Jack London,Life experience,Born : January 12, 1876 San Francisco, California, US Died : November 22, 1916 Aged 40 Old name John Griffith Chaney,Oyster pirate (13) Had a mistress aged 16 (15) Sailor (17) Worker Tramp Admitted to the University of California, Berkeley (20, forced to leave due to financial circumstances the next year),Klondike Gold Rush (21) the setting for some of his first successful stories A social conscience and socialist leanings; he returned to become an activist for socialism,He concluded that his only hope of escaping the work “trap“ was to get an education and “sell his brains“. He saw his writing as a business, his ticket out of poverty, and, he hoped, a means of beating the wealthy at their own game.,Literary position,American author, journalist, and social activist One of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction Influence on later writers, such as, Hemingway, George Orwell,Views,Atheism “I believe that when I am dead, I am dead. I believe that with my death I am just as much obliterated(彻底毁灭的) as the last mosquito you and I squashed.”,Socialism wrote from a socialist viewpoint (The Iron Heel 1984) Londons socialism grew out of his life experience (How I Became a Socialist) Joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1896 Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1901 The War of the Classes (1905) Revolution, and other Essays (1906),Works,Short story collections (21) Novels (23) Autobiographical memoirs (2) Non-fiction and essays (23) Plays (3) Poetry (45),Masterpiece,Short stories,Western writer and historian Dale L. Walker writes: “Londons true mtier was the short story . Londons true genius lay in the short form, 7,500 words and under, where the flood of images in his teeming brain and the innate power of his narrative gift were at once constrained and freed.” To Build a Fire (1902), best known Love of life Science fiction The Unparalleled Invasion describes germ warfare against China,Novels,Human beings in nature The Call of the Wild (1903) The Sea-Wolf (1904) White Fang (1906) Human beings in the city The Iron Heel (1908) Martin Eden (1909),The Call of the Wild,Genre: Adventure novel, Animal fiction The story is set in the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rusha period when strong sled dogs were in high demand.,Central character,Buck A domesticated dog living at a ranch in California as the story opens Stolen from his home and sold into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog Forced to adjust to, and survive, cruel treatments To fight to dominate other dogs in a harsh climate,Eventually he sheds the veneer of civilization, relying on primordial (原始的)instincts through lessons he learns, to emerge as a leader in the wild. He reverts to atavistic(返祖现象的) traits.,The law of club and fang 大棒与獠牙法则 The man in the red sweater,This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death. It marked, further, the decay or going to pieces of his moral nature, a vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence. It was all well enough in the Southland, under the law of love and fellowship, to respect private property and personal feelings; but in the Northland, under the law of club and fang, whoso took such things into account was a fool, and in so far as he observed them he would fail to prosper.,Influenced by mile Zola heredity versus environment American pastoralism a prevailing theme in American literaturein which the mythic hero returns to nature,Themes,The primary theme of the story is of survival and a return to primitivism. based on Darwins concept of survival of the fittest Buck symbolizes a reaction against industrialization and social convention with a return to nature.,Writing style,Symbolism and imagery(意象) In the first phase,journey and self-discovery, shows physical violence, with strong images of pain and blood. In the second phase fatigue becomes a dominant image and death is a dominant symbol as Buck comes close to being killed. The third phase shows a period of renewal and rebirth and takes place in the spring. The fourth phase of reverting to nature is placed in a vast and “weird atmosphere“, a place of pure emptiness.,The setting is allegorical: the south represents the soft, materialistic world; the north symbolizes a world beyond civilization and is inherently competitive. The harshness, brutality, and emptiness in Alaska reduce life to its essence.,The characters too are symbolic of types. Charles, Hal and Mercedes symbolize vanity and ignorance, while Thornton and his companions represent loyalty, purity, and love. Much of the imagery is stark and simple with an emphasis on images of cold, snow, ice, darkness, meat, and blood.,