Martin Eden And Zolaism

Martin Eden is a semi-autobiography by the nineteenth century American novelist Jack London. Based on London’s own experience, it tells how Martin Eden struggles from a sailor to a successful writer. The novel ends with Eden’s suicide and reveals the dilemma of the intellectuals as well as the suffering of the working class in an industrialized and materialistic capitalistic society. Written at the turn of the20th century, the novel has distinct characteristics of naturalistic works, sharing similarities with those of Zola’sin terms of social context and creative principles. Meanwhile, the American Puritan thought, Maxian socialism, Spencerian social Darwinism and Nietzschean individualism form unique tension in the novel. This thesis intends to analyze how London inherits and develops Zolaism in Martin Eden, thus to reveal the hidden intellectual factors behind Eden’s suicide:after great efforts to get away from the working class and become a middle class member, Eden is deeply thrown into the identity crisis. He could not find sense of belonging in either class; at the same time his belief in the strong and his sympathy towards the working class people forms an unsolved conflict.Chapter One introduces the similar naturalistic elements in Martin Eden and Zolaism. Like Zola, Jack London in the novel tries to reveal the oppression and exploitation of the working class in the industrial and urbanizing society. Meanwhile, this chapter also shows how London and Eden as naturalist writers inherit Zola’s literary principles, particularly in terms of documentary details and concern with social reality to demonstrate the misery of the working class. Chapter Two focuses on the development of American Puritan thought, from its fusion with capitalism to its profound influence on Americans. This chapter explores the relation between Eden’s contradictory attitude towards Puritan thought and his final suicide. Chapter Three reveals the other intellectual influences in the novel, including Spencer’s social Darwinism, Nietzsche’s Ubermensch theories and master-slave morality. These thoughts contradict with Eden’s sympathy towards the working class and form a dilemma that leads to his suicide.