The Loss of the American Dream in Jack London's Martin Eden

INTRODUCTION

The American dream is a theme in American literature, film, and art expressing optimistic desires for self-improvement, freedom, and self-sufficiency. Nevertheless, several historical events in America have inspired many critics to question the American Dream, often seeing it as ultimately selfish or destructive. In Jack London’s novel Martin Eden (London, 1909), the protagonist is looking for happiness in circles of the privileged class, where money plays an important role. Eden’s failure makes it obvious that the way for the realization of his dream does not grant him happiness.

Jack London’s literary world is rich and multicolored. His character strife for such values as duty, honor and justice more than life. His fiction is a reflection of the real and simultaneously with a certain flavor of romanticism. London wrote about the sufferings of human beings and about their steadfastness, about selfless love and passionate hatred, about a strife to build a just society on earth.

The aim of this annual essay is to reveal the causes for the loss of the American dream in Jack London’s novel Martin Eden.

To attain the above indicated aim the following objectives have been set out:

to define the concept of the American dream and overview its most prominent representations in fiction;to introduce the basic principles of Jack London’s creative method and Martin Eden as an autobiographical novel;to investigate the perception of the American dream of the characters;to reveal the collision of the ideal and the real in the lives of the characters of the novel;to represent the means chosen for the realization of the dream.to analyse the means for the loss of the American dream in the novel.

The annual essay consists of an introduction, three chapters, conclusions, a summary in Lithuanian and a list of references.

Chapter One defines the concept of the American dream and discusses its most prominent representations in fiction. Chapter Two introduces the basic principles of Jack London’s creative method and Martin Eden as his autobiographic novel. Chapter Three investigates the lifestyle and the desires of the characters of Jack London’s novel Martin Eden making reference to the American dream.

The research is supported by the valuable insights of such literary critics and philosophers as Jim Cullen, Joseph Stiglitz, James T. Adams, Jennifer Hochschild, and others. Conclusions reflect the actual findings after the analysis of the novel has been carried out.