9_Jack_London9_Jack_London.pptVIP

The literary establishment doesn’t discover Eden’s talents as a writer. Ruth loses her patience and rejects him in a wistful letter: “if only you had settled down…and attempted to make something of yourself.” At last, the publishers and the bourgeois are finally at his feet Martin Eden becomes jaded(厌倦) more isolated than ever retreats into a quiet indifference Eden is unable to reconcile his “past and present” a wealthy Martin of the present who is civilized and clean a proletarian Martin of the past who is a barbarian Martin is only interrupted to mentally rail against the genteelness of bourgeois society donate his new wealth to working class friends and family. The novel ends with Eden committing suicide by drowning a detail which undoubtedly contributed to what researchers call the biographical myth that Londons own death was a suicide. London was keen to stress that it was this individualism that eventually led to Edens suicide. He described the novel as a parable of a man who had to die not because of his lack of faith in God, but because of his lack of faith in men. Beginning of the novel The one opened the door with a latch-key and went in, followed by a young fellow who awkwardly removed his cap. He wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea, and he was manifestly out of place in the spacious hall in which he found himself. He did not know what to do with his cap, and was stuffing it into his coat pocket when the other took it from him. The Ending And somewhere at the bottom he fell into darkness. That much he knew. He had fallen into darkness. And at the instant he knew, he ceased to know. 2. Major themes Social Class Socialism Individualism Love Disillusionment Suicide Success American dreams Hypocrisy Vanity Machinery Individualism versus Socialism Although Jack London was a socialist, he invested the semi-autobiographical character of Martin Eden with a strong individualism. Martin Eden rejects socialism (attacking it as ‘slave morality’) r