Literary Movement of Jack London

Jack London as an author belongs to the literary movement of Naturalism. First I will describe Naturalism and then discuss how London’s writings fit into this movement. Naturalism is described as a literature type that uses the study of human beings in relation to scientific knowledge of detachment and objectivity. Basically, in naturalism writings you will see characters that are examined according to their surroundings and how they relate to them. There are several different themes you can see within a naturalist works, one that you seen in London’s work is the brute within. This highlights an individual and their instinct fight for survival in an indifferent situation.  Social Darwinism is a theory, among others, that is also often used in naturalism writing to help readers understand characters. Jack London’s pieces often include Darwinism, he highlights in many of his pieces the fight for survival based on human instincts and sometimes animals as well. Two of his works that include these characteristics are To Build a Fire, which uses the theme of the brute within and The Sea-Wolf. London’s more popular works The Call of the Wild and White Fang, focus on differences of animal and human behaviors.  

Work Cited

Campbell, Donna. Naturalism in American Literature . 27 July 2010. 12 April 2012 <http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm>.

Matterson, Stephen. The American Novel . 1 March 2007. 12 April 2012 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/naturalism.html>.

Unknown. Jack London. 1 January 2008. 5 April 2012 <http://www.online-literature.com/london/>.