Living a life doomed to death

Why did you choose this particular book?

I choose this book for the name of author, Jack London. The first time I heard of his name is in a brief comment of a song, I have forgot the content but the colors of black and red, the words of Jack London and suicide. I was initially curious to him but did not want to know more about him.

 I don’t know why, but maybe I do. I am too curious to easily get the bottom of truth. That must be a kind of fear, or excitation. Now it come the chance, the chance to step to him, Jack London.

Title

Abstract：

This is a book-report based on The Sea Wolf（Jack London). The report analyzes the main characters of novel to show the personal viewpoint of meaning of life.

The book portrays the image of a superman in Nietzsche---Wolf Larson and treats him as a magnifying glass to speak out a world view accumulated by numberless realities. The novel through the eyes of Humphrey Van Weydent to read this struggling powerful soul and get everyone into a thinking of how we live a life that is doomed to death.

Key word:

（Wolf Larson, Van Weyden, live, meaning, speak out）

Title

1. Brief Introduction of Jack London

Jack London (born Jan.12, 1876, died Nov.22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. He is best remembered as the author of White Fang and Call of the Wild, set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf.

London was a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics such as his dystopian novel, The Iron Heel and his non-fiction exposé, The People of the Abyss.

2. Plot

Humphrey van Weyden, a famous intellectual in New York, suffering from a shipwreck, and eventually being picked up by Wolf Larsen. Larsen was the captain of a seal-hunting schooner, the Ghost, described by Van Weyden as an individualist, hedonist, and materialist.

Larsen did not believe in the immortality of the soul, he found no meaning in his life save for survival and pleasure and had come to despise all human life and deny its value.  dora games Being interested in intellectual disputes with Van Weyden, Larsen somewhat took care of the 'Hump', while forcing him to become a cabin boy, do menial work.

During Hump generally infiltrated to the daily life of sailorman, the Ghost picked up a female poet named Maud Brewster. Miss Brewster and Van Weyden had known each other before. Both Wolf Larsen and Hump immediately felt attraction to her, and Hump took her as his first true love. He tried his best to protect her from the crew, the horrors of the sea, and Wolf Larsen.

As this happened, Wolf Larsen met his brother Death Larsen. Wolf kidnapped several of Death's crew and forced them into servitude to fill his own rank. During one of Wolf Larsen's intense headaches, Hump stolen a boat and fled with Brewster.

The two eventually landed on an uninhabited island, they named it Endeavour Island. At the same time, Death Larsen had tracked his brother, bribed his crew, destroyed his sails, and set Larsen adrift at sea. By chance he also landed on Endeavour Island. At this time,Juegos Dora he was almost ill to die. Step by step, he lost his usage of arm, leg, and voice. Brewster and Van Weyden chose to take care for him. Despite this kindness, he continues his resistance, setting fire to the above bunk's mattress.

Van Weyden finishes repairing the Ghost, and he and Miss Brewster set sail. During a violent storm, Wolf Larsen passes away. They give Larsen a burial at sea, an act mirroring an incident van Weyden witnessed when he was first rescued. The story ends with them being rescued by an American revenue cutter.

3. Character Analysis                                                                           

The Sea Wolf is a person, His name is Wolf Larson. The fiction is about marine adventure and without doubt the author had done well in portraying the detail. But the shining point is his brilliant protagonist. Beyond all doubt, Jack London had portrayed his characters in a bright tone Jogos Dora. I could easily differentiate the images of all the characters and sort them out to different groups. But at the same time I noticed that they had the common part with each other; they were independent, but the process of development was interlaced; for this they could not be totally self-existent.

1. Wolf Larson

Wolf Larson, the captain of The Ghost, who had a perfectly strong body and brain, was a kind of superman. If the history gave the opportunity to such a man, with the power to rise to any height and unprocessed of conscience or moral instinct, he would stand at the top place, definitely.

But the fact was the opportunity had never come. He was only an obscure master of a seal-hunting schooner. The people around him could not understand him; everyone seemed busy at making a living and never had the interest to philosophize the life; but he did, he opened up the books and spoke to the mind of authors. All kinds of books—navigation, history, literature, biology, even the mathematics, he read them, thought and anatomized, no one had guided him and he had never followed step of anyone or believed in anything, he just picked up the useful information to strengthen his mind, through the interesting information to observe life.

If Larsen just had the perfectly strong body, and the position of captain could totally satisfy him, and he must live a happier life. But he doubted of this world and held the limitless ambition, he opened the book, widen his horizon, touched the reality, struggle with the fate, the act of God. It was impossible to wriggle him free, but he never yielded an inch. He was anguished and walking with the infinite loneliness. He had realized the root of suffering, he had the all power and potential but he born on the wrong side of the tracks, and the external conditions would never change for him and there was no opportunity waiting for him, and the worst of all, he know everything clearly.

During the long solitude, he searched for the meaning of life. He liked to read people around and sized them up. He took them as the samples, and through their manners of speeches and behaviors he tried to figure out the shapes of their souls. He was used to thinking much and talking little, the greater part was due to his totally different outlook. He thought life was a mess, and he used the word “yeast” to describe life, a kind of enzyme that had to keep moving. He said that no one could jump out of the circle, maybe chose to give up moving, give up living was a good way, but the question was, people wanted to live and move. He felt he was the fool of fate but he had to get everything continue. He abhorred the word “have to”. He was so powerful but ever very powerless.

When he met Hump, he had finally got the chance to come to a pause in the endless thinking. They talked about the literature and the philosophy of life and each time it went on as a debate. His thought was clear and he could always express what he thought quite well, just like he had debated with himself too many times. He was waiting enough long for a person to talk with.

He took his stand as a materialist; his viewpoints were unvarnished and persuasive; all kinds of flukes and illusions would submerged by the fact he had held in hand. He was always the winner of debating: his tone was firm; his eyes were sparkling: and his mind was bleak. Maybe what he was looking forward to is getting an opponent to defeat him completely, because he lacked enough power to defeat himself. But in the other hand, he would try his best to fight with the opponent. But the tragedy was that he was too powerful.

Larsen was born to be free, as a minion of God, but it seemed that God had forgotten such a thing; he was fettered from beginning to end. He liked to show people the destruction of valuable things because he could knew clearly about human nature and did not believe the notion of ideal, the so-called truth, virtue and beauty, all of bright things. The only thing he could see was the law of the jungle. This was an evil among all things that were done under the sun; the thing itself just was a tragedy; only death could save, but once died neither had they any more a portion for ever in anything that was done under the sun. His soul was struggling and suffering. He murdered Leach and Johnson not all for their betrayal, there may be another reason that tested the strength of their soul---as the low-down yeast like them, whether they could hold something worth hanging on, which belonged to heart and shamed to speak out. He wanted to know.

"I sometimes catch myself wishing that I, too, were blind to the facts of life and only knew its fancies and illusions? …my reason tells me, wrong and most wrong, that to dream and live illusions give greater delight…I often doubt the worthwhile ness of reason…Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate…It's from my brain I envy you, take notice, and not from my heart. My reason dictates it. The envy is an intellectual product. I am like a sober man looking upon drunken men, and, greatly weary, wishing too, were drunk…Too late. "

The sea is so wide that too easy to make people lost in despair.

 

2. Humphrey Van Weydent

Van Weyden was a free-lancer of some note. His life was uneventful and comfortable: overshadowed by family, no need to worry about other things beside his own field. But he met the shipwreck as the turn of the wheel. He fell into another world; the world belonged to an opposite class; the world he never paid attention to or pretended to ignore. But now he had to survive among them. The situation was totally hard: his was hurt but no one cared about it; he had to work as a servant and no one gave him a hand; he was trampled by the villain he despised and the others just laughed and laughed. There was no law or moral code to lean upon, so he had to depend on oneself. He gave the role candy-boy, completely, picked all of so-called self-respect, self-pride, hided his timidity, made himself seem as strong as possible.

His life was a flying kite. It had been connived to fly so high that only a light wind could made it lose control, moreover the threat of scissors held in enemy’s hand. It’s the time to wind the line and hold it in the hand. That is the true safety.

He had numerous times debated for the meaning of life with Larsen. He always felt that there must be some wrong somewhere but just could not find the evidence. He found he was even unable to retort any word of Larsen. He was overwhelmed by Larsen’s power, talent and mind. The primitive admiration was attended with the primitive fear, all along.

“He had opened up for me the world of the real, of which I had known practically nothing and from which I had always shrunk. I had learned to look more closely at life as it was lived, to recognize that there were such things as facts in the world, to emerge from the realm of mind and idea and to place certain values on the concrete and objective phases of existence.”

He gradually adapted to the new environment, and became more and more brave. He conquered Mugridge, tried to protect Leach and Johnson, saved his volition from Larsen’s materialism of desperation. He completed his personality and his soul little by little. Then he was caught in the moment meeting his love. Something he had treaded as a word in the poem and now came true. He got his courage from his goddess to make a change.

They left the ghost and started a new adventure at Endeavour Island. At this time he was proved to act on his responsibility as a mature man, because suffering had made him. Life was checking the achievement of this unusual experience. They had done a good job at Endeavour Island and everything seemed go well till they met ill Larsen. Without doubt, it was with mixed feelings for Van Weyden to face Larsen in this situation. He was gloating, nervous, frightened, sympathetic, even disappointed, too many feelings mixed to one emotion that nobody could distinguish, a emotion that puzzling and irritating. He tried to calm himself down and acted as the thing went on, until the death of Larsen, until the coming of dawn.

At the turning of fate, Hump was back to Van Weyden, not that candy-boy, but a bran-new Van Weyden. Goodbye, all of you.

4. Comment:

The Sea Wolf, without doubt, is a novel at one go. It has the well-knit plot, the clear and consecutive narrative of details, and the well-made dialogue. When I shut the book, all of words, impressions and memories become blurred, only leaves the howl of sea breeze and the deathly silence. All that is finished and followed by a fresh start, but I feel strangely subdued this moment. The ending of the novel bears a soul-stirring charm.

The main structural thread of the novel is clear and simple, but the mind is complex. List the novels I have ever read, most of them give me a common feeling—the author tends to fix an ambiguous emotion that hard to express in speech into such a story and make readers catch some feelings more or less when they finish it. Each time I finish my reading I indeed get some feelings but I cannot speak them out. They are stuck in my throat, and I am so shame for my poverty in word. But The Sea Wolf is amazing: London analyses the character and not niggardly with showing us all the raw materials. Those words are just such words, making me hesitated too many times and swallowing back the words on the tip of my tongue too many times. However, London does it: he uses his pen to bring us all those feelings in words and makes these words echo in my heart, again and again. He speaks it out, loudly and clearly and we are resonating with it.

I like the way they talk, directly and veritably. Larson was always aculeate. He gave the sharp definition or prediction to somebody or something that convictive. He said that Hump’s conscience was compromise, so he lived ignominiously, untrue to the best he dream of, sinning against his whole pitiful little code. He said that one man could not wrong another man; he can only wrong himself. He said the only value life had been what life put upon itself. He said…Van Weyden always swallowed his voice before Larson’s words. And for me, I don’t want to say anything to oppugn.

I just be guided to accept the truth, but I will never be Larson, neither Van Weyden, or anyone else, for the conformation of every individual is very complex and totally different. I learn to face the world that seems not kind at all. I learn to try my best to live. I know clearly the moment of happiness followed by disappointment is quite brief, but I do not want to give up it just for the result I foresee. In my opinion, the meaning of life is attempt, and never weighs the process by result. Knowledge is one thing, and action is anther thing. I will not blind my heart, live for living; I will be honest to myself and try the life I want to try, I do not want to feel regret for my life at the end of it.

The result is the same---death. At that special moment we could know the death means we have no chance to listen, hear, smell, taste, smile, cry…The most important thing of life never is the fortune and gain, but the seed God has given you. How you nurture it when you have known its fruit will be the death is the way you chose to live.

Conclusion:

What is the meaning of life, the value of life, the essence of life, the immortality, the death? Breathing in which way could live a life without recreance and getting lost? I have read a book named The Golden Notebook, it is a book always asking why, why, why, and we have no answer to anything. But here The Sea Wolf, it seems to speak too much and we lost in believing.

The God let Larsen know too much and Larsen gets his headache and bound his spirit in his flesh. Whether he is regret or not, happy or not, his last line is down. At the beginning, his perfect physique comes to be a reason that disparages others; in the end, his perfect physique atrophies to an ill flesh that no longer is the carrier of his soul. The soul itself knew only itself and the vastness and profundity of the quiet and the dark.

I do not want to use “result” to name his death, nether ‘immortality”. Just let it go, and hand over the confusion to such a boundless ocean. Where is the end? We search for it here and there till the end finds us and our lives just blossom in period between.

On Sister Carrie

Why did I choose this particular book?

1.      I like the author.

2.      I like this type of book which is about one’s life and journey of the heart. And Sister Carrie is an epoch-making book in history of fiction of America.

3.      My classmate who had read the book recommended the book to me.

4.      And it was also on the required reading list teacher had given to us.

On Sister Carrie

Abstract:

Dreiser is one of the most significant American naturalists profoundly influenced by Darwinism. Sister Carrie which is called the first modern American novel by many people is Dreiser’s first work. Naturalistic style is fully reflected in this work. The author pays much attention to the depiction of desire, environment and heredity and emphasizes the influence of them on the fates of characters.

Key words:  Sister Carrie, naturalism, environment

1. Brief Introduction of Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser is a forerunner and representative writer of American modern novel. He is regarded as one of the three tycoons of American modern novel with Hemingway and Faulkner. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871, the twelfth of thirteen children. His gentle and devoted mother was illiterate His German immigrant father was severe and distant. He received early education in public school, and then went to Indiana University to study. Most of her life was engaged in journalistic work. He had walked around Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, etc. he observed society deeply and widely which was accumulated abundant materials for his literature creation. He was in an immigrant family. When he was young, their life was poor and he was always discriminated by his neighbors which influenced his work very much. He loves studying, and at 21 he became a journalist. At 23,he published his first novel Sister Carrie.

2. Plot

The story happened in Chicago and New York in 1880s-1890s. The novel is centred on Carrie Meeber and George Hurstwood. Carrie was in a village near Chicago. Her family is very poor, but her vanity is very strong. And she always looks forward to the rich life in urban. Carrie is a pretty girl; she comes to Chicago for a better life. She says to her sister who also lives a poor life that she has to look for a job. And finally she finds a job in a small shoe factory earning 4.5 dollars a week punching lace holes on leather for ten hours a day. Money is hardly enough. The chilly winter makes her ill seriously and she loses her job. Drouet, the man she meets on the train comes to her rescue when she can’t find another job. Soon she becomes his mistress. Through Drouet, Carrie meets Hurstwood, the manager of a well known bar. After meeting Carrie, Hurstwood can’t help falling love with her. So he betrays his friend and elopes with Carrie first to Canada and then to New York after he has robbed his employer’s safe. Carrie hates what he has done but she has no choice but depending on him. After arriving in New York, Carrie goes out to find work on the stage and gradually rises to fame. And Carrie finally leaves Hurstwood who sinks lower and lower until he commits suicide by turning on the gas at last. While after being rich, Carrie is not happy, she feels lonely. She often sits besides the window thinking, crooning and dreaming.

3. Character Analysis

In order to make a better analysis of the novel, I have first to briefly analyze the main characters in the book.

Carrie: she was such an ordinary rural girl at the beginning of the story. She couldn’t help feeling exciting at the sight of the urban’s spectacle when she was sitting on the seat of a bus. She was impressed deeply by large crowd on the avenue, the tall buildings. Far more different from other heroines, Carrie was not a plain pure angel like white snow, nor was she brave enough to be a heroine of revolutionist or even a reformer, nor was she so clever as to be a successful career woman who start from scratch. An eighteen country girl went to her sister in Chicago for shelter by herself. Carrie is a girl who had her own desire, just like many others in the realistic world. At that time, Carrie was only an innocent girl with adolescent dreams. She dreamed about rapidly going up in the world. However, the big city was full of ruthless reality, arrogance of the rich and temptation of materials. She felt at a loss facing the new environment. Carrie was struggling in the mentality of anxious, scared, confused and troublous. She found herself entering a strange world which was full of many kinds of obstacles and limits. Though Carrie was a shy girl and not brave enough, she still wanted to pursue her dreams. Through hard work, Carrie becomes a successful actress. She didn’t depend on any men, she had an independent job. And she also became braver.

Drouet: He was the first man of Carrie. They met on a train leaving for Chicago. Suffering from hardships, Carrie chose Drouet who could give her a better life. But she didn’t love him. Soon she realized Drouet’s superficiality. She even didn’t feel ashamed when she betrayed and gave up Drouet. Of course, Drouet wasn’t pitiful, because he wasn’t worth being loved. When Carrie became a star, he wanted to be reconciled with her. But he was still with another woman. From beginning to end, he hadn’t fallen in love with Carrie. He just treat Carrie as a goods to abreact and showy.

Hurstwood: In the book, he was a tragical person. He was a remarkable super stratum person at first. He had a lot of friends. And he was also admired by people because of her talent and glamour. While his eyes was dazzled by Carrie’s appearance. Love is selfish, Hurstwood betrayed his friend in order to make Carrie become his mistress. Love makes smart Hurstwood become crazy. And madness is doomed to repay with huge cost. When he eloped with Carrie like a homeless dog, he became uncollected. He didn’t want to sink into poverty, so he worked hard to make a comeback. But life is cruel, good luck would not be with someone. He failed, and at last Carrie left him as well. He became a parasite lingering on in a steadily worsening condition. Finally, he ended up his life in a winter. His fate is a warning for people. Once he regarded everything for the sake of love. What he had done is worth considering by people. People’s desire should be restrained by sane. Without wealth, the glory of him can’t exist. Just like some middle age persons at nowadays, some beautiful girls would fall in love with them. But if their wealth and position are missing, many girls will leave them.

    Ames: There were not so many plots about him, but he was also important. He had higher wisdom than Drouet and Hurstwood. What’s more, he was not captivated by Carrie’s beautiful appearance and well-built body. He influenced Carrie’s thought in a large part. He makes Carrie’s pursuing from material desire to spirit. Carrie reached the top of wisdom because of him. Without him Carrie wouldn’t be so successful.

4.     Comment

Many people hold such an opinion that Sister Carrie is a tragedy, in which Carrie is described as an immoral woman and she had an empty life though she succeed as a famous player at the end of the novel. They believed that it is impossible to possess true happiness in a money-oriented capitalism society. The city changed Carrie, a once innocent girl into a seemingly successful but lonely woman. Carrie represents the woman who experiences desiring, chasing, struggling, falling and disillusioning. In the material world, she is successful but in the inner world, she is unhappy.

Carrie has two persons to help her, but she goes from bad to worse instead of getting better. In fact, there is no one who can be the saviour for Carrie in the society. She comes to realize it is impossible to be a success by working hard honestly. Carrie is a victim in a corrupted society. She has her own motivates as an independent person.               

Maybe many people will think Carrie is degenerate, immoral, cold-blooded, and without a lofty soul. But like everything has two sides, lots of people have different viewpoints. They don’t take Carrie so simply, so traditionally. In my opinion, I really don’t think Carrie is a fallen woman. At first, I think she is greedy for material gains and she loses her sense of morality when she pursues her desire. After reading several times, I understand the novel deeply. It is true that Carrie has sexual relations with two men, but if you say Carrie is immoral, it is wrong actually. Instead we can say that Carrie’s intention is to have a good husband.

She firstly met Drouet who attracted her attention with his beautiful clothes and fine manners which represented he belongs to a high class. We know that Carrie Jogos Dora comes from a poor country family and she wanted to search a better life in Chicago. When she metsuch a young man who was an experienced traveler and a rich man, it is no wonder she would chose to be his mistress. When Carrie arrived in Chicago, she found things disappointing. She did try her best to find a job, but she failed at last. Drived by the desire for survival, she accepted Drouet. Because Drouet had the money to support her, and on the other hand, Carrie did have some good feelings on him. Besides he promised to marry her. So at the beginning, the story went like lots of other love stories. While later, Carrie found another man who seemed worth her love. Hurstwood stands for a class higher than Drouet’s. He was more attractive for Carrie and he knew woman’s heart. Carrie once hesitated, but Drouet really couldn’t touch her heart any longer. Carrie found Drouet was not a guy who really wanted to get married. So when Hurstwood lied to her and brought her to New York, she didn’t refuse. Carrie thought Hurstwood would marry her and gave her a happy life. At a degree, we can see Carrie was an innocent woman. We still can say she is pure. She was just drived by the circumstances. So sexual relations with two men didn’t make her become a fallen woman.

When Carrie met the living crisis in New York, at the beginning she still believed that Hurstwood could made all things right. But later, she found Hurstwood was falling quickly. She tried to encourage Hurstwood to find a job to support the family, but he failed. He couldn’t find his place in the bigger city at all. His pride was gone. But Carrie didn’t want to wait to die. She got a job in a theatre, and then she left Drouet. From here, you may think Carrie is a bit cruel. But to me, Carrie’s behavior still can be forgiven. Because she has to make a living in New York. Next, Carrie made herself successful on the stage by a small chance. She got money and fame gradually. Ames is an important person for Carrie. His influence causes Carrie to become disillusioned with her success as an actress in comedy and makes Carrie desire to perform more dramatic works. He introduced some writers to Carrie, and also gave some astonishing views about the surrounding people. Carrie thought he was a special man. Carrie began to think about lots of other things deeply. She had her own understanding of the world and became independent.

In writing Sister Carrie, Dreiser used the naturalism. The story was set in a true experience of his sister. It happened in Chicago which is a newly formed industry and commerce city. It truly depicted the fate of the heroine-Carrie. And it also emerged capitalists’cruelty and exploiture towards workers, and their extremely extravagant and luxurious life. In the novel, Dreiser made a vivid comparison of the fates of Carrie and Hourstwood. Carrie was from poverty to prosperity, while Hurstwood was from the rich to a beggar. It exposed money and commodity economy bringing morality undone. Naturalism is reflected by the force of environment. The booming economy in America at the end of the 19^th century dramatically changed the way people live. The rapid development of industry and transportation made country into town and town into city. Cities like New York and Chicago became international metropolis which thousands of people wanted to find a job there. It’s under such circumstances that Carrie leaves her hometown for Chicago with the hope of realizing her own American dream. For me, her fate seems to be decided at first and her behavior is controlled by the environment. Like Dreiser said "all of us are more or less pawns. We're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over which we have no control." Either better or worse, “of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility”. Before Carrie is tempted by Drouet and Hurstwood, the possible chances of material enjoyment and success in the big city already tempt Carrie. Yet in reality, she is intolerable of the dirty working environment and the vulgar workmen. There is a great gap between dream and reality. So when Drouet takes her to the cozy restaurant, the seductive environment attracts her so much that a desire of living her life like Drouet burns in her. There are no good and evil, but winner and loser. In order to achieve success, Carrie uses her beauty to pave her way. This is an inevitable result of the external environmental force. The environment pushes Carrie on the way to purse money, success and enjoyment. Similarly, it is also the environment that makes Hurstwood end his own life abjectly. He is one of the impotent modern men unfit to the environment. Juegos Dora His miserable ending is the result of an unsuccessful struggle against environment. A manager as he is and rich as he is, his family life is not happy. In such environment, he abandons his position and elopes with Carrie. After they arrive in New York, the different experiences of Carrie and Hurstwood again prove that environment and chance play a significant even decisive role on one’s success. In his fifties, Hurstwood loses his advantages which he has in Chicago. Gradually, he goes from bad to worse while Carrie, who is appreciated by the theatre manager, rises quickly as a famous star. Form the point view of Darwinism, the decline of Hurstwood and the rise of Carrie are without rebuke, "the survival of the fittest" is ordained by nature. From this, Dreiser pointed out sharply that America society at that time was a society in which people acted wildly against law and public opinion in order to become stand out and rich. In this kind of society, only the persons who didn’t have moral idea could succeed.

Now we say Sister Carrie is such a great work, but in fact the publication of Sister Carrie was not that smooth. At first, it was thought of as an immoral and harmful book by the publisher. You may wonder why it is considered bad since there are no obscenities, flamboyance and unreality in the book. For me, the reason is obvious after carefully reading the book and consulting some information related to this book including the history background and literary context. Stories of relaxation and happiness were prevalent in American literature at the time as well as the detective novels with unchangeable plots. But young Dreiser was different. He wanted to depict life as it is and developed a new writing style of his own. Social mores tell Americans that contemptible people should be punished, severely. They especially have a deep hatred for the heroine Carrie who loses her chastity and lives a life of moral decadence but dora games still rises to the upper society. As a result, Sister Carrie was considered ungraceful the moment it became known. But about 20 years after the publication of Sister Carrie, novels such as The Song of the Lark in which more indecent details are described cause no indignation at all. Obviously, it's Sister Carrie that paves the way for Americans to accept contemporary novels which truly reflect their social life.

Like what many Americans think at that time, we may also have the same idea that girls like Carrie who uses their sex appeal and regard men as stepping-stone and men like Hurstwood who betray their wives are immoral. Is Carrie an immoral person? Does Dreiser intend to condone or condemn Carrie? Dreiser leaves the readers with no easy answers. But she is an opportunist, undoubtedly. In naturalism, freedom of will is helpless, ethical choices are illusory. Naturalism eliminates the ethical problem that lies at the heart of the realist novels. Since human behavior is determined, it can not be judged in terms of right or wrong, good or bad. The whole world is immoral actually, how can we require people in this amoral world moral? I think at least the author does not blame her as he feels she simply does what she has to do for survival. He just depicts what the world is in a detached method of narration.

5. Conclusion:

In Sister Carrie，Dreiser probes into the influence of desire, instinct and environment on the fates of different characters. It is incontestably one of the masterpieces of American naturalistic works. The author--- Dreiser is not only widely accepted as a naturalistic writer, but also an outstanding representative of American naturalism. Sister Carrie is a character which Theodore Dreiser describes elaborately to pursue the American dream. Some critics think the novel’s style of writing is clumsy and the form is vulgar. But others think that the novel is candid, plainspoken and full of passion of life. Dreiser is exactly a writer with great passion towards life. He is not afraid of being treated as a barbarian by people. He announces the cruel reality of America through a series of story in the society.

Characterization in Martin Eden

Characterization in Martin Eden

Abstract:

Published in 1909, Martin Eden is an obvious Autobiography, which has a far-reaching influence on American literature, and is considered as a masterpiece of Jack London. It was one of Jack London’s masterpieces. In this work, he criticized and revealed indifferently the reality of American society. Martin Eden described a poor sailor in capitalist society who gained both fame and wealth through his constant strives to become stronger. While after he squeezed into the upper class, he found all around him was false. He sank into the mire of broken dream and couldn’t help himself, and ended his life in the end. Besides its profound literature feeling, its success should own to its excellent characterization.

Key words:  autobiography, analysis of main characters, characterization, portrait depiction

1. The introduction to Jack London

Jack London (1876-1916), prolific American novelist and short story writer, whose works deal romantically with the overwhelming power of nature and the struggle for survival. His left-wing philosophy is seen in the class struggle novel The Iron Heel (1908).

He was raised in Oakland by his mother Flora Wellman, a music teacher and spiritualist, and stepfather John London, whose surname he took, because he was deserted by his father, William Henry Chaney. London was a very poor guy when he was young. At the age of ten, he loved reading much and became an avid reader. After leaving school at the age of 14, London worked as a seaman, rode in freight trains as a hobo and adopted socialistic views as a member of protest armies of the unemployed. In 1894 he was arrested in Niagara Falls and jailed for vagrancy. Without having much formal education, London educated himself in public libraries, and at the age of 19 gained admittance to the University of California at Berkeley. He had already started to write. For the remainder of 1898 London again tried to earn his living by writing. His early stories appeared in the Overland Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly. In 1900 he married Elisabeth Maddern, but left her and their two daughters three years afterwards, eventually to marry Charmian Kittredge.

Jack London was born in an extremely poor family. Difficulties in life made him easier to accept progressive ideas and become a socialist. Almost during his whole life, he believed in Darwin’s idea of “survival of the fittest”. In his autobiography Martin Eden, he pointed out that this idea can not only be applied to nature, but also human being.

All these life experiences provide him with plenty and practical material for his writing. Just like Martin in Martin Eden who struggles to enter the so-called upper-class which confused him  led him to death at last.

The success and failure of Martin Eden revealed the fate of an ordinary writer in capitalist society. In such kind of society, people could only see vulgar scholar, not real writer. In this point, the importance of this novel far surpassed that of an autobiography. It told people through vivid and profound artistic image that in capitalist society, the process of becoming famous was the process of destruction. Moreover, the characterization in Martin Eden was a success. Each person was given unique character and unusual psychology, especially the image of Martin Eden. The author emphasized the usage of the language that conformed to each character’s identity to express his personality and reveal his change of characteristics with the development of plot. In a sense, the success of this novel largely dues to the impressive characterization. Lack London successfully created such typical character as Martin Eden not only because of his familiar experience, but also his outstanding skill of characterization.

2. The plot of Martin Eden

Living in Oakland at the dawn of the 20th century, Martin Eden struggles to rise far above his destitute circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education in order to achieve a coveted place among the literary elites. The main driving force behind Martin Eden's efforts is his love for Ruth Morse. Because Eden is a sailor from a working class background, and the Morses are a bourgeois family, a union between them would be impossible until he reaches their level of wealth and perceived cultural, intellectual refinement.

     Just before the literary establishment discovers Eden’s talents as a writer and lavishes him with the fame and fortune that he had incessantly promised Ruth (for the last two years) would come, she loses her patience and rejects him in a wistful letter: "if only you had settled down…and attempted to make something of yourself." When the publishers and the bourgeois - the very ones who shunned him - are finally at his feet, Martin has already begrudged them and become jaded by unrequited toil and love. Instead of enjoying his success, Eden retreats into a quiet indifference, only interrupted to mentally rail against the genteelness of bourgeois society or to donate his new wealth to working class friends and family.

    The novel ends with Martin Eden committing suicide by drowning, a detail which undoubtedly contributed to what researcher Clarice Stasz calls the “biographical myth” that Jack London's own death was a suicide.

 

3. The analysis of the main characters

Martin Eden

A former sailor from a working class falls in love with a young bourgeois lady. In order to be comparable to his beloved lady, he spared no efforts to become a prestigious writer to gain social status and fortune. After his painstaking work, he has achieved his goal. At this time, the lady who once deserted him came back to him again. Martin began to realize the essence of the up-class is vanity and ugliness. The crashing of him belief leads him to death.

Ruth Morse

The young bourgeois woman attending university captivates Eden while tutoring him in English. Though she is initially both attracted and repelled by his working class background, she eventually decides that she loves him. The two become engaged but also be restricted: they cannot marry until her parents approve of his financial and social status. As the development of the plot her disadvantages which are rooted in the bourgeois, exposed to the readers and Martin. And when Martin, her husband –to-be, was in the valley of his career and his life, she should desert him. She offered to review the love affairs when Martin achieved the social and economic status which her parents pursued.

Ruth and her parents are the representives of the bourgeois.

Lizzie Connolly

As a cannery worker Lizzie is rejected by Eden, who is already in love with Ruth. In Eden's mind, Lizzie's rough hands mark her out as inferior to Ruth. Despite this, Lizzie remains devoted to Eden. He feels an attachment to her because she loves him for who he is, and not for the fame or money. Lizzie loved him from the beginning before he was rich and famous and trying to better himself. Devoted to her love and her heart, Lizzie keeps pure all the time during Martin's struggle for his writing career and his marriage in which the bridge is not Lizzie. Though she spends even sacrifices a lot for the love, she still cannot have a happy ending with Martin Eden. It's really a pity!

Lizzie is the representive of girls from the working class and the counterpart of the bourgeois lady-Ruth Morse in the book.     

Russ Brissenden

Eden's sickly writer counterpart, who encourages Eden to give up writing and return to the sea before city life swallows him up. As a committed socialist, he introduces Eden to a group of amateur philosophers he calls the 'real dirt'. Brissenden’s final work - 'Ephemera' - causes a literary sensation when Eden breaks his word and publishes it upon the writer's death.

4. Careful portrait depiction through vivid description

Portrait depiction of characters is a method of describing person’s characteristics through the description of their outside features. It will change with the development of the plot. In Chapter one, when Martin Eden, a poor seaman, came into Ruth’s luxurious living room for the first time, he was at a loss, not knowing what to do. The author described his posture of walking like this: “He walked at the other’s heels with a swing to his shoulders, and his legs spread unwittingly…The wide rooms seemed too narrow for his rolling gait…He recoiled from side to side between the various objects…” In this way, a strong, rough, rash, rude, and frank Martin was vividly presented to the reader. It gave him individuality and authenticity through concise portrait depiction. If the portrait depiction could not be associated with people’s activity, psychology and environment, then it is meaningless. Successful literature is closely related with his portrait depiction. In this respect, Jack London is undoubtedly successful.

5. Characterization in contradiction

When Martin became a famous writer through persevering struggle and “receives enormous fees for his publications”, he was welcomed by the upper class, and many strangers wanted to make friends with him. But what gave him a hit was the totally different attitude of Ruth. His spirit fell into a dilemma. Neither did he come back to the life before nor did he endure the reality which was of no worth. Extra money won him one thing——status. Was Martin like the one before? No. He gained knowledge, the ability to understand life and the condition of making complaints. He read a lot of books, knowing evolutionism and superman philosophy, personal struggle and the vulgar of society, and he became interested in Spenser. His thought became noble, and unconsciously surpassed Ruth’s family. When spirit reached a higher position, it was very common for people to love the new and loathe the old. He would think of what had been surpassed low-grade, while Ruth was receiving the nurturing of the value of capitalist. In the climax of the novel, this contradiction was the sharpest. Jack London listed the words Martin said to Ruth: “Realism is imperative to my nature, and the bourgeois spirit hates realism. The bourgeois is cowardly. It is afraid of life.”and “Vulgarity-a hearty vulgarity, I’ll admit-is the basis of bourgeois refinement and culture.” Martin Eden's words deeply revealed the corruption of capitalism system.

The capitalism idea came into Martin's family. In the contradiction of changing and anti-changing, the author gradually indicated that Martin would never become a member of the capitalist class. Instead, he gained an insight into their deceptive nature. Obviously the writer could reflect the protagonist’s thought and character through introduction and description. However, if he could put the characters into the contradiction and reflect their nature through their activity and language, he would write out a more impressive novel.

6. Characterization through the analogy of people and animal

Animals have their own characteristics, lifestyle and different kinds of activities. Because people and animals contact very often and they have many similarities,  dora game people often make an analogy between themselves and animals. Each animal has many different characters, which means to choose which point to make analogy is very important for reader’s understanding. In this respect, the major skills used in Martin Eden are:

(1)   metaphor of character’s nature

Different animals have different natures. Fox is cunning, sheep is docile and tiger is frightening. These features can also be used in human beings. Let’s take an example from Martin Eden: “Phew!” He murmured back. “The Transcontinental crowds were nanny-goats, but you fellows are a lot of prize-fighters.” In this example, Martin got his deserved payment in the same way and left. At last he was beaten and eventually said those words. Here “nanny-goats” was used to describe cowardly people. Jack London revealed people’s nature precisely with these simple and lively words.

(2)   simile about people’s habit

Many animals have their unique habits: ducks like water, snakes need winter sleep and wild goose fly towards south. People often make a contrast between Jeux de Dora human and animals. For example, “I can study by myself. I take to it kindly, like a duck to water!” this is Martin’s words. He compared his love for study with duck’s love for water. This indicated the fact that Martin put all his energy on study in order to become equal with Rose. Proper simile made the language new and full of creativity.

(3)   simile about people’s expression

Many animals have their expressions by nature: cows’ tear deer’s shyness and monkey’s naughtiness and so on. Their expressions are very similar with that of human’s. Here is the example taken from Martin Eden. “An’ I bets,” Martin dashed on, “That he’s solemn an’ serious as an old owl, an’ doesn’t care a rap for a good time, for all his thirty thousand a year…” in this example, Martin used the expression of awl in the branch to describe those extremely serious people. This seems to be humorous and satire.

7. Characterization through description of psychology

In this novel, the depiction of psychology is an important means of characterization. The fact proves that the more carefully the works of literature reveals people’s psychology, the stronger the inflection of literature and readers are easier to resonate with the writer. Jack London is not a recognized master  Juegos de Dora of psychology analyst, while in this novel, he used many kinds of skills when he tried to reveal Martin’s inside emotion, including not only the indirect description of character’s thought, but also the characterization though monologue, dialogue, action, expression and even delusion. For example, in chapter 3, there is a vivid description of psychology: “Her face shimmered before his eyes as he walked along, pale and serious, sweet and sensitive, smiling with pit and tenderness as only a spirit could smile, and pure as has never dreamed purity could be….he was quivering a pulpit ant with emotions he had never known, drifting delicious on a sea of sensibility where feeling itself was exalted a spiritualized and carried beyond the summits of life.” and “He staggered along like a drunken man, murmur in fervently aloud:‘By God! By God!’" Here are not only people's words and actions, but also their expressions and delusions. Through such a complex depiction of psychology, the author displayed an absent-mined while happy Martin. Martin came from a low class, and when he met Ruth, a middle-class girl, he thought of her as a beautiful, pure, and gracious girl. Especially when Ruth called him with enthusiasm, he was deeply intoxicated in the ocean of love. Even after he came out from Ruth’s family, he was still lost in the sweet memory, and couldn’t help saying again and again: “My God!” This fits his psychology at that time. Obviously, combining depiction of psychology with person’s words, action and expression, the characters created must be more lively and vivid.

8. Conclusion

Most of us are not able to shoulder all the pressure, the troubles and the failures by ourselves without a kind of belief. The belief is like invincible and invisible loricae which protects us from  the even cruelest assault. It brings us infinite courage, wisdom and will make us unconquerable. 

It can’t be ruined by the outside power, but it is fragile in its inner. When you begin to doubt it, the loricae immediately loses its power. 

What Martin Eden believed is the sensibility of human and the equality of society. Eden, an impoverished sailor and laborers, struggled to become a writer through determination and self-education in order to ascend into the status of a high-class and win the love of Ruth. To enrich his knowledge of these subjects, he became an arduous reader of everything that he could get his hands on. In the quest to be an intellectual equal, he surpassed them and he painfully realized that they were so hypocritical and snobbish. They accepted him merely for his money and fame, not for his works. Jack London’s masterpiece fully shows his exquisite skill of creating lively people through all kinds of art means. In Martin Eden, besides the four means of characterization, he also used narration, comparison, and side description to create the figures. These skills prove to be excellent means of characterization, and worth our learning in writing.