The Inner Call

Jack London, one of the most famous realistic novelists in American literary history, has produced over fifty works throughout his life. As one of his later masterpieces, Burning Daylight tells a story of a millionaire nicknamed Burning Daylight. The hero comes to the city from the Arctic where he has made his fortune, and becomes a businessman. However, the corruption of the financial world along with the stress of life almost destroys his spirits. After a series of struggles, Daylight discards his great fortune, and instead returns to the nature with his beloved.There are lots of studies on London from various standpoints at home and abroad. Nevertheless, most of the studies are focused on his works of early and middle periods, such as The Call of the Wild, Love of Life and Martin Eden. They are mainly interpreted from the perspectives of ecologism, feminism and psychology. Burning Daylight, one of his later masterpieces, has not been taken seriously and has never been interpreted psychologically. Therefore, this thesis makes an attempt to explore the psychological journey of Burning Daylight by adopting Abraham H. Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs and that of self-actualization. Besides, Maslow’s theory of self-actualization holds that individuals are all developing towards self-actualization while the environment either fosters or hinders their development Thus, the thesis also illustrates the great influence of the environment on individuals by combining the features of the contemporary social environment.