Nietzschean Approach To Jack London's Martin Eden And The Sea Wolf

Jack London (1876-1916) is a well-known writer whose works have been read every quarter of the world. As a complicated and profound writer, Jack London has been well nourished from different sources, especially from Nietzsche. Nietzsche's thoughts provide him with the powerful driving force to create works and transcend himself continuously.Nietzsche's thoughts mainly include: (1) Spirit of art, namely, Apollonian and Dionysian spirit. They redeem from the horrible world for man. The former offers man a dreamy world to veil the intolerable life, and the latter, represented by intoxication and orgiastic revelry, convinces man of the eternal joy of existence by confirming every part of life. (2) Superman philosophy. Superman has such characteristics as the will to power, rebelliousness, challenge, irrationality, creativity and primitivity. According to Nietzsche, superman never casts off his tragic destiny. He would rather rise up to resist it than elude it. Superman views misery and suffering as nutrition of life so that he is able to take conscious actions to endure them. In the action of resistance can he taste the bliss of life and perceive the values of life. (3) The Greek tragedy: Nietzsche's entire aesthetic thoughts fundamentally serve to establish a kind of tragic outlook on the world. Nietzsche thinks life is rooted in pains and man is ultimately doomed to confront death after experiencing pains. But his main gist is to conquer life's tragedy, and to transcend the inevitability of death so as to attain the freedom of the Will. In the constant annihilation of individuals, one can perceive the eternal might of the primitive Will, for annihilation is the fountain of rebirth.This thesis, approaching from Nietzsche's Dionysian and Apollonian spirit, superman images and tragedy theories, attempts to explore Jack London's Martin Eden and The Sea Wolf so as to attest Nietzsche's influence greatly on Jack London's writing and provide for us a brand-new angle of view to unscramble his works and to explore inner significance. The novels Martin Eden and The Sea Wolf are quite typical. As a matter of fact, Nietzsche's Dionysian and Apollonian spirit, superman images and tragedy theories are a single inseparable whole. Nietzsche believes that the Greek tragedy derives from spirits o f Dionysus and Apollo. That's why Martin Eden and Wolf Larsen have tragic ends. The will to power, rebelliousness and creativity, Barbarism and atavism are the manifestations of Dionysian spirit, which are also the descriptions of the superman concept. Therefore, superman is just one side of Dionysian spirit.The thesis is composed of three chapters. Chapter One deals with Apollonian and Dionysian Spirit shown in these two novels. And for it, the thesis interprets from Apollonian spirit and Dionysian Spirit respectively. Chapter Two focuses superman images, that is, the essence of Dionysian spirit: the will of power, rebelliousness, creativity, barbarism and atavism manifested in the main characters of the novels. Chapter Three explores Dionysian tragedy by analyzing Martin Eden's and Wolf Larsen's tragic end.