Northern stories

1.2. Characters from Jack London's Northern Tales
a) men
To individualists, predators striving for wealth, for achieving personal success, London opposes disinterested, noble people; selfishness, the power of money, greed - sincere love, true friendship. Here we are faced with the problem of the good hero.
The positive hero of northern stories is a collective image. It combines different individual characteristics characteristic of many characters. So, in Hitchcock , the hero of the story "Where the Roads Divide", disinterestedness and courage prevail. Material calculation in his eyes does not play any role. For the sake of saving an Indian girl, he is ready to risk his life.
Mailmute is more diversified The Kid is one of the main characters in London , appearing in many stories. He knows the life and customs of the North well, enjoys great prestige among his comrades, and in all disputed cases usually becomes an arbitrator, whose word is decisive. It is he who resolutely suppresses the stupid quarrel of his comrades, ready to end in a bloody duel (“At the fortieth mile”). And in the story "For those who are on the road" he provides assistance and support to Jack Westondale , who is hiding from police persecution. In "White Silence" he acts as a true friend. After Mason 's death , he takes care of his wife and child. His generosity and disinterestedness are also visible from his attitude towards Naas , to whom he lends money, not expecting to get it back (“Northern Odyssey”).
Like London itself, Kidd condemns the new order brought to the North by bourgeois civilization. He blames Cal 's behavior Galbreis and seeks to correct him ("The King's Wife"). If Kid is an old-timer in the North, then Smoke Bellew is a chechaco who has only recently appeared there. He becomes a positive hero when new qualities are developed in him: a sense of camaraderie, readiness to go on a feat. “I know everything,” Joy Gastell admires him. “ Carson told me. You sacrificed yourself to save him” [III, 549]. Smoke is supremely human. He is ready to forget about his interests if you need to help someone. So, in the story "How Calthus George Was Hanged", he and the Kid interrupt the trip in order to save the Indians from starvation. In the story "God's Mistake" Smoke and the Kid, having stumbled upon a camp of gold prospectors dying of scurvy, make a stop and take all measures to cure them.
Smoke Bellew doesn't look like Mailmute Kida . He does not have that iron restraint and composure that Kid possesses . He is a softer, more emotional nature. Nor does he have that life experience that helps Kid so correctly judge people.
Next to Smoke Bellew , we see the Kid - also a good character, but in a slightly different version.
The kid is kind, responsive. He is a wonderful comrade and friend, brave in the face of danger, ready to help in trouble . But he is much simpler than Kid and Smoke . He doesn't have the knowledge they have. He is distinguished by greater spontaneity, excitability, energetic, ardent reaction to everything that happens around him.
Comparison of positive characters convinces us that, despite individual differences, they have much in common, bringing them together, making them related.
What are the main features of the positive heroes of northern stories?
As a rule, they are all strong, courageous people who do not retreat in the face of difficulties and dangers. All of them are very active. Firm will, perseverance in achieving the goal is one of the characteristic features of the London hero. This was emphasized by M. Gorky.
“In Murmansk, someone said to me: “It’s good to read Jack London here ,” writes Gorky. “These words express a very true idea. On the harsh coast of the Arctic Ocean, where people are crushed by the polar night in winter, the greatest effort of the will to live is required from a person, and Jack London is a writer who saw well , deeply felt the creative willpower and knew how to portray strong-willed people .³
The positive characters of northern stories are humane, humane. They are kind not only to people, but also to animals. And the latter pay them for this with great love: “In the courageous soul of Mailmut Kid had something tender, feminine, thanks to which the most ferocious dogs had confidence in him and the most severe hearts opened up to him” [I, 132].
Among the goodies, we will not meet talkative people. All of them are unusually restrained in expressing their feelings and extremely concise. Talkers, as a rule, turn out to be braggarts ,. "nobodies". It is necessary to act, and not to speak in vain - this principle is adhered to by "real people" by the writer: "The inhabitants of the North will soon learn the futility of words and the inestimable blessing of action" [1,56].
There is much in common in the appearance of the London heroes. “They were of different nationalities, but the life they all led forged from them a certain type of people, lean, hardy, with strong muscles, with bronzed faces from sunburn, with an ingenuous look of clear, calm eyes” [I, 155].
In most cases, positive characters are the old-timers of the North. They are well aware of its way of life and customs, they are the bearers of its traditions.
Among the positive heroes, we almost never meet people who came to the North only for gold. Selflessness is one of their most characteristic traits. The North attracts London and its heroes not at all because there is an opportunity to get rich, but because it is a land where simple relationships exist, where a person can show his abilities, energy, courage. It does not at all follow from this that London heroes shy away from money. They, like others, look for gold, find it, but it is never an end in itself for them, it does not constitute the meaning of life. “... A person should not live for the sake of money ,” says Sitka Charlie.
They are more attracted to the search for gold, the hard work associated with extracting it. Having become its owners, they are able to easily part with it. The most important thing is to be a man, and not to pursue selfish interests. Passion for gold, for enrichment, kills human feelings, distorts, perverts them. And the most serious insult that can be inflicted on a person is, according to the writer, to sacrifice feelings for monetary gain. This is how Messner takes revenge on his runaway wife, selling her for four thousand dollars ("One Day Parking"). So does Karen Seiser , sacrificing her feelings for wealth ("The Great Mystery"). The positive heroes of northern stories are true romantics in their mood and actions.
Back in his childhood, working at a canning factory, London dreamed of distant lands, sea voyages, all kinds of adventures. The romantic dream kept him hoping for something new, better, more human. “I wanted to go on a long voyage,” he wrote, “to get away from the vulgar monotony of life. At that time I was a young savage, a blooming youth with inclinations towards romance and adventure” [XIV, 22]. He retained his love of romance for the rest of his life. But what did the writer mean by real romance, what content did he put into it?
Romance, firstly, in the understanding of London, is something opposite to bourgeois society with its self-interest and vulgarity. He takes his heroes to distant Alaska, to a place where people are not shackled by so many conventions, where spiritual impulses are wider and character is more freely manifested.
Secondly, romance is incompatible with commerce. Moreover, commerce kills romance. “There was no romance in his nature ,” we read about Carter Weatherby , “business activities destroyed all such inclinations in him” [I, 92].
Has nothing to do with romance and sentimentality. Percy Cuthfert "suffered from an excess of sentimentality. He mistakenly took this trait of his for true romance and love of adventure" [I, 93].
One of the main features of romance, as London understood it, is hard work, the struggle with dangers. Romance also includes a love of adventure, a well-known risk that people take consciously, opposing it with courage and active will. “We had to pull the boats with a rope, move them with the help of a hook and oars, drag them across the rapids; it was torment enough to inspire one of them with a deep disgust for risky undertakings, and to the other to give eloquent proof of what constitutes the true romance of adventure ”[I, 94].
True romance requires a person to fight with nature, with the obstacles that it creates for him.
Strong-willed, active heroes of London endure cold, hunger, and fight against natural disasters. Huge difficulties have to be overcome by Sitka Charlie in order to get to the sea "coast ("The Power of a Woman" ). His companions die from exhaustion. Sitka Charlie has frostbite on his face, his head is spinning from weakness, but he is steadily moving forward. And the author considers him a true romantic.
A heroic feat is performed by travelers in the Wisdom of the Snow Path. They defeat the icy desert, although their strength is already running out.
The duel of man with nature and his victory over it are the content of such stories as "The Commission", "The Secret of the Woman's Soul" and many others. But not always people emerge victorious from combat with nature. Mason dies tragically , crushed by a pine ("White Silence"). A terrible fate befell the travelers caught by the ice drift on the island ("At the end of the rainbow"). But even in these cases, people behave courageously, boldly, without bending before the misfortune that has overtaken them.
b) women
Next to the male characters from the pages of northern stories, there are wonderful female images. In many of the stories, women take center stage and are the true heroines. Like male, female types are very diverse. Here are whites and Indians, visitors and old-timers, faithful wives and adventurers.
Although in most cases the heroines of London are beautiful women, their main advantage lies not in beauty. For the writer, their inner content is more important. What kind of people they are, what are their capabilities, what they are capable of - these are the questions that primarily interest him. Like men, London appreciates women's perseverance, willpower, and the ability to overcome difficulties. That's what makes Grace Bentham (By Right of a Priest) so attractive that she has all these qualities. Conversely, her husband Edwin Bentham makes an unpleasant impression because he does not have these qualities. Grace and Edwin are opposed to each other. While Grace is smart, hardworking, tactful, Edwin is lazy, selfish, rude. But does Grace have the right to leave him for another person whom she fell in love with, does she have the right to leave Bentham? London does not give a ready answer to this question. Father Roubaud manages to persuade Grace to stay with Bentham, but the priest doubts the correctness of his decision.
Mrs Eppingwell looks no less attractive than Grace Bentham . Sitka Charlie admires the fact that she set off on a path along a snowy path, although this path even from men required the utmost effort. During the journey, she does not become a burden for other travelers, but keeps them cheerful and courageous.
Mrs. Eppingwell has an ennobling effect on those around her. She vigorously defends the principles of goodness, justice, and humanity. Mailmut is her friend Kid . Sitka Charlie is proud of her friendship.
If Mrs. Eppingwell belongs to the highest circle of Alaskan society, then Freda Moluf - the heroine of the story "Female Contempt" - is the recognized queen of the demi-monde. Freda is as kind and disinterested as Mrs. Eppingwell . And although they are different people, this does not prevent them from doing one common thing. Freda is a very active person. She cannot sit idly by when she sees that evil is happening before her eyes, and, like male heroes, she enters the fight against it. Her characteristic activity is found in the story of Vanderlip , who is going to marry the adventuress Lauren Lisnai . In order to save him, Freda sacrifices her pride, arouses contempt for herself in other women, but she achieves her goal.