The major theme of the short story
"The Heathen"
Jack London
Introduction
Jack London , the writers of
this short story, is an American author journalist and social activist. He has
contributed many well known works to society.
The Heathen Title
The narrative pattern of this story is very
complicated. The narrator named Charley has directly dedicated this
story his mate cum friend Otoo. Who is a negro man. The story presents
the voyages of these two character. They have been living together for
seventeen years. Their relationship is based on their emotion.
The very meaning of heathen is the
person, who does not belong to fix or particular class or community. And the
story reveals that Otoo is considered to be the heathen as he does not belong
to the suppressed class though he is from the African American class. The
African people are suppressed by the whites and they are dragged to their own
class but they are considered to be slaves. This story also demonstrates the
idea of Master-Slave
relationship. The whites believe that the blacks are born to be merely
slaves and that is why they are forced to be African Christion in
which Otoo remains different from them and thus, he becomes the heathen of that
community.
Jack London given his views over
how society creates injustice to the people. If Otoo does not belong to his
christian community when society does not belong to the religion named ''HUMANITY'' And it does not lot the human beings live
their life the way they want to.
Thank you
ReplyDelete