The Mexican by Jack London: A Literary Analysis

This story has Jack London’s passion, hate, and anger from start to finish. We have a young man ‘Rivera’ a loner by choice, going about in the cut and dry, doing what he feels any man would do to avenge an injustice of the worst degree. The selflessness in which Rivera makes his moves is unrivaled and the fear that the men of the Junta feel around him is not so much the look in his eyes but that their dedication to the revolution lacks substance in comparison. “Their ‘little mystery,’ their ‘big patriot’ p.1067; manages upward in cold, unflinching silence.

As the story progresses we hear the references by the men of the Junta saying how Rivera does not fear God, and that he is power above them. Naturalism takes its hold and we begin to understand that Rivera has no fear for a higher power but understands completely, because of his time on earth, that man has no choice but to deal with what nature gives him. It is not said what his life was like up until Roberts put him in the ring to take a pounding. We only know that he was hungry from the start and came back for more.

When you take the events of London’s life when he was growing up you see the struggles that he endured. He understood he was not given the privilege that others had and learned early on from his experiences that it would be up to no one but him to make his mark in the best way that represented who he was. It is said that Jack London had an uncanny knack for observing the world and we see that Philipe Rivera prefers to sit back and do the same. Being in the middle of the fracas yet the mind maintains a bird’s eye view. “Rivera’s way was different. Indian blood, as well as Spanish, was in his veins, and he sat back in a corner, silent, immobile, only his black eyes passing from face to face and noting everything.”p.1074

Rivera fought for the Mexican Revolution as London had fought for Socialism. At the end of the story the Mexican was brutally beaten but victorious yet was still hated and there was no hate lost on him either. Chance had given him a well-deserved victory but he knew that even a greater effort next time would ultimately be decided by impartial nature.

Sources:

Baym, Nina. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. Print