冲突与毁灭

陈谦红

By means of textual analysis，a hypothesis is made that the protagonist’s tragedy is neither the result of his belief in individualism or Nietzsche’s theory of superman，nor the consequence of his being disillusioned with American Dream，but rather the outcome of four pairs of entangled conflicts found with him:individualism vs.socialism;Nietzsche’s superman theory vs.sympathy for the working people;conscience of a serious artist vs.consciousness of a commercial writer;pursuit of success vs.doubt of success.

Individualistic as Martin Eden was，he always vacillated between individualism and socialism.His identity as an individualist made it certain that he must endure misunderstanding in solitude，that he must seek after success independently and that he must separate himself from the working－class people.On the other hand，he harbored sincere concern for the working people because of his working experiences，his inborn kindness and his family background.Nevertheless，once he set his mind on writing to fame and money independent of all others，his natural tie with the working class was deliberately cut off.During the process of individualistic struggle，he was a little lonesome but secretly pleased that he had built a castle with philosophies and books，which could not be easily penetrated by the ignorant working people.Although he belonged to the working class，he had distinguished himself from them by acquiring knowledge from a wide range of books.As a result，he thought of himself as a man different from the masses，superior to them both physically and mentally.However，no matter how individualistic he had become，he could not rid himself of his concern for the working people.As a result，he was so frequently cornered by socialism and individualism that he constantly felt at loss.Such puzzlement was furthered by the conflict resulting from his adherence to superman theory and his deep concern for the working people.

While he exulted in his mental superiority to the common Martin held great concern and deep sympathy for the working people.Living among the working class and himself a worker，he was conscious of their sufferings and their pain all the time.Though unable to do much for them，he somewhat tried to show his care，love and willingness to help.Each time when his financial condition disabled him to help his sisters，his working bum Joe，his landlady，Maria and other poor people，he agonized over such incompetence and tried to do as much as possible.Once he got money by writing，he wasted no time to either help them realize their life－long dreams or relieve their burdens.

He held contempt against the working people whom he deeply sympathized with，believing they lacked intelligence and insights.He took the upper class as vermin leading parasitic life.Therefore it is hard for him to identify with either class.He regarded himself as a superman both physically and mentally，yet he could do little to change the evil society as a whole.He sympathized with the working people，but nevertheless disdained them.He had believed his literary creations could change the situation of contemporary spiritless literary circle and at the same time，could provide a better perspective for people.But he was disappointed to find nobody understood what underlay these works.He held deep faith in superman，strove hard to be a superman and eventually became a superman.Nevertheless，he could not force himself to cut off all relations with the commonplace as superman theory ordained.Instead，he found companionship and consolation among them.Hence，it was certain that he was frequently pestered by the conflict between his conviction in superman theory and his attachment to as well as sympathy for the working people.

Martin fully realized the difference between being a serious artist and being a commercial writer.He took himself as a serious artist and despised commercial writing.To him，the joy of writing for beauty’s sake far surpassed that of earning money and achieving fame.When Ruth tried to persuade him to get work on a newspaper so as to get a more decent pay，he reiterated his writing ethics:never sacrifice one’s style for mercenary purpose.For him，to sacrifice style was to commit literary suicide.The stories he hack－worked were a violation of himself，of his self－ respect，of his respect for beauty.Being such a serious writer，he admitted he felt guilty for his hackwork and was secretly glad when the markets failed.

While his serious works could not find market，his machine－made stories，which he much hated and derided，were successful.Because of them he was able to redeem all his pledges，pay most of his bills，and buy new tires for his bicycle.Hence，he had to accept and do commercial writing for it at least kept him alive and supported him in his creation of serious works.All the time he was conscious of his dilemma between being a serious writer and a commercial writer;if permitted，he would not hesitate to choose to be a serious artist，yet he could not escape from the double identities due to financial reasons.He knew clearly that he was taking the risk of sacrificing serious literary creation for money，but his poverty，his love and his ambition for material success all depended on money.So he had no choice but to succumb to commercial writing in agony while persevering with creating serious works.

In Martin’s view，success meant that his works could，in the first place，found market and，in the second place，be appreciated as serious literary creations which portrayed life realistically.In his heart and soul he considered sincere appreciation of his works the sole yardstick to measure success.To his great distress，there existed an unbridgeable gap between the success befalling him and the success he had been pursuing.The former only brought him amorphous emptiness，disillusion，indignation and estrangement from his people while the latter contrasted sharply with the former，reminding him of his failure all the time.The dreamed success and the attained success took turns to torture him until he began to doubt the real meaning of his success.To his disillusionment，there was no sense in the success that had befallen him for it only gave him bubble reputation instead of real recognition for his talent in literary creation.At the same time，the dreamed success kept on pushing him forward，which he refused to respond to，afraid to find another disappointment.As long as his works were limited to the bourgeoisie，it would never be read for its real value.But the paradox was:in the then capitalist soci-ety，economic success was above everything else;for any writer who wanted to achieve success，first of all his work must find a market and the market is decided by the bourgeoisie.Therefore，Martin was doomed to fall short of his literary ambition because any success he attained was defined by the capitalist society.As a result，the success he sought after would never live up to his expectation in a capitalist society，where the criterion used to define success was totally different from his own measuring stick.

Martin’s life is the process of hard struggle，pursuit for success，as well as that of self fulfillment，disillusion and destruction.He spared no efforts to pursue success only to find disillusion with success;he tried to struggle individualistically but was always aware that only socialism could save his people from their miseries;he held deep faith in Nietzsche’s superman and managed to act as one，but nevertheless he could not treat the working people as the superman would.Instead he held deep sympathy for the working people and sought consolation and friendship among them.He aspired to become a serious writer but was forced by life to do commercial writing.He toiled to success yet the success he got turned out to be a disappointment.He was greatly tormented by these conflicts.The worse was that he failed to reconcile these conflicts.Hence，death became a final solution to him.

Bibliography:

［1］Jack London.:《Martin Eden 》，上海:上海外语教育出版社，2009年。

［2］Fred McEwen，“Jack London Overview”in Twentieth － Century Young Adult Writers.，edited by Laura Standley Berger，St.James Press，2014.

［3］［美］欧文·斯通:《马背上的水手——杰克·伦敦传》，董秋思译，北京:中国青年出版社，1982年。

［4］Foner Philip.Jack London，“American Rebel－A Collection of his Social Writings Together with an Extensive Study of the Man and His Times Berlin”，Seven Seas，1958.

［5］Annette T.Rubistein，“American Literature Root and Flower:Significant Poets，Novelists ＆Dramatists 1775－1995 Volume I Beijing”，Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，1998.