The Auspice Of Modernism

Jack London, one of the most influential writers in America and in the world, has always been considered a naturalist or realist. His representative works such as The Call of the wild and Martin Eden have been considered classics of naturalistic works. This paper, however, is going to approach an element in his works rarely researched into, i.e. alienation, through the analysis of Martin Eden based on Marx's theory of alienation. It is hoped that the paper may offer some insight into the reassessment of London in literary history.The depiction of alienation in Martin Eden is self-evident. Firstly, Martin, together with the laborers of his era, suffers from the pain from alienated labor. Man, as a species life, has an innate need to labor, which is a symbol distinguishing man from other species. However, in capitalist private ownership, they work not because of the innate need but because they are enforced to satisfy the need of eating, drinking, sleeping and so on which are equal to animal functions. Therefore, they feel both physical and spiritual pain. Secondly, the relationship between man and man is alienated. There is no real understanding between them. Their relationship is materialized and they are linked only by money. Thirdly, the relationship between social institutions and man is alienated. Social institutions, founded by man, now pose as a force hostile to and restraining the free development of man. Fourthly, Martin's self is alienated. His labor proceeds from external forces, thus he cannot feel his own value realized and he fails to find his real self. He becomes a famous writer, yet he does not identify with this new identity and his former self as a sailor and hoodlum is gone and never to be retrieved.Martin, because of the will power of a superman, has a keener sense of the existence of alienation. He aggressively tries to help the people around him, in the hope that he may resist alienation with friendliness and love. However, his own force is dwarfed by the overwhelming alienation, thus he chooses to escape. He escapes from labor, the contact with people and the society. He indulges in his fantasy of an alienation-free world. At last, he commits suicide, which enables him to escape the pain of alienation and totally disarms him in the battle with it.The depiction of alienation is closely related to the author's life experience. London in his life has been tortured by alienation. And he also has the experience of escape from society. These to a large extent comprise the origin of the depiction of alienation and escape in the novel.Alienation exists in the course of the development of society and civilization. Highly developed science and technology brings man not only material benefits, but also the pain of deviating from his true state of being in which he is free from alienation. Man lived in a spiritual vacuum where"God is dead"and was prone to the influence of irrational thoughts. It is a unique feature of modernistic writers to sense the pervasive alienation and present it in their works. Alienation is depicted in Martin Eden and the way to depict it agrees with the characteristics of modernistic writing techniques, such as the depiction of the subconscious mind and dense tragic tone. Therefore, it is safe to call him a writer with clear modernity even if he cannot be accepted as a modernistic writer.