Journalist Essay

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up in a rich atmosphere of culture, religion, and the sciences, Ernest Hemingway was always surrounded by different perspectives and thoughts of the world around him. There was a restlessness in him that wanted to discover and explore new things. Beginning as early as high school, his inner-writer began to emerge and his stories were often read aloud to the class as examples of what the other students should strive for. These stories are rarely spoken of nowadays, but display his early talent. While the majority of people are mostly familiar with Hemingway’s well-known works in his later years, some of his earliest pieces that he contributed to the world are often forgotten. (Reef 53).

    Read More

  • Jack London’s Use of Repetition in “To Build a Fire”

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the March 1986 edition of the Journal of Modern Literature, Lee Clark Mitchell of Princeton University opens his article “‘Keeping His Head’: Repetition and Responsibility in London’s ‘To Build a Fire’” by critiquing naturalism’s style of storytelling. Mitchell claims naturalism as a slow, dull, and plain way of capturing an audience; and Jack London is the epitome of this description. Mitchell states, “[London’s] very methods of composition prompt a certain skepticism; the speed with which he wrote, his suspiciously childish plots…have all convinced readers to ignore the technical aspects of h...

    Read More

  • Naturalism in Jack London's To Build a Fire

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Jack London wrote "To Build a Fire" he embraced the idea of naturalism because it mirrored the events of daily life. Naturalism showed how humans had to be wary at every corner because at anytime death could be there, waiting for them to make a mistake and forfeit their lives. He used naturalism, the most realistic literary movement, to show how violent and uncaring nature really is and how no matter what you do nature will always be there. London also presented the basic idea of Darwinism and the survival of the fittest, basically if you are dumb you will die. Collectively, London used naturalism to show how in life, humans can depend on nothing but themselves to survive. "To Build a Fire" is a short story that embodies the idea of naturalism and how, if one is not careful, nature will gain the upper hand and they will perish.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jack Kerouac And The Beat Generation

    2104 Words  | 5 Pages

    Similar to the characters in his novels, Jack Kerouac lived a wild and unpredictable life filled with travelling, hitchhiking, drugs, alcohol, and rock n roll. He met new people every day, and discovered new things daily. He also attended countless numbers of parties with his fellow beatniks in attendance. Due to his bizarre and unusual behavior, literary critics and book publishing companies often despised Jack Kerouac and they dismissed his novels as being obscene and inappropriate for people to read (Jack Kerouac). However, his rejection by critics didn’t bother him very much. As long as he had his typewriter, some paper, and the American frontier, then Kerouac was a happy man. It can be argued that his travels are the reason why he suffered from such a severe drug and alco...

    Read More

  • The Importance of Setting in Jack London's To Build A Fire

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    The. Rpt. Jack London: Essays in Criticism. Ed. Ray Wilson.

    Read More

  • Comparing William Wordsworth's Composed Upon Westminster Bridge and William Blake's London

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    Blake, William. "London." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 729.

    Read More

  • Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    Life is a serious of events. Each person comes and goes from one activity to another, a run to the Starbucks on the corner for a morning brew or the boarding of the evening commute back home. In the genre of realism, these every-day monstrosities are explored. This concept, combined with the “scientific principles of objectivity and detachment” (Campbell), creates the style of naturalism in literature. Through his detailed usage of realism, the author Stephen Crane is often portrayed as one of the leading founders of naturalism in American literature. Having been raised in a religious family during the rise of Darwinist ideals, Crane uses the trends of the times and the world around him to create works that are celebrated by critics as some

    Read More

  • Naturalism and Realism

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the early 1840’s up to the early 1900’s American authors were either classified as realist or naturalists. Realism is a faithful representation of life that focuses on middle class people and their problems and a form of writing where god is absent. Naturalism is an exaggerated form of realism where nature is an independent force. Some of these authors like Kate Chopin, Jack London, and Ambrose Bierce are all naturalist because of their exaggeration of life and life events. Stephen Crane and Mark Twain both are realist authors because they write about middle class people that face day to day problems.

    Read More

  • The Voyage Of The Beagle Summary

    1901 Words  | 4 Pages

    A modern reader might be surprised to find that travel writings of the 18th century, books intended for the general public, featured specific scientific terms and precise descriptions of landmarks, species and resources. But how did it happen that “sentiment, imagination, and the graces have been banished” (Voltaire, Letter to Cideville) from 18th century literature? In her article “Science, planetary consciousness, interiors” author Mary Louise Pratt argues that the change in travel writing in the 18th century promoted a new type of planetary consciousness, thus triggering a shift in European colonial policies. In her subsequent article “Narrating the anti-conquest”, she argues that as travel writing evolved, so did colonial policies and she exemplifies the process by an examination of four travel writers of the era to show how travel writing changed. Pratt suggests that writing shifted from survival literature, focusing on coastal regions (an observing eye), through strictly descriptive accounts of interiors (a scrutinizing eye), to writing about the ways in which things could be improved (an improving eye). Forty years after Pratt’s last example of 18th century anti-conquest writing was published, Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle came out of press. The ethos displayed by Darwinian his journal, however, diverged from the anti-conquest ethos as modified by Pratt. Therefore, a close reading of Darwin, one of the most prominent 19th century authors of travel writing, could be used to suggest in what direction 18th century travel writing evolved.

    Read More

More about What Is Jack London Essay

Open Document