Jack london
Jack London is a representative of 20th-century American critical realism literature, such as "The Call of the Wild" and "Martin Eden".
Jack London was a writer born at the bottom of society, and from the age of 9, his life was extremely difficult, and even schooling had to be paid for by the income of his hard work. Therefore, he is very familiar with the various characters living at the bottom of society and their situations, as well as the hardships and perseverance of the bottom people to climb up, and he believes in the philosophy of "survival of the fittest". These are reflected in his work. Take Martin Eden, for example.
Martin Eden
Martin Eden is actually Jack London's autobiographical. The protagonist of the book, Martin Eden, and the author Jack London have very similar life experiences and even endings. They are all born at the lowest level of society, and their families live in poverty, but they are full of beautiful fantasies about their future lives. With the strong will and hard work of individuals, they finally got rid of the poverty that plagued them and squeezed into high society. However, in the end, they all suffered because the gap was too large, and ended their lives.
The protagonist of the story, Martin Eden, is a sailor, from the lowest level of society, uncultured, and rude behavior. By chance, Martin Eden had the privilege of getting to know the family by coming forward to save the son of the lawyer Morse, and thus began to come into contact with high society.
This gorgeous, decent, dreamy world of flowers and flowers was very different from everything that Martin Eden knew, and he was greatly shocked. The luxurious life of high society made him understand that this is life, this is life. He gradually turned from curiosity to envy, especially for Morse's daughter Ruth.
Ruth was both cultured and personable, elegant and pure, and deeply attracted Martin Eden. He was intoxicated by Ruth's beauty, almost forgot his identity, and poured all his energy into this charming woman, and he despised the class he lived in, ashamed of his inferior, simple living conditions.
In order to be able to get Ruth, he was determined to squeeze into the upper class, and through extensive reading, he seriously improved his taste in words and deeds and clothing, in order to achieve the goal of getting rid of the embarrassment and entering the upper class to be worthy of Ruth. Although Martin Eden had little education and was poorly educated, he thought that with his exuberant energy, he could win everything he wanted if he was willing to work harder.
Martin Eden hopes to realize his dreams through writing, but of course, the road is arduous. He was often penniless and starving, but still worked tirelessly. Although he did not receive a formal education, he was sensitive and studious, determined, and gradually became knowledgeable through continuous diligent study.
Martin Eden is also very talented, full of vitality and power, faithful to reality, and dare to reveal the darkness of society. Of course, a large number of his painstaking works have hit walls everywhere and cannot be published. As the painstakingly created manuscripts were returned one after another, the ridicule and malicious slander of others also followed.
Martin Eden realized that his work had been rejected because he was an unknown youngster. On the other hand, those best-selling works that are sought after in society are either low-level fun that render hypocrisy, or they are divorced from reality and vulgar, because publishers only value fame in pursuit of commercial profits.
Just when Martin Eden was discouraged and on the verge of despair, one of his works caused a sensation in the literary world after it was accidentally adopted and published by a publishing house. Subsequently, his originally snubbed works were also published and published with high remuneration, and received high praise in the industry.
Martin Eden instantly became a rising star in the American literary scene at that time, and various publishers came to him, and various newspapers and periodicals also asked him for manuscripts. Relatives, friends, and upper-class people who had treated him coldly and scornfully competed to come back to court Martin Eden, though few of them appreciated his work and the inner beauty and power it contained.
When Martin Eden became famous, Miss Ruth, who had voluntarily abandoned him before, actually returned to him, hoping to reconcile with him. Of course, Martin Eden rejected Ruth.
Martin Eden succeeded, and although the splendor of his career earned him money, fame, and status, he felt that he was not very happy, and apart from pain, survival and even everything became meaningless. Eventually, he jumped into the sea to end his life.
Jack London profoundly exposes the hypocrisy and ugliness of capitalism through Martin Eden. There was no love, morality, or shame at all in that society, only naked, ruthless money relations.
Martin Eden despised him when he had no fame, no money, and no social status. Once Martin became famous, the vulgar and selfish, copper-smelling, vulgar politicians and celebrities rushed to praise him, to seduce him, and even to break off the marriage with him, Miss Rose, also came to visit in person, hoping to reconcile with Martin, in Martin's view, they are a group of selfish, vulgar, snobbish, morally inferior shameless villains.
What kind of society is this?
Story backdrop
The late 19th century to the early 20th century was one of the most exciting moments in American history, known as the Gilded Age, also known as the Progressive Age.
At the end of the 19th century, the Industrial Output Value of the United States was the first in the world; in 1920, the UNITED STATES GDP was the first in the world. From 1865 to 1920, the continuous industrialization, urbanization, and modernization of the United States made the economy develop rapidly, creating an economic miracle and huge social wealth, and the society as a whole showed a prosperous scene.
The huge material wealth created by industrialization also provides unlimited opportunities for every hard-working and self-motivated person to get rich, which provides hope and motivation for those who are at the bottom of society and try to change their destiny.
Along with the process of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, the social structure of the United States has also undergone drastic changes, and a large number of newly wealthy bourgeoisie have risen. The success and splendor of these new affluent bourgeoisie has given ordinary Americans a beautiful vision of their future lives and personal futures. People believe that in the United States, everyone has equal opportunities, as long as they work hard, everyone has the hope of success and realizing their dreams.
Therefore, people from all walks of life, especially young people from the bottom of society, in order to put themselves in a position of poverty alleviation, they challenge themselves in various ways and break into society in order to realize their "American Dream" and obtain personal happiness.
And these new rich bourgeoisie are themselves to use their own hands to open up a world, rather than relying on the shade and door of their ancestors like the old nobles, and they are different from the bottom of society, and they need help and charity from others.
Therefore, they advocate individuals to achieve fate and success through their own efforts. In their view, the State was not created to help the individual; it could only provide conditions for the development of the individual. How individuals achieve their goals is ultimately up to them.
Personal poverty makes them incomprehensible, because opportunity and gold seem to be everywhere, just to see if you try your best to fight for it. The opportunities that God gives to everyone are equal, and as long as you work hard, you will inevitably be rewarded. The reason why many people are reduced to the bottom of society is mainly because they fail to seize opportunities, all their poverty and inequality are caused by their own reasons, they are not hard enough and hardworking, they are lazy, they always want to get something for nothing.
Therefore, they firmly believe in the "survival of the fittest" concept of life, advocating the weak and the strong, the survival of the fittest, a "strong person" at the bottom of the society, in order to base themselves on the society of that era.
But they ignore an objective reality, with the continuous improvement of the degree of economic monopoly, social wealth is becoming more and more concentrated, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and society is becoming more and more realistic. Class differences and class contradictions are intensifying, and the possibility of success by self-struggle is becoming less and less likely.