Abstract
paper analyzes the novel The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London, written between 1903 and 1904, as an expressive historical document of the transition from liberal capitalism to monopolistic capitalism in the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is proposed that the novel’s protagonist, Captain Erik “Wolf” Larsen, embodies certain ideological and moral conflicts of that transition, intertwining events from London’s life and from the conjuncture of change which the U.S. underwent at the time. The elements that form the protagonist’s substance and temper are therefore historically rooted, and so are his treatment and evolution during the book, as he goes from a tragic hero to a pitiful character. This paper thus argues that the exploration of this conflicting temper allows for the understanding of some social and cultural dilemmas that characterized this transition, notably the change of content and meaning of the liberal tradition that very early became the prevailing ideology of American society.
Keywords
The Sea-Wolf; Jack London; history of the United States