Martin Eden by Jack London.

¶ … Martin Eden by Jack London. Specifically it will discuss the question, "discuss the significance of the sea in Martin Eden. How does it influence Eden's own writing? How does London use Eden's final return to the sea at the end of the novel to represent the main character's return to his original sense of himself that innocence of identity (Eden) before his fall into Ruth's society?" The sea is the central thread that binds this novel together, and ultimately where Eden ends his days. The sea is significant for a number of reasons, from Eden's background to London's own involvement and fascination with the sea. It indicates Eden is a humble man who rises to great heights on the crest of a wave, but cannot maintain or support those heights.

Martin Eden is the central character in this novel by renowned Jack London. The book opens with Eden's description as a seafarer, "He wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea, and he was manifestly out of place in the spacious hall in which he found himself" (London 1). It ends with Eden's final descent into the sea, "With swift, vigorous propulsion of hands and feet, he lifted his shoulders and half his chest out of water. This was to gain impetus for the descent. Then he let himself go and sank without movement, a white statue, into the sea" (London 410). Throughout the book, the sea is a constant reminder of Eden's past, as well as a threat to his future. He is a seafarer who has risen to great heights as a writer, but he finds that fame and fortune are not all he thought they would be. He returns to the sea to commit suicide because it is the thing he knows best and respects the most.

The sea and his experiences on the sea totally influence Eden's work, especially many of his early stories that only sell after the success of the critically acclaimed The Shame of the Sun. Eden has an eye for details and the talent to share these details with others through his writing. In fact, by the end of the novel, London shows that Eden may have improved himself intellectually and socially, but he was much happier with his life on board ship. He becomes disillusioned with life and with the intellectuals he has tried so desperately to impress, and unhappy with his life and his struggles for fame. He finds the people he wanted to impress most, such as Ruth, are really shallow and uninteresting, and he understands that his life is not what he wanted or what he expected. A friend tells him to go, "Back to your ships and your sea - that's my advice to you, Martin Eden. What do you want in these sick and rotten cities of men? You are cutting your throat every day you waste in them trying to prostitute beauty to the needs of magazinedom" (London 286). Eden spent his best years on the sea, and they served him well. His struggles on land have made him wealthy and famous, but they have showed him the frailties of man, and he was better off on the ships before he began his quest for knowledge.

That is another important thread throughout the novel that ties into the element of the sea. Eden was innocent when the novel began. He was clumsy in society, his vocabulary was weak, and his social graces were nil. Yet, there was a charm about him that disappears by the end of the novel. He is no longer charming, he is passionate about his beliefs, but he has also grown beyond them intellectually. He understands more than the people he was trying so hard to impress, especially Ruth, and this realization shatters him. He discovers the woman he has put on a pedestal is really just a mere mortal, and not a very nice one at that. In the beginning of the novel, he sees Ruth and her crowd as perfect. London writes, "Here was intellectual life, he thought, and here was beauty, warm and wonderful as he had never dreamed it could be" (London 8). Later, Eden learns the truth, and begins to despise the society that he worked so hard to join. He becomes despondent because his dreams came true and he found he did not want them after all. He is no longer innocent as he was in the beginning of the novel, and he has lost some of the charm that made him who he was. He finds that everything he worked for is a sham, and his only solace is to return to the sea that he left so abruptly. His is a sad story because it is so true. Someone once said, "What do you do when all your dreams come true?" You have nothing left to work for, and that is just what happened to Eden. (And perhaps, London too). He had nothing left to hope for, and no dreams to fulfill. The dreams that had come true were false dreams, and made him miserable instead of content. Eden's story is all the more tragic because he worked so diligently to make his dreams come true, and then, when they did, he found he did not want them after all. He would have been better off going back to being a sailor, or getting his own ship and leading a band of men. He would have been happier and he would have been more appreciated by those around him. As it was, his story ended too soon.