A Analysis Of Jack London Novels

A literary Analysis of Jack London three most recognized works, Sea Wolf; The
Call of the Wild; and White Fang. Jack London lived a full life, even though he
died at the young age of forty. In his life time he experienced many things, and I
believe that these experiences were the catalyst of his novels. Jack London was
an oyster pirate, a government patrolman in San Francisco Bay, a sailor and an
agrarian reformer, a seal hunter in the North Pacific and a gold prospector in the
frozen Klondike, a war correspondent and a prizefighting reporter, a socialist
soapbox orator who later became a lecturer at universities, a family man and
landowner, and of course a true American writer. A critic by the name of Alfred
Kazin once said "that the greatest story London ever wrote was the one he
lived."
London had a hard life as a child and as a young man, in spite of this London
grew to become one of Americas most popular and highly paid authors ever. He
was not a baby boomer. This was not just an American thing, London was
known around the world for his great adventure stories, that could be enjoyed by
all ages. Londons life was diversified and so were his writings. Today, London
is mostly known for his "dog stories", The Call of the Wild and White Fang. In
addition to those great works London wrote many other stories and novels, all of
which were published in the seventeen years that he wrote professionally.
Londons writings vary in quality as well as in subject, his from the cheapest and
worst kind of pieces to the beautiful works like The Call of the Wild and Sea
Wolf. In this literary analysis the focus will be on Londons more well known
and enjoyed works. Londons life defiantly coincides with his writing. Professor
Earle Labor attributes London's success as a writer to three different factors:
poverty- how London rose from the bottom all the way to the top, wanderlust-
the fact that he spent a good portion of his life on the road gave him ample
material to write about, and last but not least was, "the omnivorous appetite for
reading that gave him his philosophical substance and sense of artistic form."
London was a complex individual whose character was made up of apparent
contradictions. He was a declared socialist, but above all, a devout individualist.
He believed in the politics and economics of socialism and decried the iniquities
Of capitalism, but at the same time set out to succeed within that system. And he
did, earning more money than any other writer before him. He appeared to be a
well rounded man in all things, but he was plagued by ill health, and he
consistently hurt his physical state by exerting himself to the utmost. He helped
create a London myth by refraining from denying untrue stories of his
superhuman exploits, but yet he strongly believed in being honest to everyone.
He was a lover of humanity who wanted and fought for equality and justice for
all, at the same time stressed the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race. This
mixture in London prefigured the twentieth century with its dramatic
inconsistencies, its political and social revolutions, and its great upheavals in
world culture. For London broadcast his message of raw life with all its inherent
flaws, ecstasies, and miseries at a time when the world was still digesting
"Victorian pap", the sentimental stories of drawing room propriety that
demanded a rigorous screening of anything unseemly. Jack London cracked the
hypothetical bed of that literary world.
"The Call of the Wild and White Fang are two of London's best and most
popular works" says Paul Horowitz . In both of these stories he stressed the fact
that human and dog relationships. He probably started the common phrase
"mans best friend". The Call of the Wild met with instantaneous success upon its
publication and soon won for its author international fame. Today both works
are in constant demand throughout the world by people of all ages. London set
out to write a companion piece to an earlier story, Bitard. Bitard had represented
the personification of absolute evil in a dog and with the goal of redeeming the
species. This story wasn't complete so London began The Call of the Wild. He
later said that the writing it' got away from me ... before I could call a halt." In
the end, a masterpiece was created. The inspired quality of its language, which
reads like a in depth poem, and its pulsing drive give the work a such a great
twist.
On the surface, it is the adventure story of a dog, Buck, who is forcibly taken
from an easy life in sunny California to the frozen North. He is put to work
pulling sleds, Buck fights with self determination and finally " Buck took up the
duties of leadership"( p. 40). He over comes the lead dog named Spitz in order
to become the lead dog, but once Buck earns this position he leads a good sled
team that is not ready for the new owners. The new team is sold to some new
people who are not ready for the hardships of the Klondike, and they eventually
starve to death. All of the dogs on the team die, except for Buck. Buck was
rescued by a well known gold prospector by the name of John Thornton. Buck
falls in love with John and will not leave his side. The one time Buck hears "
The sounding of the call" (p. 63) and he leaves the camp of John Thornton to be
with the wolves. When Buck returns to camp he finds John Thornton dead
because of Indians. Eventually, he responds to a higher call and escapes to the
wild and leads the wolf pack. The story, though, has meaning on psychological
levels. Primarily, it is a metaphors about a human relating the journey of the
hero as he passes through the trials of initiation and the stages of transformation
into a higher nature, until finally there is greatness in both the dog as a whole
and in his creation.
Following the success of The Call of the Wild, London decided to write a
complementary work-the story of a dog taken out of the wild to become part of
civilization. Thus, White Fang was created. White Fang is about wolf who's
mother goes into a tribe of Indians because food is scarce. The cub ( White
Fang) is taken in by a tribe but at the same time rejected by his mother. This is
the first step in his hard upbringing. He is not friend to all of the other Indian
dogs and even the Indians. He leaves camp with his master. He is sold to a new
owner. This new owner is mean to the dog and does not let him live a desired
life. This new owner makes white fang a fighting dog. The wolf is the champ of
the region until he fights a small bull dog. "White Fang tore wildly around,
trying to shake off the bulldog's body" (p. 167)He almost dies but the fight is
broken up and white fang is rescued by a good man by the name of Weedon
Scott. White Fang loves his new master and this is the first time he has
experienced love for anything. Scott eventually has to go home to California and
is about to leave White Fang. "White Fang was howling as dogs howl when their
masters lie dead" (p. 186) White Fang did not want this to happen so he ran as
fast as possible to the ferry and just made it. Scott goes back to California and
White Fang lives there happily ever after. White Fang, however, lacked the
depth of the former book, and, though well written and a wonderful novel in
itself, was unable to have more than one level to its subject. It remains more a
fable built upon ideas rather than an overwhelming vision of life as a whole.
White Fang, representing the tried-and-true dog who was rescued by the love of
civilized man, serves better as the complement or opposite to Bitard, the
abysmal brute and outcast of civilization.
A major theme in both The Call of the Wild and White Fang- that appears
throughout the author's writings is that of wild, essential natures pitted against
civilization or cultivation. It is through this struggle that some find strengths
they had not realized they possessed, others fall to forces greater than they; still
others are unable to face the struggle at all. Buck, in The Call of the Wild,
responds to his essential nature calling to him through all the acquired layers of
civilized habit. For Buck, hesitation of crossing the thin line between the two
sides is unnecessary because he turns away from civilization and determines to
live in his primordial beast state. White Fang, on the other hand, is required to
learn the habits of a civilized life, which means giving up his primordial nature
to the laws of civilization. London faced this struggle himself in everything he
did: "Life is strife, and I am prepared for that strife. If I had not been an animal
with a logical nature, I would have stagnated or perished by the wayside."
Probably the most well known body of London's work is his saga of the
Klondike: of the white men who were there before the gold rush, of the
chechaquos (the tenderfeet) who arrived at the time of the gold rush, and of the
native Indian tribes who had been there since time immemorial and who would
remain there long after the white men. They are the stories that brought attention
to Jack London throughout the entire world. London spent less than a year in the
North; in fact, he spent no more than two seasons in the specific region known
as the Klondike. However, he has written, "It was in the Klondike I found
myself. There nobody talks. Everybody thinks. You get your true perspective. I
got mine." Many of these tales he heard from the old-timers who would open up
to him in the bars at Dawson and other cities. The tales have their origins in fact,
about facts that were already exaggerated by those North landers who were
known for "their inability to tell the precise truth," but the finished product was
always uniquely London.
While others have written tales of that area, no one but Jack London has written
of it with such force and eloquence. If there is one element that London
mastered best here, it is the sense of atmosphere. A vivid picture is presented of
the North land, of the "white silence" where "all movement ceases, the sky
clears, the heavens are as brass; the slightest whisper seems sacrilege, and man
becomes timid, affrighted at the sound of his own voice." But not only that,
London conjures up the sense of a brooding that envelopes the character, plot,
and setting. One doesn't just read it; one breathes it, feels. it-lives it! Many
consider The Sea-Wolf to be among the best sea stories ever written, for it is a
moving and epic tale, much of which is London at his best. Not only did it
achieve great literary success, but it also was effectively realized in several
cinematic versions. The story ranks in the great tradition of one of London's
literary influences, Herman Melville. Drawing upon his experiences seal hunting
in the North Pacific, he created a story with a lot of realism. He put himself and
his contradictory nature into the two opposing characters, Wolf Larsen, the
ruthless and rugged individualist, the superman, and Humphrey van Weyden,
the highly cultivated and virtuous gentleman. It is in the slash of these two
forces that London gives vent to his innermost struggles: idealism versus
materialism, conscience versus instinct. The novel's drama proceeds to a
resolution of this elemental conflict through van Weyden's struggle
to( fulfillment and mastery of life's forces and Larsen's ultimate deterioration.
Ironically, the majority of the critics and the public misunderstood the work,
thinking it a glorification of the superhuman and individualism, and London
later wrote, ". . . I attacked Nietzsche and his super-man idea ... no one
discovered that it was an attack upon the super-man philosophy. " Although
London failed in reaching his purpose of striking gold in the Klondike during
the gold rush of 1897-98, he certainly did strike a vein that not only enriched
him during his lifetime but continues to enrich the world today. In the twentieth
century, London's writings have had fluctuating fortunes: in the years following
London's death in 1916, his popularity diminished some what, though his titles
continued to sell. However, by 1936, London was dismissed critically and
academically. One critic stated that "it is almost certain that his vogue is
passing." Finally, beginning in the 1960's, there was a new reassessment and
revival of London's works, as several studies, biographies, and reprints of many
of his stories were published. It is true that London's writings have many
shortcomings, and the weaknesses are not hidden. Some of his characters seem
one-dimensional, especially the women; many of the men seem unbelievably
heroic. His image of love and sex was romantic and sentimental. A master of the
episode--the basis for his short stories-London could rarely integrate his longer
works successfully. He felt that a higher purpose of his writing was as a vehicle
for the expression of his political and social ideas; yet, in most cases, where the
message predominated over the art, it tended to spoil the effect of his literary
work. Incredible as it may seem, London felt that he lacked imagination, and
one of his major fears was that he would run out of ideas. He found his plots and
ideas by reading newspapers, by talking to people who related incidents in their
lives, and by modifying plots taken from the huge storehouse of books he had
read. Later in life, he actually bought story ideas from a fellow socialist, Sinclair
Lewis, then a young reporter fresh out of college. London even managed to
"borrow" from his greatest literary influence, Rudyard Kipling. Early in his
career, London admitted: "There is no end of Kipling in my work, I have even
quoted him. I would never possibly have written anywhere near the way I did
had Kipling never been." He was even called the "Kipling of the North," but
London outdid his master by the sheer mythic power and vision of his tales. And
the works of London endure, some having become popular classics. His literary
accomplishments outshine his faults and the criticisms leveled at his work. As
the eminent London scholar Professor Labor states: ". . . even his worst work is
readable. If he is sometimes clumsy, he is seldom dull. He is capable of
moments of lyric intensity. He possesses, moreover, an exceptional feeling for
iron. " Above everything else, London captured a universal force in his writing-a
sense of life's ultimate mystery- which holds the reader spellbound. Because
these stories are reprinted from many different sources-some from the
anthologies compiled by London, there are inconsistencies and occasional
archaisms in spelling, terminology, and punctuation. Ironically, London wished
to be remembered for his works of philosophical, sociological, and political
importance, which he considered superior to his works of literary merit or "for
children". This opinion was shared by a few early critics, one of whom went so
far as to say that London would "take his place in the encyclopedias as a
philosopher and a propagandist rather than as a literary artist." Yet it has been
his literary achievements that have exerted influence, largely unacknowledged,
on the generations of writers who succeeded him. This influence can be seen in
the works of Robert Service, Ring Lardner, Hemingway, Steinbeek, Kerouac,
and Mailer. Today, Jack London is celebrated for his great contribution to
literature, and rightly so. It is believed that London was the best American writer
on his given topic (the struggle through life). London had a charm that brought
the reader to enjoy the region of focus. He intertwined the story of the uncharted
Klondike with the story of life and how he lived it. Weather through the story of
a dog or a man London knew what life was all about even though he lived a
relatively short life. One of his great theories was "Eat or be Eaten", or "Do or
Die." London also believed in the statement from Darwin called survival of the
fittest as is seen in Sea Wolf.
I will leave you with this thought from the master Jack London himself, "It is so
much easier to live placidly and complacently. Of course, to live placidly and
complacently is to not live at all . . ."
Bibliography
1. London, Jack: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and other stories. edited by
Andrew Sinclair, New York N.Y. : Penguin Books, 1981
2. London, Jack: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Sea Wolf, and forty short
stories. edited by Paul J. Horowitz, New York N.Y.: Portland House, 1998
3. Stone, Irving: Sailor on horseback, Gardencity, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977 4.
Walker, Dale: Jack London and Conan Doyle: a literary kinship, Bloomingdale
In.: Gaslight Publications, 1989