Introduction:
Jack London’s The Iron Heel is a dystopian perspective of the United States transforming into a corrupt society: economics and politics alike. The novel depicts America in 1912 as a Nation bound to an oligarchy that controls the economic sector and by the union ties with the legislative branch, the political sector as well. London in the novel does not only imply his fear of the future of the country, but also incorporates prophetic patterns that emerged elsewhere in the world.
This investigation of London’s text takes a holistic approach to the novel: first by looking at the system of society with in a Nation State. Also, the paper will investigate the economic infrastructure that is present in the novel along with interpreting the current economic system in reality in comparison to what London’s protagonists hope to influence society to become. This paper also examines the issues of class in the novel as well as how these class issues are found in reality, both in the past and the present situation.
Social Structure:
Karl Marx is strict in explaining the state, a “repressive apparatus… which enables the ruling classes to ensure their domination over the working class, thus enabling the foremen to subject the latter to the process of surplus-value extortion” (Althusser, 1970). Jack London illustrates Marx’s view of the state in complete accuracy in The Iron Heel. The oligarchy in order to rid itself of any form of competition exterminates the middle class, leaving only the lower class that must work grueling hours to support their families. These lower class families have no choice or no other way to survive this experience in the novel. London’s protagonists the Everhards see this social structure and are bound and determined to change it. The state’s society is then according to Marx set up in a structure that will repress those that are not a part of the ruling class. In The Iron Heel this class would be the oligarchy and their control over the wealth of the United States. Marx’s structure as described by Louis Althusser is that the infrastructure, the money of a population, which is kept going by the different classes of society, keeps the superstructure alive. The superstructure in society are the political and ideological powers at be. This power is what Marx refers to as the lower class is being subjected to under oppression. The working class is “crushed under the iron heel” because the Iron Heel does not only control the infrastructure, but the superstructure because the union representatives have persuaded members of the legislative branch with money. This alliance then provides the oligarchy with the power over the super structure as well.
In reality we know that a takeover by a single entity or a group of people over a Nation State is a catastrophic event. While designing and writing about the idealistic state, Plato discussed how the dangers of an oligarchy would bring about a corrupt leadership that is “united by austerity” or restricted access to or availability of consumer goods. The oligarchy in London’s novel is repeating this and there by following Plato’s warning is perfectly defining Marx’s repressive Nation state. There is a clear example of consumer goods being repressed with Jackson who after having his arm crushed and taken off was unable to receive any compensation. Jackson proceeded through the process and went to trial. Jackson was unsuccessful and austerity was practiced on him and he then received no compensation for his injury. This reflects the perils that both Marx and Plato find in a state controlled by an oligarchy like the Iron Heel.
Capitalism versus Socialism
With in the novel two economic structures are argued. However, capitalism and socialism are not only ways to run the financial affairs of the country, but it is also the state of mind in which the people would live. In The Iron Heel London depicts his capitalist society as either incredibly staunch and greedy or resilient and persecuted, depending on what class you belong to. This is why London’s protagonists Ernest and Avis Everhard are portrayed as radicals within the novel fighting for a change, for socialism a new way to run and think about the state of affairs within the Nation State.
But, what are the differences of capitalism and socialism? What are they supposed to be at the purest forms and why within these societies do these methods of handling the money, get portrayed the way that they do?
Capitalism “as a way of thinking is fundamentally individualistic, that is, that the individual is the center of capitalist endeavor. This idea draws on all the Enlightenment concepts of individuality: that all individuals are different, that society is composed of individuals who pursue their own interests, that individuals should be free to pursue their own interests (this, in capitalism, is called “economic freedom”), and that, in a democratic sense, individuals pursuing their own interests will guarantee the interests of society as a whole” (Hooker, 1999). Within the novel economic freedom is destroyed as the oligarchy takes over the separate markets. For example, the expropriation of the farmers in the novel represents a takeover by the oligarchy. Since capitalism is also a way of thinking that “the purpose is for [individuals] to grow steadily wealthier” for a group to take over like this, defeats the purpose of capitalism. The individual is to grow wealthier so that society as a whole can grow wealthier. The society then is to act responsible with the productive labor that it exports. London then represents capitalism as the nasty disease that the oligarchy has been taken over by.
Adam Smith, who is known as the founding father of capitalism, warns against these types of problems with in capitalism. “He was explicit in his fears that large corporations could use their influence with government to unfairly reduce competition and suppress wages. ‘No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the greater part of the members are poor and miserable,’” as in London’s novel. The oligarchy does exactly this; they influence the government in order to advance their own wealth and economic freedom. In capitalism, the individual is to work for wages, but London connotes the farmers after the takeover as they “worked for wages” as it is a wretched thing. This convinces me along with his protagonist’s stance on socialism that he is pushing for the socialists.
Socialism is an “economy in which the government controls all means of production—was the tragic failure of the twentieth century” (Heilbroner, 2008). The socialist economic system was “born of a commitment to remedy the economic and moral defects of CAPITALISM, it has far surpassed capitalism in both economic malfunction and moral cruelty” (Heilbroner, 2008). The Socialist system is supposed to take over a capitalist system like what London is attempting to portray as economic evolution in the novel. This would agree with Plato’s ideal of the government and who should be in control. Plato believed that it should be the philosopher’s like himself and his friends that are in control of the government. This would be ideal because they would be able to control the economy as well in an incorrupt way. However, in socialism there seems to be a more polarizing effect than in capitalism. For Stalin, who was the first to experiment with Karl Marx and Lenin’s ideas in the Soviet Union. Many of the problems that Stalin faced was that he needed to mobilize “a peasantry into a workforce to build” the necessary things for land, such as roads, dams, etc (Heilbroner, 2008). By forming a peasantry it forces a people into a lower class that they will not be able to rise from. However, London feels that this would be the ideal situation for the people in The Iron Heel as he has his protagonists fight so hard for it.
Ernest while discussing the “inevitable breakdown” of the capitalist system explains this vision “under the terrific structure of profits that it itself has reared. And in that day there won’t be any destruction of the machines. The struggle then will be for the ownership of the machines. If labor wins, your way will be easy. The United States, and the whole world for that matter, will enter upon a new and tremendous era. Instead of being crushed by the machines, life will be made fairer, and happier, and nobler by them” (London, p. 111). London’s vision is that the capitalist system will be destroyed and the socialist system will take over by the need for people to work. After all “the fundamental purpose and meaning of human life is productive labor. Marxism, which has more in common with capitalism than it has differences, also bases itself on these ideas” (Hooker, 1999).
It is clear that London believes that capitalism produces a class system that hinders people. Instead London through his novel and his protagonists fight for socialism to the point where he martyrs the protagonists as fighting for the greater good of the future. The ironic thing however, is that in reality the socialist system produces a forced peasantry that makes people into serfs, which is a form of slavery. However, the novel presents the class system in a way that under capitalism as it is transforming into socialism the hyper distinction between the upper class and the lower class is seen in the lifestyles of the characters.
Class
In the very beginning of the text when Ernest Everhard first encounters Avis’ family friends he describes this upper class as “belong[ing] in the enemy’s camp…[,having] hands [that] are soft with the word others have performed… and…minds [that] are filled with doctrine” that justifies their selfish lifestyles (London, p.22). For those in the upper class they preach ‘free opportunity for all,’ [but they] mean free opportunity to squeeze profits, which freedom of opportunity is now denied him by the great trusts… [By doing this, they] want [the] opportunity to plunder [their] fellow-men” (London, p.96). The upper class is depleting the resources for there to be a free opportunity for the lower or middle class to rise above their current circumstances in the novel. London does this as the oligarchy has free reign over the lower class as the lower class is the workers in their factories. The middle class then in the novel are befuddled with ideas of how to save their fate, which Ernest then presents the idea of socialism that seems the most appealing option to them. London then presents this as “the class struggle [as] a law of social development”, contrasting the strong living conditions and mind sets of the upper class and the working class (London, p.27).
The working class in The Iron Heel experiences many heartbreaking and physical tragedies such as “Jackson the meek and lowly man” who had lost his arm due to an accident with a machine at the factory he was working in (London, p. 37). Jackson was then unable to gain any compensation from the company he had worked for because of the contrast in the quality of the legal representation along with a bribed testimony from the witnesses. The comparison between the lifestyles in this novel is that the aristocrats are concerned with the abstract meaningless things such as metaphysics and the working class is unable to think of anything but the trials that they experience and are enduring. Jackson is not the only example of tragedy with these machines in the factory. The woman that was with the bishop experienced tragedy. She tells her story that “It is my child that I cry…It was a machine that killed her. It is true she worked hard, but I cannot understand. She was strong. And she was young – only forty; and she worked for only thirty years. She began young; it is true, but my man died. The boiler exploded down the works. And what were we to do?” (London, p.142) This woman experiences the hopelessness that is life under the oligarchy’s rule. She psychologically is unable to go back to work for the factory, due to the death of her daughter. She then experiences hunger and woe.
One would hope that there was some sort of middle ground among this class struggle. However, the oligarchy took care of that hope for the reader. The middle class experiences extermination, because “the large capitalists [and] the trusts” are in control of the machinery and the infrastructure. The small private businesses are bought out by the oligarchy and the class struggle as part of the social evolution continues on its way through the novel.
Reflections on Society:
This tragic novel then leaves the reader in despair. For the reader it might be a relief to escape this twisted wonderland. With dystopian texts there are however a moral and reflection for the reader. Instead of being like a fable that will provide you an example of why not to commit a moral wrong, London reflects society in his novel as it was in 1907 when he wrote it and even into today. In 1907 an act of reform was passed as London wrote The Iron Heel. The Tillman Act of 1907 stopped banks and corporation from contributing to federal elections. The political corruption of the time had to be reformed to stop the influence of votes by getting one party into office, thus forwarding the agendas of one certain group or party. This exact act was not replicated or inserted into London’s text, but this reparation of the rogue of politics must have inspired London to seek a better way for the people to live in the society. London then envisioned a society in which others are able to work and develop one another. However, this still has not happened.
In the novel, Avis as she begins her transformation into the revolutionist finds herself “in the arid desert of commercialism… [A place of] nothing but stupidity, except for business. I found none clean, noble, and alive, though I found many who were alive-with rottenness” (London, p.63). The reader may find themselves in the middle of a shopping center in present day. A shopping center is nothing but advertisements tempting the consumer to buy items for a cheap emotional thrill. These businesses are brilliant at advertising, but with all brain and no heart. Without a heart the motivations for these businesses are shrewd, simply to make a profit and go to whatever lifestyle they choose. London also discusses a large amount of hypocrisy within the Church. The men of this day in London’s novel were “tool[s] of corporations that secretly robbed widows and orphans… a pillar of the church… [Who] directly encouraged prostitution” by the way that he conducted business (London, p.63). The tragedy is in the novel that these men who attended and were a large part of the church encouraged this sinful behavior because of the way that they conducted business. This state of the church has not changed. Unless, the daily spiritual walk is one in which the Christian picks up their cross daily and submits themselves to the will of God, according to what the Bible says, then this “rottenness” and hypocrisy will continue to flourish in their lives (London, p.63).
Conclusion:
Jack London’s The Iron Heel is a dystopian text that reveals many things to the reader. London‘s story reveals that he has created a Nation State that reflects Karl Marx’s description of a repressive state that operates under the economic structure of capitalism. The plot unfolds to reveal the blatant class struggle as the Everhards press towards a need for socialism in the society that they live in. London’s novel not only provides a perspective into the time that he had wrote and published this novel, but also it provides an insight into present day society.
References
Althusser, L. (1970). Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. Retrieved December 17, 2009, from http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm
Gore, M (2008). Political Corruption in America. Retrieved December 17, 2009, from http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/article.cfm/politican_corruption_in_america
Heilbroner, Robert. “Socialism.” The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved December 17, 2009 from the World Wide Web: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Socialism.html
Hooker, R (1996). Capitalism. Retrieved December 17, 2009, from http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GLOSSARY/CAPITAL.HTM
Ivison,J (August 25, 2008). National Post:” The Columnist’s Summer Reading List: Plato And Adam Smith”. Retrieved December 17, 2009,from http://www.lexisnexis.com.libproxy.csun.edu:2048/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8178960854&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8178960857&cisb=22_T8178960856&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10882&docNo=1
London, Jack. The Iron Heel. New York City: Penguin Group, 2006. Print.
The Dystopian Imaginary 