Abstract

Jack London, a modern and productive writer in America, is one of the most famous novelists in late 19th and early 20th. In his life, he wrote many novels, among which Martin Eden, was one of the perspective woks. From the bottom of the society, young Martin brought bright illusion in love and hope of entering the upper-middle class to fight against his fate. But after making great efforts to write successfully, he was deeply disappointed and desperate about the disillusion of his dream. Death was the only way for him to relieve his pain. Martin’s dream was a typical American Dream.
 In the field of American realistic literature, “American Dream” has always been one of the most commonly involved themes. It originated in the Colonial Period of America when Benjamin Franklin was famous for his success through his persistent self-improvement. This faith let people believe that they could achieve success through hard work. Martin was one of them. This paper mainly analyzes the pursuit and disillusion of Martin’s American Dream.
This thesis is divided into four parts. The first part includes the introduction of Jack London and his works. Martin Eden’s brief introduction and the literature review are also presented in this part. The second part presents the origin of American Dream and its embodiment in American culture. The third part, the most important part of this essay, analyzes the development of Martin’s American Dream: the reasons, the efforts and the difficulties being faced in the process of pursuing his dream. Also, the disillusion of his dream and the reasons are analyzed in detail. The last part is the conclusion.

Key words:  Jack London  Martin Eden  American Dream  pursuit  disillusion

摘要

杰克·伦敦是美国现代多产作家，是19世纪末20世纪初美国最著名的小说家之一。他一生中写了许多小说，《马丁·伊登》是其最具有代表性的作品之一。来自社会底层的主人公青年马丁，带着对爱情的美好向往和进入上流社会的希望同自己的命运做斗争。他不懈努力，取得成功后，却对自己梦想破灭感到深深地失望、绝望。于是，死亡是唯一能解除痛苦的途径。可以说，马丁的梦想是典型的美国梦。
“美国梦”一直是美国现实主义文学中的重要主题之一，起源于殖民主义时期。其代表人物是本杰明·富兰克林，其坚毅的性格与自我提高的能力使其取得了重大的成就。以他为代表的美国梦更让人们相信，只要通过努力就能获得自己想要的东西、取得成功。马丁就是其中之一。本论文也是着重分析了马丁·伊登美国梦的追逐与幻灭。
论文分为四个部分。第一部分简要介绍作者杰克·伦敦的生平和其作品《马丁·伊登》的概要及其文献综述。第二部分主要分析美国梦的起源、发展和其在美国文化社会的体现。第三部分，也就是最重要的部分，主要从其追逐美国梦的缘由、方法以及其逐梦历程中遇到的困难等方面来分析马丁的美国梦。梦想的破灭及其破灭的原因也在第三部分详细分析。最后为结论部分。

关键词： 杰克·伦敦；《马丁·伊登》；美国梦；追逐；幻灭