The Openness of Being (04.20.2003)
Jack London’s The Sea Wolf is in some ways a philosophical text and a product of its time. The strain it puts on the reader between a social Darwinist and utilitarian perspective against that of a more idealistic one is great. Many times the character of Wolf Larsen is a more consistent articulator of the Darwinian position and seems to always be getting the upper hand argumentatively. However, it is due to a phenomenological outlook on the events presented within The Sea Wolf that the alternative becomes intelligible. After all, the endeavor to improve is one thing which identifies us as human. The understanding of what constitutes this improvement varies, however, and only upon further inspection and in light of increasing experience can a multitude of modes be viewed as possible ways to improve oneself. In the end it is the realization of all things as possible modes of improvement, as well as their acceptance, which leads to a true improvement of the self. And it is this reasoning which leads to the character of Humphrey Van Weyden as being more correct.
One thing which identifies us as being human is the endeavor to improve. This endeavor is definitely present in both Hump and Wolf. Hump is a man of letters, as right in the beginning, he notes that “instead of having to devote my energy to the learning of a multitude of things, I concentrated it upon a few particular things, such as, for instance, the analysis of Poe’s place in American literature,” (1). We also know that Wolf has been educating himself in his own time when Hump sees the evidence in Wolf’s cabin. “Against the wall, near the head of the bunk, was a rack filled with books … Shakespeare, Tennyson, Poe, and DeQuincey. There were scientific works, too …Tyndall, Proctor, and Darwin … Bullfinch’s ‘Age of Fable,’ Shaw’s ‘History of English and American Literature,’ and Johnson’s ‘Natural History’ in two large volumes,” (33-34). Thus, since both the protagonist and the antagonist of this story read in order to educate themselves, they both demonstrate a desire toward self-betterment.
Yet the two character’s understanding of what this self-betterment is supposed to be is poles apart. Where Wolf’s view is purely materialistic and Darwinian, Hump’s position is, at least initially, entirely idealistic and metaphysical. And in the outset, each can only see the possibility of their own position, discounting the other’s. Hump confesses in his thoughts, “how could I explain my idealism to this man? How could I put into speech a something felt, a something like the strains of music heard in sleep, a something that convinced yet transcended utterance?” (35). Yet Wolf remains unshaken from beginning to end. “I believe that life is a mess …It is like yeast, a ferment, a thing that moves and may move for a minute, an hour, a year, or a hundred years, but that in the end will cease to move. The big eat the little that they may continue to move, the strong eat the weak that they may retain their strength. The lucky eat the most and move the longest, that is all,” (35). This contrast endures throughout the entire novel, and even in the end Wolf utters his last word as “BOSH!” So, once again, Wolf and Hump hold two entirely different and very singular positions, and therefore a single understanding of what improvement of the self is to be.
As Hump continues through the arduous life of a sea fairing man, he undergoes some changes of character. He becomes a weather-hardened man and certainly more of a man than what he was in the beginning. But the key here, is that Hump sees these alternative lifestyles as valid modes of being. At one point he mentions that “Wolf Larsen was quite considerate, the sailors helped me …and I make free to say, as the days went by, that I found I was taking a certain secret pride in myself. …during that brief time I was proud of myself, and I grew to love the heave and roll of the Ghost under my feet as she wallowed north and west through the tropic sea to the islet where we filled our water-casks,” (102). And once more, after abandoning the Ghost, Hump notes that “our minds were at ease. Not only had we resigned ourselves to the bitter winter, but we were prepared for it. The seals could depart on their mysterious journey in to the south at any time now, for all we cared; and the storms held no terror for us,” (204). By understanding that a multitude of modes of being can serve towards the betterment of the self, Hump also begins to be open to this multitude of modes of being.
After this achievement of openness, and the acceptance of all modes which follows it, Hump can get an adequate idea of what constitutes an improvement of the self. Consequently, this actual improvement is reached in the very understanding that improvement is not a singularity, but rather, has the possibility to be anything. Hump finds this truth in the events which strengthen his being. First he is strengthened both physically and mentally by doing the necessary work. “I profited by my lesson learned through raising the shears and then climbing them to attach the guys,” (240). Then he profits emotionally by the success of his work. “The Ghost’s stumpy masts were in place, her crazy sails bent. All my handiwork was strong, none of it beautiful; but I knew that it would work, and I felt myself a man of power as I looked at it,” (245). And finally, his entire being is improved by the cumulative effects of such events when added to the devotion of himself to another person which brings about a metaphysical understanding and improvement of his character. “The next moment she was in my arms, weeping convulsively on my shoulder while I clasped her close. I looked down at the brown glory of her hair, glinting gems in the sunshine far more precious to me than those in the treasure-chests of kings. And I bent my head and kissed her hair softly, so softly that she did not know,” (234-235). This is when Humphrey Van Weyden is once again in the presence of such reality as is the responsibility of painters and poets to articulate, though he is a different man. Hump is in the end a man of strength and ideals, reconciled in the ways of being in the world.
His character undergoes a long transformation from the humble beginning of being in a single mode of idealism that is thrown in opposition to the stark material and social Darwinism of Wolf. Though Humphrey soon begins to see an alternative to his position and even takes pride and joy in dwelling in these alternative modes at times. He takes in each experience, and on that basis begins to formulate an ancillary mode that is inclusive of a multitude of modes. In the end, Humphrey Van Weyden exists in a mode of being which is superior in that it accounts for any and all subdominant modes of emotional, physical, and metaphysical being. This is the point of a true understanding of what it means to improve one self.
Works Cited
London, Jack. The Sea Wolf. New York: Bantam, 1991.
