W8 Close Reading of London

London uses effective lines to quickly let us readers understand what has happened, what will happen, and inform us about the main character in the story despite the story segment coming from part way in. It is safe to say he purposefully makes sure we do not lose understanding about who are reading about and wants us to try to relate or symphasize with his characters. The use of foreshadowing makes it so the reader can have a small idea about the story to happen, and then have the epiphany moment after the correlation comes later in the reading.

Despite this passage coming from the middle of the story we do not know the beginning of, it is able to tell us quite a bit about the character. With just a few lines, we know he’s some kind of typist, and has been through quite a bit of struggles in life. You know that he has spent many long nights with the table, slaving over his work, and it wasn’t even needed to said that specifically in the story. It also feels a bit relatable and connects us with the character, with many readers nowadays relating to that slaving over a desk all night feeling.

London also is able to show us a bit of a preview to the rest of this chapter with this passage. It’s just a little one that stood out, but it sets up the next sequence of events quite well. The character has people in his life that do not get along with him and has difficulties with and it kind of preludes to that. The mentioning of all the misdeeds in his life was just the hint. Perhaps the ink staining of the table has some relatable ness to the character too— he’s not a perfect beautiful person anymore, but still very useful and important?




“He sat down and regarded the table thoughtfully. There were ink stains upon it, and he suddenly discovered that he was fond of it.
‘Dear old table,’ he said, ‘I’ve spent some happy hours with you, and you’ve been a pretty good friend when all is said and done. You never turned me down, never passed me out a reward-of-unmerit rejection slip, never complained about working overtime.’”

Jack London, “Martin Eden.” University of California Press, The Literature of California, 2000. Pg.355.