英语专业—美国文学学期论文

1、the apostate by jack london英语专业美国文学学期论文 the apostate is a short novel written by jack london which is concerned about the life of a little poor worker named johnny. after finish reading the whole story, i am impressed with the writers vivid narrative and truthful dialogue in this piece of story. it

2、is said that jack had lead the same life as poor johnny when he was a little boy. we can experience every single miserable day of the ordinary people at that time. and at last one of the ordinary people johnny chose to find a new world, as an apostate. though there is no chance for the little boy to

3、 change his life or even the world, he is the hero who is the first one realize to strive for his own life and have the great courage to do it. i dont want to repeat the whole story here, so i am going to focus on some topics and talk about them with my considerations. johnny is one of thousands of

4、little poor children who suffer the same miserable destinies. he is the one that the author focuses on, and we learn about his everyday life through the authors words. but i wander do you ever get interested about the twelve -year -old and one-legged boy, and that do you imagine in your mind what di

5、d he go through in his life. in my opinion, the one-legged boy is leading more difficult life than johnny. in the factory all the little children are working for most of the day under the strict watch of the overseers. until now, i guess i can make comments on the children about their lives. the aut

6、hor doesnt mention where johnny live, and there are only few names or figures in this novel. he wants to tell us that this social phenomenon is widespread，so he just choose one case and show us the fact. what we know about johnny is also the same experience for other children. now lets take a close

7、look at how the children live in the society at that time. johnny was born in the factory, and it seems like his whole life was connected closely with the factory, at last he realizes that he is a machine in the factory. he has no father, and the particular impression of his father is that he has sa

8、vage and pitiless feet when little johnny lies crosswise on the foot of the bed. johnny has a young brother will, and a young sister jennie. back in the past, johnny had fallen the part of little father and little mother since his mother had spent her days working in the mills. at the age of seven,

9、he had become a man very early in life when he drew his first wages of the night shift. from then on little johnny began to get lost in his endless work and suffered the cruel exploitation coming from the employers. his first job was winding bobbins in the mills. it was a marvelously easy job, and a

10、ll he had to do was to sit down with a little stick in his hand and guide a stream of cloth that flowed past him. he was very happy at that job, in spite of the moist heat, for he was still young and in possession of dreams and illusions. but when he was nine, he lost his job. measles was the cause

11、of it. after he covered, he got work in a glass factory. the pay was better, and the work demanded skill. it was piece-work, and the more skillful he was, the bigger wages he earned. he was incentive. and under this incentive he developed into a remarkable worker. the work is tying of glass stoppers

12、 into small bottle. at his waist he carried a bundle of twine. he held the bottles between his knees so that he might work with both hands. thus, in a sitting position and bending over his own knees, his narrow shoulders grew humped and his chest was contracted for ten hours each day. this was not g

13、ood for the lungs, but he tied three hundred dozen bottles a day. all waste movements were eliminated. every motion of his thin arms, every movements of a muscle in the thin fingers, was swift and accurate. he worked at high tension, and the result was that he grew nervous. at night his muscle twitc

14、hed in his sleep ,and in the daytime he could not relax and rest. he remained keyed up and his muscles continued to twitch. also he grew sallow and his lint-cough grew worse. then pneumonia laid hold of the feeble lungs within the contracted chest, and he lost his job in the glass-work. and he retur

15、ned to the jute mills where he had first begun with winding bobbins. then it was another day, of all the days, and all the days were alike. yesterday or last year were the same as a thousand years-or a minute. nothing ever happened. there were no events to mark the march of time. time did not march.

16、 it was only the whirling machines that moved, and they moved nowhere-in spite of the fact that they moved faster. when he was fourteen, he went to work on the starchier which made him proud of himself. he celebrated his sixteenth birthday by going into the loom room and taking a loom. here was an i

17、ncentive again, for it was piece-work. here the following is how johnny spends his day and night in his life. “if you dont git up, i wont give you a bite to eat!” his mother threats him while shaking him roughly by the shoulder at the very early morning. johnny says to himself that “now i wake me up

18、 to work, i pray the lord i may not shirk; if i should die before the night, i pray the lord my work is all right.” while clinging stubbornly to sleep, fighting for its oblivion as the dreamer fights for his dream. finally johnny opens his eyes and gets up. he washes himself before the greasy and fi

19、lthy sink. then he eats hurriedly, half chewing the bread and washing the chunks down with coffee. the hot and muddy liquid went by the name of coffee. the food is not enough for him, but he does not care too much. at half past five, he and his mother are on the way to the factories. as he enters th

20、e factory gate the whistle blows again. he glances at the east. across a ragged sky-line of housetops a pale light is beginning to creep. this is much he sees of the day as he turns his back upon it and joins his work gang. he works mechanically and waits for the quitting time. darkness had already

21、fallen when johnny passed out through the factory gate. after he gets back home, his family has the meal of the day-the one meal at which johnny encounters his brother and sister. after the meal, he sits down on the stoop, his knees draw up and his narrow shoulders drooping forward, his elbows on hi

22、s knees and palms of his hands supporting his chin. as he sat there, he did no thinking and just resting. at night, he goes to bed, and his consciousness is sinking down and losing itself in sleep. there is no joyousness in life for him. the procession of the days he never sees. the nights he sleeps

23、 away in twitching unconsciousness. the rest of the time he works, and his consciousness is machine consciousness. outside this his mind is a blank. he has no ideals, and but one illusion; namely, that he drank excellent coffee. he was a work-beast. he has no mental life. now you can think about oth

24、er children in the factory, and many other factories in the country, and the countries around the world. in this world the rich are exploiting the children at such level; it is such a cruel world. i have a question in my mind all the time while reading this novel several times. do johnny mother love

25、 little johnny, and does she love will more than johnny? i refer to the answer that his mother is the only one who can give love to johnny in the whole world, but its just so little. the whole novel mentions several times that little johnny body is thin and weak. his tread is very heavy for so thin

26、and light a boy. his legs drag with their own weight, which seemed unreasonable because they are such skinny legs. the inspector once said johnny had got the rickets-incipient, and if epilepsy doesnt get him in the end, it will be because tuberculosis gets him first. johnny is at such young age, but

27、 he brings up the whole family, so that his health gets bad and worse. since he began to work in the factory, he doesnt get enough food or rest. the working condition in the factory is terrible, in my opinion; it is hard not to get disease working in such terrible condition. and i gather johnny moth

28、er knows this, but she doesnt do anything for his little poor son. she always says that it isnt her fault, and sure that she does the best. she love will more than johnny, i am sure about this. johnny had long known his mothers ambition for younger boy, she have been planning for will-keeping him in

29、 school to make a bookkeeper out of him. as a mother of three children, his mother isnt able to change the whole family. but she couldnt do that to johnny, it is so unfair to sacrifice one to make the other one better. after johnny recovered from the severe flu, his tired body gets some rest. lookin

30、g back his working time, he wants to figure out what makes him so tired. at last he gets his answer that he is tired of moving, and he doesnt want to move any more. at the end of the story the sixteen-year-old boy decides to gets away by climbing into a train which head for far away. as we all know,

31、 little johnny would die of the rickets, a matter of time, or hunger. here i have to say johnny only knows that he is tired of working and wants to enjoy the rest time. he never knows that it is the capitalists, like the superintendent and the inspector, make him and other poor people so miserable. johnny is so tired that he refuses to work, as an apostate. compared to johnny, other children dont figure it out, or too young to think about it, and then they become the machines of the superintendent