The Lost Eden
The story of Martin Eden is a dark but interesting one, written by Jack London, an author from early 20th Century California. Martin’s life is difficult, as he decides to defy society and join the upper class, ultimately alienating his own class while realizing the superficiality of the upper class. Through this journey, Martin embodies and evolves through three main personas, mind sets, or personalities. In the beginning, “Martin’s feeling of social inadequacy developed”(Sinclair 145), as he is a man seeking approval of society, trying to become a successful writer and win the love of an upper class woman, Ruth Morse. Then he turns into a man bent against society, or perhaps merely in great disproval, for his futile efforts to become a writer are thwarted and laughed at by everyone, from the editors of the magazines to his beloved Ruth and her family. Once Martin does become famous and rich, “his success snowballs, he is lionized by society” (Labor 118), but Martin “wishes he had never opened the books” (Lundquist 149). Through all of these struggles, Martin truly embodies none other than the author, Jack London, as the entire novel is something of an autobiography. London is “confronting himself in Martin” (Bader 150), although it is very true that Martin Eden is “a novel rather than straight autobiography”, “deliberately introspective” (Lundquist 150).
Martin Eden is first a man who wishes to assimilate with high society, the upper class, as he believes that the upper class possesses an infinite amount of beauty and knowledge. Martin’s first true glimpses of the upper class come when he is invited to the Morse home, after saving Arthur Morse from a “gang of waterfront thugs” (Labor 117). This is ironic because M...
... middle of paper ...
...n. 1909. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1984. Print.
Lundquist, James. Jack London: Adventures, Ideas, and Fiction. New York, New York: The Ungar Publishing Company, 1987. Print.
Magill, Frank N. “Jack London.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press, Inc., 1983. 1691-1699. Print.
- - -. “Jack London.” Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Vol. 5. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1981. 1809-1813. Print.
New American Bible. New York: Catholic Book Publishing, Co., 1991. Print.
O’Conner, Richard. Jack London: A Biography. N.p.: Little, Brown, and Company, 1964. Print.
Sinclair, Andrew. Jack: A Biography of Jack London. New York, NY: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1977. Print.
Verde, Tom. “London, Jack.” Twentieth-Century Writers 1900–1950, American Profiles. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1993. American History Online. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
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...
Abrams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York; W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Heller, Joseph. The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Twentieth-Century American Literature Vol. 3. New York. Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
*Abrams, M.H., ed., et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. Vol.I. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.
“Lee, Harper 1926-.” Concise Major 21 Century Writers. Ed. Tracey L. Matthews. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 2136-2140. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Heller, Joseph. The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Twentieth-Century American Literature Vol. 3. New York. Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Jack London is the name you can hear everywhere, his writing appealed to millions of people all around the world. London was an American novelist and short-story writer, who wrote passionately about questions of life and death, surviving. The writer had a lot of adventures, experienced the life at sea, or in Alaska, or in the fields and factories of California, all of these influenced his writing style. Jack London descended from the family of his mother Flora and astrologer and journalist William Chaney. The writer has got his education by himself and with help of a librarian Ina Coolbrith - he has a passion to read books at public libraries. Later in life, Jack finally graduated from high school in Oakland. Jack London's work carrier was so variable, he has been a laborer, factory worker, and oyster pirate on the San Francisco Bay, member of the California Fish Patrol, sailor, railroad hob, and gold prospector. Yes, gold prospecting was the big part of his life, when the young writer with his brother-in-law sailed to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he would set his first successful stories. Jack London was a hard-worker, he tried never miss his early morning 1,000-word writing stint, what helped him to write over fifty books between 1900 and 1916. In addition to it, he corresponded with his readers, and made huge researches for improving his writing style, what is, obviously, genius. The consequences of such a hard work became the fact that Jack London had become the best selling, highest paid and most popular American author of his time. Many authors and social advocates have been inspired by Jack London’s heartfelt prose, and readers travel and experience so much through his books.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Jack London is among the many prolific writers from the United States of America who possess great artistic works ranging from great time novels ,short stories to plays just but to mention a few. He is fondly remembered for his great novel, ‘Martin Eden’ published in 1909. In the novel he tries to express the challenges faced by young writers who try to exploit their talent and passion in an area where little opportunities present themselves. This novel has stood the test of time with its relevance evident to date. It is a favorite to many young upcoming writers thus the main aim for writing this paper is to focus on the autobiography of Jack London as ‘Martin Eden’.
Longman. The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. B. Damrosch, D. (ed.). NY, LA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 2000.