杰克伦敦 热爱生命 论文

Inspiration and Realistic Meaning of Love of Life
【Abstract】: Jack London is the U.S novelist and short story writer of critical realism .He has left abundant masterpieces．Love of life is the most famous short story of the “Northern tales” series. The paper generally analyzes the story ; Compare Love of Life with The Old Man and the Sea and Robinson Crusoe in order to dig out the theme on a broader stage. Finally, it deepens the version into the real life, talking about its realistic meaning.
【摘要】：杰克伦敦是美国最富有批判精神的现实主义作家，他的一生著述颇丰。

《热爱生命》是他的“北方故事”中最著名的一篇。

本论文在简要介绍小说的基础上将该文与《老人与海》、《鲁宾孙漂流记》比较，以在更加广阔的平台上挖掘文章的主题。

最后文章从纵向入手，将视角延伸至现实生活，深度剖析小说的现实意义，使读者从中受益。

【Key words】: love of life; fighting, comparison; realistic meaning
【关键字】: 《热爱生命》；斗争；比较；现实意义
Jack London (1876~1916), whose life symbolized the power of will, was the most successful writer in America in the early 20th Century. His vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardships inspired so many readers .Love of life, written by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th,was his best short story and was highly appreciated by Lenin, Vladimir . This paper focus on analyzing the theme ,inspiration and realistic meaning.
1.General analysis of the story
People who have read the novel all knows that though the plot is simple, it is rather exciting: the story of a man in the wilderness with hunger, wild animals and despair, totally a fighting against death . At the beginning of the novel, because of a sprained foot of the hero, he was abandoned by his companions. Therefore he became lost and lived outdoors . There he could only survive by chewing a white marshes or the rush root in order to maintain the day to day journey of suffering. Afterward, there appeared a sick wolf, and therefore staged a even more breathtaking tragedy . A patient crawling, a sick wolf limping, two creatures dragging their dying in the wilderness , hunting each other at the risk of each other's lives. When the blood flows out from the wolf , we knew that he certainly would go out of the wilderness and it really was .
The desire for survival is one distinct feature of love of life. The character never got lost because he had a strong desire—go back lively. In his mind there was a clear route: found bullets, food ,cools and boat. Along with all the difficulties, he had always having hope and imaginary that Bill was still waiting for him. “But hard as he stove with his body ,he strove with his mind, trying to think that Bill had not deserted him, that Bill would surely wait for him at cache .He was compelled to think this thought,otherwsie there would not be any use to strive, and he would have lain down and died .”It was no other than such a kind of belief that encouraged and supported him to fight for life.
The story itself is not a moving plot, but reading the text somehow gives a strong shock. Faced with threat of starvation and the wolf, as well as the even more terrible environment. the dedication, persistence, tenacity reflected a miracle of life . Beyond the external danger, the miracle of desire and ability to survive is shocking. But it also conveys the necessity of the love of life . The book actually tells us a simple truth: As long as the idea is still living in mind, do not give up easily.
2. Writing technique and writing style
2.1Taking advantage of the scene to express the emotion
When abandoned by his partner Bill, the descriptions of the natural environment appeared twice, respectively ”Near the horizon the sun was smouldering dimly, almost obscured by formless mists and vapors ,which gives an impression of mass and density without outline and tangibility.” This description perfectly echoed with the man’s phych ological feelings ,he almost couldn’t believe that Bill had abandoned him and left him alone wounded. How much he wished that everything was just his illusion which dim weather bought forth. The second time is ”It was not a heartening spectacle. Everywhere was soft sky-line. The hills were all low-lying. There were no trees, no shrubs ,no grass-naught but a tremendous and terrible desolation that sent fear swiftly dawning into his eyes.”This bleak and desolated environment echoed with the man’s situation ,enabled the readers to sense the man’s fear and disappointment .
2.2 Using abundant vocabulary to express
limp, reel ,totter all mean” to tremble or rock as if about to fall”
2.3 Using figurative language
S imile: “His joints were like rusty hinges .They worked harshly in their sockets, with much friction, and each bending or unbending was accomplished only through a sheer exertion of will” ,vividly explains hardness for the man to walk with his twisted leg
Repetition: The description of the man’s heart beating and how he counted matches and wound etc. all appeared several times to emphasis the importance.
Parataxis: “Then followed the wild upward leap and tattoo of flutters, the pressing as of an iron band about his forehead, the creeping of the dizziness into his brain.” The compound sentences forcefully showed the fierce physical torture the man suffered.
Personification : “The hunger pangs were sharp .They gnawed and gnawed until he could not keep his mind steady on the course he must pursue to gain the land of little sticks .”gnaw”, an action of human ,used here to show the violence of hunger .
Onomatopoetic words :use ker-ker-ker to describe the noise of ptarmigan and “thump ,thump ,thump ” to describe the heart-beating.
Alliteration and End rhyme: the day grew chill and crisp ;a smouldering ,smudgy fire; weariness and weakness; served and spread; the eyes were bleared and blood slot ;hopped and bobbed clumsily, calm and collected…all these make the sentences forceful and in harmonious rhyme. 2.4 Subtle phychological description
Vivid phychological description is another spotlight of the essay .For example,”he began to shake as with an ague-fit, till the gun fell from his hand with a splash” ,simple sentence as it was, penetrates the fear of the man.”“And yet he wanted to live .It was unreasonable that he should die after all he had undergone ” shows the man’s strong mind and tough personality.
2.5 Little but forceful description of conversations
“Bill!”he whispered, once and twice ,”Bill!”Just two words forcefully showed the fear even disillusion of the man when been abandoned.
3. Comparison between Love of life and The Old Man and the Sea
As is known to all, Jack London and Hemingway are hemorrhagic men. They worship strength, adventure and struggle. American writer Jack London's "Love of Life" and Earnest Hemingway's" The Old Man and the Sea" are songs of the peaceful life and survival which let us reinstate the overturning sea and listen to the heart that troubled from the call of the wild. These
two works aims at analyzing the vivid true life by the glorification of life and longing for survival. Then comes to the conclusion that all limited life will last forever.
As far as we are concerned, both works show us the same theme, that is, to show the beautiful vitality infinitely beyond the limited life.
In the "Love of life", bad weather, cold polar and a group of hungry wolves composed the inaccessible environment. Even in such a difficult situation, the gold digger performed extraordinary courage and never gave up. In the desert, he kept his life by eating little food he could got, dragged his weaken feet on the wide wasteland : fell, moved up, walked again, and repeated these actions again and again. During the war against a sicken wolf, his desire for survival made him wake up. His nerve have dulled while his brain was full filled with weird illusion and wonderful dreams .Eventually, he defeated that wolf and emitted the light of life. Here, beyond the survival instinct is the faith in life and survival.
In "The Old Man and the Sea", the old fisherman has not land a fish for 84 days so that he could not afford himself any food, then he decided go far away to land big fish. However, the Marlin was too big for him to land, he struggled with this big Marlin for three days which made him so tired that he nearly fell in a faint. What's more, on his way back home, a fierce shark attacked his fruits of labor and he tried his best to fight with it and won finally. Though at last, his Marlin remained little, his spirit of fighting with the shark and never giving in to the crucial nature should still highly complimented.
4. Comparison between Love of life and Robinson Crusoe
Needless to say, both the hero in Love of Life and Robinson are so strong-minded to conquer all the difficulties in the process of pursuing life .Apart from their tough spirit and dogged vitality ,they have another feature in common that contribute a lot to their survival in Slough of Despond, that is the survival skills. Actually ,if they do not equipped with such abundant survival skills, no matter how strong their desire for life are ,they have no chance to survive in such extreme conditions. Firstly, both of them know how to take their bearings. The protagonist in Love of Life losses direction for a while, but he realizes and corrects it and finally goes out of the wasteland and sees the boat of life. Robinson Crusoe has a compass with him and he makes the most of it. Secondly, they make reasonable use of their limited tools and resources. To be specific, the protagonist in Love of Life takes really good care of the matches: separate them into three parts and put them in different places so that it’s unlikely that he will lose them all; Robinson Crusoe duly transfer all the useful tool in the boat to the island before the boat is destroyed by the strong wind. Thirdly , both of them try their best to grasp time. The protagonist in Love of Life never forgets to wound the watch . As for Robinson Crusoe ,he don’t has a watch with him ,but he is creative enough to use his own way to calculate time .The sense of time is crucial to those who are lost in the wild.
Both of the characters also have something distinctive that contribute to their survival. The protagonist in Love of Life possess the philosophy of giving up .Unlike his friend Bill who keeps the gold till he become the bones of dead, he desserts the gold and survives at last. Robin Crusoe lives quite a long time in the island (four years), there are more challenges for him, but he not only survives but also lives very well--he is so versatile to create almost everything that he needs for living .He is good at taking risk and succeeds in extricate the captive from the geek ,and turns him be his servant.
As for the writer, Jack London is the supporter of the socialist while Daniel Defoe is the
advocator of the colonialism. So the protagonists in two masterpieces hold different attitudes toward their partners. The protagonist in Love of Life regards Bill as his real friend even after Bill has betrayed him, he can’t believe it. However, Robinson treat Friday as his servant, slavery.
5. The theme as well as its enlightenments
Survival is a human instinct. Through the fights, Jack London fully expressed human beings’desire for life.Confronted with the nature’s cruel conditions and dangers, the protagonist bravely surmounted all the difficulties by strong living desire and love of life . He was the real strong characteristic of his own life. People who believe in Fatalism do not control their own destiny. Thus victory always goes to the strong. We suffer and struggle, and we enjoy the poetry, the sun, the nature and the family. Life itself is a blessing. Each of us is climbing on the rugged mountain road, for life and also for survival. Life is a miracle, turning point often comes at the last moment as long as if you are insisting on . Life is second to nothing! Only if you were alive, can you have opportunities to do something you are willing to do.
Someone demonstrates the courage to live even in some extreme conditions .These years saw a lot of terrible natural catastrophes ,during which many people showed to the world their strong love for life. In 2008, a destructive earthquake attacked Wenchuan ,China .Houses collapsed, trees fell ,Wenchuan turned to be a shambles in a second .Large quantities of people died in the earthquake, but many people still survived. What worth mentioning is that some survivals were covered by the armored concrete for days, wounded seriously. They did not lose the hope and confidence to live though enclosed by desperation .
Another typical example is the former famous gymnast Sanglan,who paralyzed after an accident during competition. Turing from a promising young gymnast a disabled person ,she kept optimistic and showed the world her sunshine like smile. She could make it because her belief in life and future.
Nevertheless, there are still someone do not cherish their lives. For instance, in December 11th ,2009,when faced with great economic pressure and some other problems ,a post graduated girl named Yangyuanyuan didn’t choose to struggle but put an end to her own life .Her death was great lose to her family as well as the whole society.
From those examples both in masterpieces and real life ,we can not help wondering how can we achieve a better life either in daily life or in extreme conditions. Here are some enlightments : Firstly, we should be equipped with the skill of living. Having one’s own career and being economically independent can ensure a comfortable material life ,which is fundamental.
Secondly, we should cultivate some personal hobbies to release our pressure. When things get tough ,learn to lay them down ,and have a rest ,then try another way.
Thirdly ,love others ,never be to selfish. Only those who love others can be mentally strong and find the real meaning of life, thus enjoying a happy life.
But we are still wondering those authors who created masterpieces such as ,The Old Man and the Sea, which advocated struggles for life ,chose to commit suicide themselves . Why don’t they struggle for their own life when there are difficulties? This is really worth thinking.
Reference
1.《杰克伦敦作品导读》（武汉大学出版社）
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