Discipline And Punish:A Foucauldian Study Of Martin Eden

As one of Jack London’s representatives, Martin Eden has received various comments from domestic and overseas scholars, but their studies mainly focus on the disillusionment of American Dream, superman philosophy and feminism. The famous French ideologist Michel Foucault puts forward the theory of discipline in his book Discipline and Punish. After a careful reading of the novel, the author of this thesis finds that Martin Eden is among those disciplined by the society. So this thesis attempts to reveal how Martin is disciplined and finally gets punished in Jack London’s Martin Eden from the perspective of Michel Foucault’s theory of discipline.Chapter one analyzes how Martin is disciplined by the upper society, which includes two aspects. First, Martin’s pursuit of beauty, knowledge and love accounts for the subjective reasons for his being disciplined, as he is willing to obtain knowledge necessary for him to enter the upper society. This corresponds to Foucault’s idea that the struggle for knowledge is actually a way to exercise one’s power. Second, the disciplinary power is everywhere in the disciplinary society, which is the objective reason for Martin’s being disciplined. This corresponds to what Foucault says in his Discipline and Punish that the disciplinary methods include infinitesimal power and panopticism.Chapter two focuses on Martin’s rebellion to be disciplined by the upper society. Foucault points out that "where there is power, there is resistance". Through constant hard work, Martin comes to realize that the upper society is not as nice, civilized and elegant as he has imagined. To him, the upper class is a group of ignorant and vulgar people who are also disciplined and yet pretend to be knowledgeable. They are indeed weak empty people with no ideas of their own. Martin is a person who adores the strong and will not be disciplined by the weak.Chapter three attempts to reveal why Martin commits suicide. One is that Martin’s disillusionment of love and writing career cause him to lose motivation for life. The other is that Martin’s individualism leads to his loneliness and despair. Foucault claims "each subject find himself caught in a punishable, punishing universality". Actually, Martin’s suicide is also his punishment because of his rebellion to be disciplined.From the above analysis, this thesis intends to reveal that a single man’s power is too small to revolt against a whole disciplinary society and his failure and punishment are inevitable. Martin Eden is a story whose significance goes beyond Martin to include both the working class and the upper class that are inevitably disciplined.