Вестник ТГПУ им Л.Н. Толстого №3 2005

№ 3, 2005 ВЕСТНИК ТГПУ им. Л. Н. Толстого We know little about Eden’s former life. He lost the parents and brothers very early; he needed to earn his living by the heavy work of a seaman. Eden’s habit to work has impressed me. I can only imagine how difficult it is to start life from scratch, when you have nothing, when you need to spend all the time earning money. It confirms once again that Iden is a really strong person. This quality of his character is a brilliant example of features pertaining to a real hero who is not afraid of difficulties and firmly stands on his life way. In the history of the world literature there has been a multitude of literary works depicting weak persons who, having progressed in the enrichment evolution, degrade on the level of personal development, turning into spiritually impoverished specimen. It is quite the reverse with Martin Eden. In the character described from the very beginning we can see an indefatigable habit to work and after years of toil, when he is able to achieve wealth and success, he retains the ability to feel and think. Moreover, having become an actual member of the upper crust, what Martin had been hankering for ail his life, he is probably the first and the only person to perceive sober-mindedly moral decay and perversity of these highly intellectual and inwardly perfect people - a discovery which proves fatal for this man of virtue. The moral stability of Martin Eden is astonishing and it couldn’t but elicit my admiration and respect. Being an extremely gullible and honest person myself, I have been taught by Martin’s example to keep vigilant to the masks of disguise concealing the real selves of others. I have become more realistic and often, to my regret, get unpleasant revelations of irretrievable discrepancies between my ideas of somebody or something and the real state of things. The riches and glory' come to Eden at the end of his life. But the. bourgeois society has already broken his individuality: he loses the desire to live and struggle. Under the circumstances, the main character regards suicide as the only possible outcome. I have been thinking over the last act of Martin Eden for a long time, and it is no longer a riddle to me why so successful a writer wanted to die. For me Eden’s death shows that his body is dead, but his will and spirit will be eternal. It is an example of aman that had everything in his life but the harmony of whose romantically built-up world had been broken by external intrusion of austere reality. I think the tragedy ofMartin Eden’s life consists in the fact that the attainment of his distant goal was the cause of his unhappiness as the former disclosed the naivety and falsity of his initial beliefs, the futility of his life-lasting aspiration for perfection in everything. By means of his own hard labour Martin Eden climbed unimaginable heights from which according to the laws of perverse fate it is so painful to fall down. Despite this pessimistic conclusion of mine, I have understood that it is necessary to live as Martin did. He was happy every day of his life; every step of his was made with eagerness and inexhaustible energy because it brought him closer to his dream. So that is another influence of his upon me, and namely, his bringing forth a principle of living in the here and now, but in the name of future achievements, however -unexpected the gifts of fate may turn out to be. Thus, the final point of the narration has been reached. A retrospective look, though, will easily unveil the stimulating impetus that predetermined and directed Eden’s life, and namely, it is Love. That is why I cannot but devote a part of my speculations to it. Having found its permanent shelter in the heart of a robust sailor, all the invigorating powers of this greatest feeling were displayed. On the example of Martin Eden I was able to observe distinctly all the metamorphoses triggered by true love which changed a good, but ignorant person into a great and knowledgeable Personality. The chain of metamorphoses is a direct confirmation of the truism: Love works miracles, which I believe in with all my heart. In conclusion, I’d like to say that Jack London managed to create an image of a hero with iron will, prodigious talent and boundless ability to love. Martin Eden can be referred to the minority of the chosen ones whose lot unfortunately is often unenviable and whose life is an incessant fight with hardships, society and with themselves.