Regular visitors would have noticed that this site in the reading category mostly has non-fiction, that is, books that teach you something, that make you think. That means a work of fiction must be extraordinary to earn its place here. Finally, the time has come for another book to gain that special privilege.
The Plot
Jokes aside, Martin Eden by Jack London is indeed an extraordinary book. It’s a novel about a young, uneducated sailor from the working class, Martin Eden, who, after being invited to dinner, falls in love with Ruth Morse, a woman from a wealthy and prestigious family. He is utterly infatuated with her and treats her almost like an incarnation of divinity, as he has never encountered such a delicate woman.
Because she belongs to a social class “above” him, he decides he will no longer earn money with his hands but with his mind and starts the journey to become part of the elite, to rise above what he is currently, to achieve a higher status. He is trying to educate himself, to learn as much as possible about literature and become a successful writer, worthy of Ruth.
Of course, as you can imagine, someone who tries to educate himself and earn through writing is in for a world of struggle. As he dabbles in writing, he tries to get his stories published, so he submits them to magazines, only to be rejected time after time. First, he thinks he’s being rejected because he sends his work in handwriting, so he decides to get a typewriter. You can feel his frustration, but it is intermixed with determination. He never gives up.
Ruth starts to doubt that Martin will ever become a writer; she insists that he get a job with her father. But little by little, magazines began accepting his submissions and sending him checks. Then his luck stops again. It’s a struggle. When his writings are rejected again, and he’s falsely accused of being a socialist, Ruth leaves him. After a while, he becomes famous and successful, and then Ruth wants him again, but he is not interested.
His success comes at a price – he is starting to feel emotionally drained. He is starting to look down upon the wealthy and elite families he once looked up to. He is starting to think that his quest to improve himself was in vain and hollow. Nothing can lift his spirits, and he gives his money away and goes on the voyage by ship, “Mariposa”. But while on the seas, he decides to end it all and commits suicide by drowning.
Themes
It’s a book that has everything. It colourfully paints various layers of the early 20th-century American society – what moves them, their beliefs, and their desires. It is a tale of success through persistence and self-reliance, but also about the dangers of relying too much on yourself and losing faith in humanity.
It is a fantastic book that you will not be able to put down, and it will inspire various emotions in you – determination, sadness, desire, anger at hypocrisy, and a willingness to improve yourself. It can also shock you if your story is a bit like Martin’s – one of success, but not of happiness. And that seems kind of like a story of any worker of today – relatively successful but ultimately not happy and fulfilled, so the book was, in my opinion, very predictive of the problems in our society.
There is a recipe for success in our world, but it is also a cautionary tale. At least I feel that part of the message of the book is that you should not necessarily attempt to do everything alone and by yourself, as it can lead to pretty dark places and possibly to suicide, as such. I believe many of us would be forgiven for interpreting it as a criticism of unbridled capitalism, in which we are expected to work ourselves to death to move forward.
The theme of levels in society, or social classes, is powerful here, as Martin comes from the working class and is inspired by the “higher levels”, with him in time becoming isolated from his social class and even being disgusted by it. However, in time, he starts feeling that his education has surpassed the bourgeois class as well and starts feeling more isolated than ever,
With its mixed messages and the reader being driven to both follow the story for its own sake and try to fathom the meaning, this is one of the books you should not miss.
The book is in the public domain in many countries, so you might be able to read it for free. Just make sure to check if that is the case in your country as well.
