Contradictory Love

I was thoroughly moved by the writers James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois as the last of our overview of American literature. I was impressed with their stance in defending their race while retaining a high degree of objective studiousness in the “race problem.” The ideas poised by Johnson in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man were astute and challenging. However I can not say that I enjoyed the story. For the character’s plodding insistence in pursuing his gross desire of breaking into an inner ring of society grew tiring. The lack of any characters with higher ideals made the story grow long and the insights from the character lack force. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk filled his discourse with virtues to strive after. His argument is strong and brings to the reader not only a compelling view of the equal treatment of colored people as a race but the personal recognition that needs to coincide with this. He argues for rights but also the respect to be treated like a man. I was watching the movie Glory a few weeks back and was equally moved by a speech given by one of the soldiers of the first black regiment in the civil war. His argument was similar, possibly derived, from Du Bois thought; he argued that, yes, the black race was uncivilized at present but that this should not disqualify them from respect as men. Du Bois appeals not in the context of gross northern financial advancement like Johnson, but as a man embodying uplifting culture. His people he argues, “generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to despise not Justice, Mercy, and Truth, lest the nation be smitten with a curse” (900). Never the less it seems as if our nation did (to Martin Luther King?) despise just these principles, in north and south, ending with an entrapping curse. Johnson depicts this curse of the nation well as polarizing the “race problem” in both North and South in two different ways;

"Northern white people love the Negro in a sort of abstract way, as a race; through a sense of justice, charity and philanthropy, they will liberally assist in his elevation…Yet, generally speaking, they have no particular liking for individuals of the race. Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such; but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways" (80).

London The Great

When it comes to Jack London and his autobiographical novel there is a dispute about the work’s greatness. For with Martin Eden the novelist reveals his personal narrative of thought and his unique state of mind though the character Martin. However this character is a transparent veil that mirrors his life and experiences in a vivid and frightening, possibly deadly way. The critic Sam S. Baskett brings this to light in his essay “Martin Eden: Jack London’s “Splendid Dream””. He argues for the fantastical unreality of London’s splendid dream; that his ambitions to grasp the world were ultimately too grand, leaving the author in disillusionment and failure. To adequately show this Mr. Baskett compares London’s work to Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. What the critique really brings to light is the struggle of all of these novelists to find what London terms “the scheme of existence.” All three authors were obsessed with the ordering of things, how the world was bound together, or the unity of the universe. The writers all experienced utter breakdown and found in the world only chaos. They experienced the break down of thought and connections and the loss of the Spenserian ideal; they found unreality in reality. Both London’s and Fitzgerald’s characters are overtaken by a romantic ideal. The ideal lover with which their souls connect bring each writer’s character transcendence and make existence tangible. However Martin is ultimately disappointed with his ideal lover –Ruth- when he finds her to be a mortal woman, compromised in the normal struggle of reality. His whole world crashes and falls to an even greater dismal state. Mr. Baskett shows how Adams and Fitzgerald go though the same process of collapse, but unlike London, they emerge with a more modest inspiration to find truth with a grimmer hope. But for London his hopes and searching are dashed with the death of his splendid dream of uniting the universe. The characterization of Martin’s death coincided with London’s intellectual death, the critic argues. London’s last years produced nothing as worthy as Martin Eden. Eight years of decline and then he died. Thus Baskett concludes that London failed in the sense that he did not rise above this fall to despair to a more modest ordering or imagining of the world. And yet the author is respected by Mr. Baskett as fulfilling the “impossible yet characteristic task of the central American writer” (155). He also seems to be impressed by the overpowering nature of London.
I have not at this point read Martin Eden or any of the comparative works. The strengths of the article were firstly, its limited thesis, and secondly the abundance of reference and support from the texts to support his overall critique of the writer’s mind. The author refused to address the issue of suicide in the piece and glanced over it with no attention. This could have been a serious distraction from his purpose but in glossing the matter he left a gap in his critique. Mr. Baskett also took the perspective of a skeptic without ever giving serious heed to London’s “Splendid Dream”. He therefore claims London a failure without ever clarifying what he failed to do; what system he did not live up to. This is a logical error but one that is small in comparison to his overall perspective on the novel Martin Eden. The critic presents a view of Jack London which is immediately intelligible and unnervingly close to describing the state of mind within the American novelist.

Works Cited:

Baskett, Sam S., “Martin Eden: Jack London’s “Splendid Dream””. Ed. Jacqueline Travernier –Courbin. Critical Essays on Jack London. Boston, Mass. 1983.

An Experience

When reading Charles Alexander Eastman's work From the Deep Woods to Civilization it brought me directly to experiences of my childhood. Arguements immediately surfaced into my mind which surfaced around me in my growing years. Distinct rationals like, "I'm sure his great grandfather was killed but you know they also some of our grandfathers" were counterbalanced in my youth with trips to memorials; even the Wounded Knee battle field. Of course swirling around this story and our personal experiences is this question of race. What is it about race that benefits us? Why emphisis the importance of race? Well I do not know if I can answer these first two questions but I do not think it is exactly nessecary. If ten men were thown out onto a desert Island after being raised by some aliens would they not still seek out those who's DNA is pumping though their viens? If a person spends their entire life trying to be enclusive of all races and wipe out all racial tension will their children not still be intralled with the tales of grandpa and grandma's origen? Now one might remove racial tension while having the knowledge of ones own race. But the very way we learn about our race is, first, the order of decendents one generation after the next, but secondly from the particular actions, advancements, wars, myths, religion, and habits of that race. Would Eastman have written his book if he had not been moved by the very force within all of us to go back to our "people"? In America the "pale-faced man" has a halfway coehesive hole, but America can not be said to have a no majority "race". The Germans are German. The Danish are Danish. And so on, but we Americans are a "salad bowl". I could go on and on but my point is something like this; if we always focus on our race relations the only place we end is in a very self-conscious position in regard to ourselves. And who enjoys a selfish self-conscious friend? If the furies had never been appeised all Greece would be drowned in a flood of feuding blood. Therefore let us focus coming together under a real common law with real common justice to appease these generational demons.