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An Exploration of Jack London’s Ecological Thought in Burning
Daylight
WANG Lijun
School of Foreign Studies, Henan Polytechnic University, China, 454003
[email protected]
Abstract: Jack London (1876-1916) is a famous American realistic writer who consistently uses the
writing technique of naturalism to describe the ordinary people’s living conditions. In the embrace of
nature, he is concerned about nature and human-nature relationship, and eventually came to an
ecological thought. Influenced by Darwin, Spencer, Haeckel and other evolutionists, Jack London, in his
early years, believed in the influence of heredity and the environment. He recognized that evolution of
species is the result of natural selection. Under the guidance of the principle of “the survival of the
fittest”, he held the idea of anthropocentrism. In his eyes, the relationship between human beings and
nature was antagonistic. But later, London was more and more inclined to ecocentrism, which believes
that nature has its intrinsic value; nature is the source of all creatures and human beings is only a part of
nature. The relationship between nature and human beings should be reciprocal and harmonious. Only
when people begin to cherish nature out of heartfelt love instead of utilitarian consideration can we
protect nature effectively and achieve a well-balanced relationship between nature and human beings.
Jack London takes ecological responsibility voluntarily and makes contributions to the development of
the whole ecosystem. The present thesis intends to conduct a comprehensive study on London’s
ecological thought embodied in his novel Burning Daylight (1910) and explores the practical
significance of ecological thought.
Keywords: Jack London, Burning Daylight, ecological thought, ecological responsibility
1 Introduction
In the brilliant history of American literature, Jack London is a shining star. He is regarded as one of the
most prolific and intelligent writers in America in the early 20th century. In a good number of his stories,
the central conflict is that between man and nature. Therefore, when we come across his novel Burning
Daylight by chance, our interests are aroused and subsequent reading of the novel touches us to a great
extent. We are sure that the studying of this novel can not only deepen our understanding of Jack
London’s works, but also give us a deeper insight into ecocriticism theory. The purpose of this thesis is
to explore Jack London’s ecological thought in his novel Burning Daylight with an ecocritical
perspective.
1.1 Theoretical Resources of Jack London’s Ecological Thought
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is very popular in modern ecology. His book, The Origin of
Species (1859), shocked the world by locating “humans ecologically in the natural web of life” (Session,
1995:164). Nature is “a web of complex relation” (Darwin, 1859:73). All creatures are related to each
other. Darwin’s viewpoints are important in the spread of ecological thinking. London reads Darwin and
considers Darwin as his mentor. Ernest Haeckel is another person who has an important influence on
London’s ecological thoughts. In 1869, Haeckel defined “ecology” as the study of the relationships of
organisms and their environment. London displays his familiarity with Haeckel in his following works.
What kind of relationship mankind and nature should keep becomes one of Jack London’s concerns.
1.2 Literature Review
London’s ecological thought has been studied by some American critics. They are Bert Bender, Glen A.
Love, Earle Labor, and Russ Kingman. Among them, Professor Bert Bender is the most notable.
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Professor Bert Bender concludes that “ London should be seen as one of American literature’s first and
most important ecological writers, for he anticipated the kind of ecological thought that emerged late in
the twentieth century in the related fields of behavioral ecology, sociobiology, and evolutionary
psychology” (Bender, 2004:80). Based on his accurate research, Bert Bender traces Jack London’s
ecological thought back to Thomas Malthus, Charles Darwin, and Ernst Haeckel. Glen A. Love once
holds in his book Practical Ecocriticism: Literature, Biology, and the environment, “The work of writers
such as Jack London, John Steinbeck, and so on—all termed “naturalists” in some context or
other—invites reinterpretation from ecocritics, both from informed evolutionary-biological and greened
Marxist perspectives” (Love, 2003:35). Earle Labor writes that “‘All Gold Canyon’ is one of London’s
most significant stories and that not only does it embody some of his best lyrical description and
dramatic narrative but it also demonstrates his newly awakened ecological conscience” (Labor, 2004:95).
Russ Kingman is one of the most famous Jack London biographers. He points out that some of London’s
works, such as Burning Daylight and All Gold Canyon (1905) contain some very modern ecological
implications.
Many of Jack London’s works have been translated into Chinese. Before the 1980s, critics analyzed his
works mainly from a political point of view. After the 1980s, critics focused on the artistic features of
his works. Here we list five articles which are related to ecocriticism in CNKI. The first is The
Naturalism in the Novels of Jack London written by Sun Xuhua, published in Heihe Journal of 2006(6).
The essay mainly analyzes the naturalist techniques used in The Call of the Wild and White Fang. From
the perspectives of genes and environment, it interprets the double influences on animal’s existence by
genes and environment. The author also ponders on the present living conditions of human society. The
second is Probes on Jack London’s Conception of Nature written by Zhang Baolin, published in the
Journal of Harbin University of 2007(6). The essay affirms that Jack London’s conception of nature is
contradictory because both anthropocentrism and eco-centrism exist. Although emphasizing nature
exists for man, Jack London still expresses his hope that nature and man can co-exist harmoniously. The
last is The Development of Jack London’s Ecological Thought in All Gold Canyon, Burning Daylight,
and The Valley of the Moon by Shi Jingbi in 2008. The essay mainly focuses on the process of Jack
London’s ecological thought by analyzing the three works, in which Shi Jingbi realizes that there exists
a conflict between human’s greedy desire and the environment. However, the essay does not deeply
explore each of the three works with a whole ecological theory.
2
Criticism of Modern Civilization in Burning Daylight
In modern society, humans’ desires do great harm to the ecosystem and result in the crazy plunder of
nature. What is more serious, it also destroys humans’ inner world. Humans are always focusing on their
relentless inner desire, which has result in serious destruction of ecosystem. Their determined conquest,
crazy exploitation and unscrupulous plundering on nature have directly led to the extinction of nature.
The civilized society has to face a lot of social problems because of the intense desire of the people.
2.1 Criticism of Desire in Burning Daylight
Many economists, philosophers, and politics take highly praise of desire. In their eyes, desire is an
enormous power which can promote social progress. However, ecologists regard it as a devil. Once it is
set free, it will bring a lot of sufferings to humans. If humans can’t control their desires, they will die
with nature. In order to gain the maximum of economic benefits, human beings live a poor spiritual life.
Spiritual corruption and moral ruin is unavoidable. The desire for wealth breeds spiritual emptiness,
loneliness and alienation in modern society. With the booming of commodity economy and the increase
of consumption, possessing gold becomes humans’ strong desire. It was a scene of a vast devastation.
The hills, to their tops, had been shorn of trees, and their naked sides showed signs of goring and
perforating that even the mantle of snow could not hide Beneath him, in every direction were the cabins
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of men. (171).1 That’s what happened to nature after the arrival of the greedy and bloody gold-hunters.
The trees are cut down, the hills become treeless and numerous holes have been dug into the hills which
even the arctic snow can’t cover. The smoke arouses from the holes, and the air is polluted, but the
gold-hunters still don’t want to stop their actions. More and more prospectors pour into Circle City. The
influx of the gold-hunters brought a tremendous disaster to nature under their great desires. To Burning
Daylight and the other prospectors, they can’t realize their destructive behaviors to nature and consider
their own interests as the utmost centre and regard non-humans as existing only for human’s sake. This
is so-called anthropocentricism. Criticism of anthropocentricism constitutes an important part of
ecocriticism.
2.2 Loss of “Sense of Place”
Place, a seemingly geographical term, has great importance to the life of human beings and other
creatures, and constitutes a part of the ecological environment. Ecocritics strives to explore the influence
of place on an author’s life, his literary works and his thoughts. So in the field of ecocriticism appears
the expression “sense of place”. People in diverse disciplines have also put forward various definitions
which are related to this expression, such as rootedness, topophilia, community sentiment, local
sentiment, place attachment. Ecocriticism assimilates the concept into critical practice of literature. It
stresses that one’s sense of place lays a fundamental basis for the configuration of his thought and the
shaping of his belief.
Jack London in his works Burning Daylight expresses his concern about the inconsistent relationship
between human beings’ “sense of place” and modern civilization. Burning Daylight moves from ancient
Klondike to advanced San Francisco, finding that the people in San Francisco are strangers and it’s very
difficult to get along well with them. “He met them in the clubs, and wondered how real was the
good-fellowship they displayed and how quickly they would unsheathe their claws and gouge and rend”
(181-182). He calls them “ground-sharks” (184). And then he finds that there are more and more
“sharks” in Nevada. Holdsworthy in the eyes of Daylight is a successful business man without great
ambition, who has jockeyed him out of fifty thousand dollars. John Dowsett, Mr. Howison, and Leon
Guggenhammer who are big captains of industry and masters of finance, are also liars. They play tricks
on Daylight and make him bankrupted. Daylight feels very disappointed and determines to take his
revenge on them, and at last he retakes his money and returns to San Francisco. He is bitter and brutal.
He finds that he is tired of the city and the lifestyle there and that he can not adapt himself to it. Thus
Daylight has lost the “sense of place” in the dirty business world. He begins a life isolated from others.
His attitude towards nature changes gradually after he suffers a sense of loss in the corrupted city. He
feels that there must be places in nature for human beings to satisfy their souls. Therefore, Burning
Daylight begins to seek nature for a place to heal his soul.
3 Realization of Ecological Self
City life has its ills and evils, the biggest among which is the cruel struggles between human beings. The
struggles make people tired of the city life. So they begin to resort to nature for help. In the second part
of the novel, London depicts the spiritual transition of Burning Daylight from a natural spoiler to a
natural protector, in which he realizes his ecological self. The “self-realization” involves the
development of wide identification where the sense of self is no longer limited by the personal ego, but
is arranged in the large whole nature. At the end of the novel, Daylight is full of ecological
consciousness, which is reflected in his changed attitude towards nature, his ecological responsibility
and his thoughts of ecological holism.
1
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Note: for those quoted from the novel Burning Daylight only the page numbers are given in the following
chapters.
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3.1 Ecological Responsibility
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring marks the prosperity of ecological literature in 1962. We can use one
word to summarize all of Carson’s writings—responsibility. As a man, we should be responsible for the
whole human beings; as a living thing, we should be responsible for all the lives; as part of nature, we
should be responsible for the entire earth. Ecological responsibility constitutes an important part of
ecocriticism.
Ecological responsibility in Burning Daylight is expressed as “simple in means, rich in ends” (Devall
and Session, 1985:68). Daylight and Dede’s life in the valley provides an example of physical simplicity
and spiritual richness. The end of the novel is out of expectation that Daylight and Dede give away all
their wealth and live in the valley happily. The country life is simple, but they don’t feel inadaptable.
Living a life that identifies with nature, Daylight feels a sense of responsibility and cares for everything
in nature. He does not regard himself as one of masters of nature but a protector. He takes the
responsibility for protecting nature voluntarily. In order to keep the harmonious development of the
whole ecosystem, they can sacrifice their own interests. They respect the right of the plants and make
them flourish in their own ways; they don’t alter the valley according to their own wills; they don’t
interfere with the growth of the plants in the valley; they introduce the new species to keep the diversity
and richness of the natural world. What they do reflects their strong ecological responsibility.
3.2 Ecological Holism
As the core of ecocriticism, ecological holism’s basic idea is to retain the harmony and equality between
humans and non-humans. When some creature is positive to preserve living community’s integrity,
stability and beauty, it is right. When it goes to the opposite, it is wrong. All the creatures in the
ecosystem are equal. Regarding any part of the whole ecosystem as a center violates the natural law and
does not conform to ecological holism. In addition, ecological holism advocates restricting humans’
material desire and unrestricted economic growth in terms of interests of ecosystem. Daylight’s thought
of ecological holism comes to a climax at the end of the story. Against the setting of the early April,
Dede sits in an easy chair on the porch, sewing on certain small garments for the coming baby, and
Daylight reads aloud to her. Humans share the beautiful valley with non-humans and they keep a
reciprocal relationship. The newly-born foal is staggering about her mother on tottery legs; the sound of
a mourning dove is arising from the green depths of the big canyon; pigeons are cooing gently and quail
are whistling to their young from the thicketed hillside. The thought of ecological holism is embodied in
Burning Daylight.
4 Conclusion
Up to now, this thesis in the light of ecocriticism literary theory has explored the ecological thought in
Jack London’s novel Burning Daylight in detail. London’s ecological thought is still meaningful in
modern society. First, his noble idea of a simplified life, with a high moral standard attained in the
intimate communication with nature, is of great importance. In modern society, still many people are
enjoying great material wealth, but in trouble with spiritual emptiness. So it is beneficial for them to
draw some light from London’s ecological thought. The real happiness does not gain from material
acquisition, but from enrichment of spiritual life. Second, the idea of ecological holism in London’s
novel is enlightening to the development of the harmonious society. London’s deep love of nature, his
view of ecocentric integrity, his physical and spiritual exploration into nature, his contemplation on the
spiritual implication of natural world, his advocacy of a harmonious and balanced relationship between
human and nature…all of these elements are contained in London’s ecological thought. As London
advocated, we should preserve nature and return to it for spiritual strength. And in that way, we human
beings will become nature’s ever-lasting friends.
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References
[1]. Bender, Bert. Evolution and “the Sex Problem”: American Narratives during the Eclipse of
Darwinism. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2004.
[2]. Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. London: John Murray, 1859.
[3]. Love, Glen A. Practical Ecocriticism: Literature, Biology, and the Environment. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 2003.
[4]. Sessions, George. “Ecocentrism and the Anthropocentric Detour”. Deep Ecology for the 21st
Century. Ed. George Sessions. Boston: Shambhala Press, 1995.156-183.
[5]. Wang Nuo. Europe and America eco-literature. Pecking; Pecking University Press, 2003. (in
Chinese)
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