The elements of autobiography in Martin Eden by Jack London

Jeremiah Obiero

Researchwritingcenter

Test Assignment

19 September 2010

The elements of autobiography in ‘Martin Eden’ by Jack London

Outline:

Introduction—————————————————————————————-1

Elements of Autobiography——————————————————————-1

How Author’s Life is brought out in the Book——————————————4

Conclusion——————————————————————————————5

Works Cited—————————————————————————————-7

1.Introduction

This paper critically examines the elements of autobiography as brought out in Jack London’s book, ‘Martin Eden.’ A number of people have considered the book to be the writer’s autobiography given its portrayal of a man who struggles through the seas of life not only to achieve the desired success in life as a literary fame but to use the hard work to get the beautiful girl he admires. While the elements of autobiography are examined in the book and compared closely against the life of Jack London, this paper holds that ‘Martin Eden’ is a pieced allegorical representation of Jack London’s life.

2.Elements of Autobiography

At the beginning of the story, we meet a good-nurtured young Martin who makes his living by working in the sea in the shipping business. Through this business, Martin plunges into the upper-class family based in San Francisco. While in interaction with this upper-crust family, Martin Eden falls in love with Ruth, a girl from the family. Although Martin comes in contact with this family surprisingly, Ruth becomes so much infatuated with Martin that she wholesomely receives him under her umbrella with a belief that she can also turn him and make him a gentleman for herself. Nevertheless, Martin is also determined to make good his desires to impress the girl and therefore goes to the library to acquaint himself with the world of, knowledge. Through his decision to go to the library and dig in books, Martin discovers that he has an aptitude in writing. When he shares this discovery with Ruth, what he gets from her is no more than discouragement. Ruth has no faith in Martin’s abilities. However, he persists against these discouragements.

We can see from the story how Martin Eden has great drive to succeed, to garner respect and become part of the middle class (bourgeoisie) in the society. However, this proves to him the way the cultural perspective of the people he wishes to emulate is so shallow and not worth emulating. This makes him to pursue the accolade of the upper class and thus falls in love with Ruth. Through his persistence, Martin discovers that he is actually intellectually advanced than Ruth and her contemporary kin. This does not make him to leave his love but holds to her.

Among very important elements that contribute to the success of the main character (Martin Eden) is the self-education he adopts which not only gives him the ability to read and write but also makes him discover his talent in writing. O’Connor posits that the portrayed look at the contemporary social class and structure of the period is also a captivating element of the book as this does cast a view of the social structures in the then society and is also a good mirror for looking at the modern society or to look at the society as the characters gradually become grown members (O’Connor 139, 405).

3.How Author’s Life is brought out in the Book

Jack London was one of the most acclaimed American writers of the 2o century. This is corroborated in the protagonist’s realization of the inherent talent as a writer, a talent that drives him to the apex of life and fame. As already seen above the book ridicules individualism and the striving for fame when Martin Eden drowns himself in the sea. This is a clear portrayal of Jack London’s actual social political stand (London 275).

Jack London as an author had great interest in nature and animals. The protagonist in the story (Martin Eden), who represents London, is often confronted with issues that relate to nature, animals and man. In addition, Jack London had little schooling even though he excelled just the way Martin Eden excelled with self-education and little schooling (Dyer 214). Dyer (2002), notes that Jack London was a very rich man and most of the characters he created his stories actually represented him perfectly. For instance, Dyer notes that while Martin Eden l0ved the sea, Jack London himself loved hunting seal, oyster and adventure (Dyer 189, 212-238).

4.Conclusion

In conclusion, ‘Martin Eden’ clearly tells the autobiography of a young lowly and humble sailor who has high striving for self-excellence and high affinity for beauty and wealth. At first, though Martin has noble abilities as he discovers them, the woman he falls in love with refuses to acknowledge it until Martin makes a fortune out of selling his works.

The book brings out Jack’s conflict with his own determination and his perspective of different social arrangements in the society. Jack London who lived as a poet and writer casts a lot of challenges to anyone who has a talent and fears to pursue it. It is worth pursuing it with utmost determination once one has realized the ability in self. Life however comes with several decisions to be made. As we find from the story, it becomes hard for Martin to accept or reconcile with the bourgeois lifestyle yet he also finds it difficult to go along the working class since he had left it. This is a message as well that as one rises through to success, they are social constraints along the way and hard decisions must be made anyway. When the decisions become too hard to make, some individuals may choose to end their lives by committing suicide as Martin Eden does in the end of it. However, Eden’s suicide can be analogized to London’s life by looking at the suicide as his attack on infatuated capitalistic and individualism idealism given that he is a staunch socialist. Therefore, the suicide serves to coincide with his life as a socialist by attacking the obsessive desire and drive to achieve wealth and fame.

Works Cited:

Dyer, Daniel Jack London, New York USA Sage Publications; 2002

London, Jack Martin Eden, London, UK; NuVision Publications, LLC 2008

O’Connor, Richard Jack London: a biography, New York USA; Little, Brown 1964