Patterson 1

Keefer B. Patterson

Professor Emily Masterson

American Literature I

3 December 2015

The Romanticism and Sublime Moments in the Works of Jack London

Jack London was a writer in the latter part of the 19th century and the early part

of the 20th century, which would make him a writer during the Naturalism period.

London was a true idealist when it came to America and the profound beauty and

brutality of the wild frontier. His idea was that it was a land of opportunity but also a land

where life was put to the test each and every single day. It was a place where the term

survival of the fittest was more than just an idea of Social Darwinism; it was the idea

and to think any less of it could prove to be fatal. His works reflected this in many ways.

This paper aims to discuss the Romantics of his works even though he was not a writer in

the declared era of Romanticism, which according to some, would arguably end in 1865.

This paper will illuminate upon the designs of American Romanticism and how they

correlate with Londons work.

In order to achieve this goal, you must first know what Romanticism is before you

can understand where Londons writings belong in this world. It is more than just a

period in time. It was a revolutionary era of enlightenment where people started to

discover themselves and their place within this world. Where they started to originate

their own ideas of beauty and freedom. Where emotion truly took form and gave people a

defined voice.
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American Romance evolved from an age of reason. Its initiation was retaliation

against the social and cultural norms that were diminishing to an ever-expanding world of

knowledge and self-awareness. It countered the ideas of industrialization and

urbanization. Romance was about nature and understanding the sublime within it. Ralph

Waldo Emerson interpreted the idea of Romanticism in the sense of a visual spectacle

and constantly observed the world as it played before him, Henry David Thoreau leaned

more towards seclusion with nature and living with it in a physical manner as a pastime,

Edgar Allan Poe wrote more towards a dark gothic style and took the romance to a more

truly emotional level and Walt Whitman wrote for the everyday common man to which

he spoke of life, the human condition and nature among many other things. These are just

a few names in this era but they are definitely some of the more influential.

The Romantic Movement heavily influenced London and his writings. He

himself, in many ways, was a writer of the Romantic form. His material may take a more

intense view on the idea of Romanticism against people like Emerson or Thoreau but the

key ideas and the foundation are there. These ideas are expressed in Londons use of

nature, self-reliance, independence, emotion, etc. The short story To Build A Fire

stands out as a true icon of his many works. Not only for the story aspect of it but for the

lesson that it tells for when man is put up against nature, it is nature that has the upper

hand and therefore must be respected and understood, otherwise ones demise is almost

fairly certain.

A great essay written by Roger Asselineau titled Jack London as a Crypto-

Transcendentalist supports the previous mentioned ideas about Londons Romantic

influence. In this essay, Asselineau discusses Jack Londons writings and gives examples
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of how Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman both played key parts in the inception

and development of Londons mindset. Asselineau puts great emphasis on Walt Whitman

and he even goes as far as to suggest that there was a time when London felt like writing

his own version of Leaves of Grass and that it probably would have been wilder and

more tormented than Whitmans (Asselineau 87). After which he then goes on to say

that London did not feel equal to the task of expressing the inexpressible like Whitman

(Asselineau 87) did. This statement alone shows Londons admiration for Walt Whitman

and his writings.

To Build A Fire conveys a story of a nave young man who at his own ignorance,

bravery and stupidity decides to travel in the blisteringly freezing weather of the

Klondike. Great detail is given to the bitter icy landscape and to the reasoning of the

traveling man. He was not a man who paid much attention to the significances and took

things for face value. An example would be as the man traveled in fifty degree below

weather, he simply did not consider the frailty of his own existence and what fifty

degrees actually meant. To him it simply meant that it was really cold, nothing more and

nothing less and that there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that

never entered his head (London 283). The freezing temperatures were merely something

that just needed to be guarded against with cold weather gear. Through his inexperienced

and foolish decisions to travel the man was led to his demise. In the end, no matter how

hard he tried to combat the weather and elude the impending doom that lay before him, it

just was not enough. Of course there is more to the story than what was mentioned but

what is important here is Londons use of the realistic and uncompromisable power of

nature.
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I would call London a transcendentalist, for his books are about nature. His

original relation to the universe was about being close to nature and witnessing it first

hand and in this respect he was just like the Romantics before him but where he differed

was his emphasis was on the brutality of nature. He does not romanticize nature and

make it the beneficent companion of the creatures that live in this world. Nature, in

London's writing, is an independent force that does not care whether those living in it live

or die. It affects it not and is of no consequence to London's natural world. This world has

the capability of being both dangerous and beautiful without leaning too far into the

extremes of being malevolent or benevolent. It is a real world where the truths of life

come to be framed in the picture that London paints.

James Naudi writes an interesting article that compares Jack London to that of

Tom Thomson, a Canadian painter. This is yet another example of the key topic in this

paper as Tom Thomson was not only a painter but was hailed as a true artist who

captured the wilderness and frontier of Canada. In other words he was definitely an artist

of the Romantic form. Naudi gives both the praise that they rightly deserve and says,

London personifies the American character and has had first hand experience of

westward expansion. London's reputation, like Thomson's, was based on his time spent in

the frontier (Naudi 15).

To finally bring this paper to a close we must understand that Romanticism is

everywhere! Its in the beautiful sunset. Its in the eyes of your lover. Its in the pain that

we endure in life. Its in the sublime moments. It soars to the peaks of the highest

mountains and plummets to the lowest depths of the oceans. It is life! Romanticism is

about living in the moment and observing the world unfold, understanding it and finding
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your own moment. Jack London truly captured these values in his literature and was

clearly in love with the world. He was in awe of nature with her many virtues and

believed it to be a good life to write about her. His name will forever be ingrained within

the early formations of American Literature for his contributions were arguably among

some of the best written of the American Frontier. Emily Dickinson once wrote a poem

called A Bird came down the Walk and in this poem she described a most sublime

moment where she observed a bird making his way down a walkway. As she observed

the wondrous detail in its features and ways, she was in a moment of bliss where nothing

else was important within the world. It was just a simple moment that had presented itself

to her and as soon as it began it then ended and the moment was gone but the lasting

impression remained. That is Romanticism.

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Works Cited

Asselineau R, Tavernier-Courbin J. "Jack London as a Crypto-

Transcendentalist." Critical Essays On Jack London. Boston, Mass: G.K. Hall,

1983. 86-88.

Dickinson, Emily. "A Bird came down the Walk." The Norton Anthology of American

Literature Shorter Eighth Edition: Vol. I. Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York: Norton,

2013. 1203.

London J, Labor E. Leitz R. Shepar I. To Build A Fire. Short Stories Of Jack London.

New York: Macmillan, 1990. 282-295.

Naudi, James. "Artists On The Frontier: Jack London And Tom Thomson As Tools For

Comparison." ALN: The American Literary Naturalism Newsletter7.1/2 (2012):

14-18. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.