Jack London

918 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reflective critique about jack london

Expository Report

"I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze

than it should be stifled by dry rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor,

every atom of me in magnificent glow,

than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time"

This quote is a great example of how London loved to adventure and was a colorful celebrity. He did not spend all his time writing, but instead loved to kick back and have fun.

Jack London fought his way up out of the factories and waterfront drives of West Oakland to become the highest paid, most popular novelist and short story writer of his day. He wrote passionately and prolifically about the great questions of life and death, and the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity, he wove these elemental ideas into stories of high adventure based on his own firsthand experiences at sea, in Alaska, or in the fields and factories of California.

Considered by many to be America’s finest author, Jack London, whose name at birth was John Griffith Chaney, was born on Market Street in San Francisco, California, on January 12, 1876. Before Jack was born, his real father left his mother. As a young child, Jack loved to go out fishing in his small boat with his step-father.

Jack had little formal schooling. Initially, he attended school only through the 8th grade. In later years, Jack returned to high school in Oakland and graduated. He eventually gained admittance to U.C. Berkeley, but stayed only for six months because he said it was boring.

Jack’s extensive life experiences included: being a laborer, factory worker, oyster pirate on the San Francisco Bay, member of the California Fish Patrol, sailor, railroad hobo, and gold prospector in the Klondike from 1897-1898. These job experiences are believed to be where he got the plots and settings for most of his stories. Jack also uses repetitive imagery as a way to describe the setting and characters.

By following a strict writing regimen of 1,000 words a day, Jack was able to produce a huge quantity of high quality work over a period of eighteen years. Jack had become the best-selling, highest paid and most popular American author of his time. Fifty-one of his books, hundreds of short stories, and numerous articles were published.

Show More
Related

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    F. Scott Fitzgerald studied at Newman School, a Catholic prep school found in New Jersey (“F. Scott Fitzgerald” St. James). Fitzgerald played for their football team (“F. Scott Fitzgerald” American). He spent two years at the Newman School then enrolled at Princeton in 1913. He was placed on academic probation in 1917 and figured that it was highly unlikely for him to graduate. So he left Princeton and went to the Army (“F. Scott Fitzgerald” St. James).

    Read More

  • Jean Toomer- An African American Writer

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    When he was fifteen years old, his mother died from appendicitis. From fifteen years of age to his college years, he lived in an all-white neighborhood. From 1914-1917, he shifted from many colleges and academic courses of study as well as he changed his cultural identity growing up. He studied physical education, agriculture, and literature at a total of six colleges and universities from Wisconsin to New York. Although he never completed a degree, his educational pursuits laid the foundation for his writing career.

    Read More

  • Parrallels in the Life of John Steinbeck and the Characters in his Works

    2511 Words  | 6 Pages

    John Steinbeck was perhaps the best author of all time. He was the winner of a Nobel Prize, and among other accomplishments, Steinbeck published nineteen novels and made many movies during his lifetime. All of his experience and knowledge are shown through his novels. A reader can tell, just in reading a novel by Steinbeck, that he had been through a lot throughout his life. Also, Steinbeck worked very hard to accomplish everything that he did during his lifetime. Nothing came very easily to him, and he had to earn everything he owned. This helped him in his writing, because he was able to write about real people and real experiences. John Steinbeck got his inspiration from life experiences, people he knew, and places he had gone.

    Read More

  • James Baldwin

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    “James Baldwin’s turbulent and passionate life informs all of his writings” (Magill 104). Baldwin was a well-defined writer. “In his essays, he constantly depicted and expanded upon personal experiences” (Magill 104). Baldwin's ability to write with such passion and drama is what makes him truly gifted. “In his fiction he drew on autobiographical events, issues, and characters, building dramatic situations that closely reflected his intimate experience of the world” (Magill 104). Baldwin’s talent of choosing words carefully and connecting images with emotions helped him achieve maximum effect in his work (Magill 104). His work was fascinating. “James Baldwin wrote to understand the trials of the past and to articulate principles for the future” (Magill 104). Baldwin’s writing style is what has made him so famous

    Read More

  • Jack London Stories, The Red O

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jack London was one of America’s greatest authors. His works were of tales from the unexplored savage lands of the Klondike to the cannibal infested Philippine Island chain of the vast Pacific, and even the far reaches of space and time. Jack London himself was a pioneer of the unexplored savage frontier. London wrote about this unknown frontier with a cunning sense of adventure and enthrallment. “He keeps the reader on tenterenters books by withholding facts in a way that makes him participate in the action'; (Charles Child Walcutt 16). He taunts the reader with unfulfilled information that subliminally encourages the reader to continue reading their selection. “The tortuously baroque style, it’s telling often proves an annoyance';(Gorman Beauchamp 297-303). London’s writing attributes are so deep in description and narration, the reader sometimes perceives the story-taking place with them included in the action. His ability to exclude just the very miniscule amount of information transforms his books into a semi-formal mystery. Mr. London’s tales deal with nature, the men and women who either neglected the fact that they are mere mortals, or they humbled themselves as being only a solitary one being on the earth. His stories satisfied the civilized American readers yearn for knowledge of what awaited them over the horizon, with either promise of prosperity or demise with a manifestation of dismay.

    Read More

  • The Life of Jack Kerouac

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    Born March 12, 1922, to French Canadian parents, Jack Kerouac’s given name was Jean Louis Kirouac. He grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, surrounded with his two great loves, football and the written word. He spoke a French dialect in which some of his later works were written, finally learning English at school, aged six. His athletic skills later earned him a scholarship to Columbia University. He wrote many pieces for the school paper while a fractured tibia forced him from the team. He later dropped out of Columbia after many arguments with his coach. He remained in the New York City where he met many people whose names are still synonymous with his today, the ‘beat generation’. These people provided him with experience and influenced his writing along with jazz, travel, and spirituality. Jack Kerouac is renowned for many of his pieces including On the Road and Big Sur. He wrote in ‘Spontaneous Prose’.

    Read More

  • A Farewell to Arms

    1567 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway is considered the main personification of the American writers of the ‘Lost Generation’, who lived and wrote his novels during World War I. He became a famous writer in a short time, and the most important author of his generation, and perhaps the 20th century.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Two Versions of To Build a Fire

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jack London has written a classic short story in the 1908 version of "To Build a Fire." This is the classic story of man fighting nature. In most genres (e.g. movies, novels, short stories) the main character comes out on top, however unlikely that is. Jack London takes literary naturalism and shows the reader how unmerciful nature is. Much like Stephen Crane in "The Open Boat," in which the one of the characters dies, London doesn't buy into that "has to have a good ending" contrivance. Through analysis of two London's letters (to R.W. Gilder and Cloudesly Johns) these two versions of "To Build a Fire" come alive with new meaning. Although there are many differences on the surface, both stories use his philosophy as expressed to Johns and both teach a moral lesson, one which will not soon be forgotten: "Never travel alone."

    Read More

  • Jack London, Chris McCandless and Jon Krakauer

    1533 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jack London whose birth name is John Griffin was known for his fiction adventurous novels. Although he was a sailor, gold prospector, rancher and served his country in the Army he still have yet served the time in the wilderness of Alaska. Jack London wrote ‘’The Call of the Wild’’ as if he lived it before. His words jump at you so viciously you had no choice to swallow, savor, and meditate on your life just like Chris McCandless. In the book ways of reading page 429 the dark knight of the soul by Richard E. Miller said that Jon Krakauer wrote about how Jack London actually persuade Chris McCandless that he could possibly escape the bonds of the corporatized world and reach a space of greater calm.

    Read More

  • Jack London

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jack London was not Jack London at first. His real name was John Griffith Chaney, or just Johnny. The future writer was born on January 12, 1876, at 615 Third Street, San Francisco, California. Jack London was raised in a family of his mother Flora, who was a spiritualist, and his stepfather John London, who loved him a lot. John London felt sorry for Jack, because he was a partially disabled Civil War veteran and Jack had to do all work. It is believed that Jack was the illegitimate son of Williams Chaney, an itinerant astrologer and journalist. London’s parents’ may be described as rather homely American family.

    Read More

  • Jack London Research Paper

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jacks early life was one of struggle of reward, his full name was John Griffith London born in San Francisco, January 12, 1876 to a wealthy mother (Flora Wellmon), and actual father is unknown but most likely is William Chaney. His mother was very ill in his early childhood, and in infancy was raised by Virginia Prentiss, who acted like a mother for most of his life. His mother remarried and moved to Oakland where jack completed grade school. His family in this early part of his life was well off working class people. As he grew up he adopted the nickname “Jack” and by his teenage years was working hard labor jobs such as Oyster Fishing, and Fish Patrol. At 19 he returned to school and finished high school. He became a socialist and joined the “Boy Socialist of Oakland”, he was always a very active reader and even began to write a little to escape his troubles as life as a factory worker. He submitted his work only

    Read More

  • Jack London Research Paper

    472 Words  | 1 Pages

    Jack London (1876-1916) was born in San Francisco of an unmarried mother Flora Wellman. London grew up in extreme poverty: from earliest youth he supported himself with mental and dangerous jobs, experiencing profoundly the struggle for survival that most other writers and intellectuals knew only from observation or books. By the time he was eighteen he had worked in a cannery and as an oyster pirate, seaman, jute mill worker, and coal shoveler. Realizing that he could never become great by doing odd jobs, he determined to educate himself and prepare himself for better than grueling labor. He attended Oakland High School at age nineteen. A thirst for knowledge snatched young London and he read every book he could get. London consciously chose to become a writer to escape from the

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July, 21 1899 to his mother Grace Hall and his father Clarence Edmonds Hemingway (Rood 187). Even though he was born into a upper-middle class family, he single handedly revised the Byronic stereotype of the artist-adventurer (Lesniak 20). Hemingway’s childhood was rarely mentioned, other then that he tried to run away from

    Read More

  • The Life of John McTaggart

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jack graduated from high school, and attended a few college classes before realising that it "wasn't for him". He has a large family conssiting of two brothers from his fathers first marriage, one brother from his mothers first marriage, and one brother from his father and mothers marriage; a t...

    Read More

  • The Victorian Era

    1784 Words  | 4 Pages

    Perhaps, like many artists, Oscar Wilde was ahead of his time. Today, his flamboyant ways, pride, and homosexuality would be seen as part of his creative outlet and as eccentric, not as something to fear as Victorian society did. Like Ellen DeGeneres’ homosexuality and Lady GaGa’s bizarre way of dressing, many artists today find their outward appearance to be part of their persona and society today is more likely to embrace the differences in artists and praise them for their creativity. However he was perceived in his time, today Oscar Wilde is considered one of the most gifted and most often quoted users of the English language (Wright 54).

    Read More

More about Jack London

Open Document