“The true path to salvation”: Conversion to the Religion of Socialism in the Work of Jack London and Upton Sinclair

The most common motif in early twentieth century radical literature is the conversion narrative. A variation on the bildungsro-man, these works feature conversions to socialism or to the labor movement that are modeled on techniques used by evangelical revivalists and on the experiences of religious converts. The most widely read and emblematic radical authors to consistently employ this trope were Jack London and Upton Sinclair. Not only did London and Sinclair continually utilize the conversion story in their ﬁction and nonﬁction, they both described their own discovery of socialism as a religious conversion. In their work, both authors diligently seek to conﬂate Christianity and socialism and to prove that, not only are the two compatible, but that authentic observance of Christianity demands the endorsement of socialism. London and Sinclair use their writing as a method of evangelism that aims to convince their audience that socialism is a religious enterprise and means to salvation.

Finally, in his most famous essay, "Revolution," the text that served as the "sermon" he delivered along his 1905-1906 lecture tour, we find his most strident endorsement of Christian socialism (Johnston 110).In the essay, London employs several forms of Christian suasion.First, he assumes a prophetic register, exhorting his listeners to disavow capitalist idolatry-to "cast off allegiance to the bourgeois gods" (Foner 493).He then acts as an apologist to demonstrate that socialism and authentic Christianity are one and the same.He explains that "the revolutionist…preaches righteousness" and "service, unselfishness, sacrifice, martyrdom-the things that sting awake the imagination of the people, touching their hearts with the fervor that arises out of the impulse toward good and which is essentially religious in its nature" (Foner 502).He then ends with an appeal to new converts to take up the mantle of evangelism themselves.He proclaims that "preaching the revolution-that passionate gospel…is in essence a religious propaganda with a fervor in it of Paul and Christ" (Foner 504).Ultimately, as Johnston has recognized, the essay was intended to initiate a conversion experience by employing the tactics of "a Christian sermon in which the minister tries to convince his audience of the evils of sin so that the sinner will accept salvation" (110).In "What Life Means to Me," also written in 1905, London argued that to be complicit in the injustices of capitalism is to "sin passively" (No Andrew J. Ball Harvard University ball@math.harvard.edu5 Mentor 93).Here, he once more "condemned the sins of capitalism" and presented socialism as the means to salvation (Johnston 110).
After completing his essay for Walker, London wrote to Cloudsley Johns on August 10, 1899 to tell his friend that he had decided to write a "Christ novel" (Letters 1:104).It would be his first foray into the form.However, though London was engrossed in research for the "Christ novel," he chose to write The Daughter of the Snows (1902) first, as the commissioned novel would provide him with much-needed funds immediately and could be written quickly.London would go on to compile sources and compose notes for the "Christ novel" from 1899 to 1915, a period spanning nearly the entirety of his literary career, and would ultimately incorporate this material into two novels, The Iron Heel (1908) andThe Star Rover (1915).His early notes on the novel indicate that he originally planned to "show Christ partly and largely a labor-leader" and to demonstrate that Christianity and socialism were founded upon identical principles (qtd. in Tavernier-Courbin 260).London "clipped, saved, and marked at the top 'Christ Novel'" a review of Karl Kautsky's Der Ursprung der Christentumus entitled "A Socialist View of the Origin of Christianity" ("Authorial" 25).He was particularly interested in the passage where the reviewer writes that, for Kautsky, "Jesus was an agitator, a revolutionary, a rebel, and felt a strong class hatred of the rich," and underlines the contention that Jesus was a "working class messiah" ("Authorial" 25).He also collected relevant texts, such as an article entitled "Economic of Jesus" and a pamphlet called "The Socialism of Jesus" which presented a "socialist portrayal of Jesus as a proletariat working to undermine the ruling classes" ("Authorial" 26, 28).He makes notes instructing himself to revisit the work of Walter Rauschenbusch, to "See POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CHRIST," and to refer to Howard Pyle's Rejected of Men (qtd. in Tavernier-Courbin 260).Pyle's novel was part of the new genre of Jesus biographies that were immensely Harvard University ball@math.harvard.edu6 popular at the time.In the novel, Pyle "describes the events of Jesus's life as if they had happened in New York, 1903.Jesus is portrayed as a leader of the oppressed poor" and is "executed by the ruling church body" ("Authorial" 25).London's devotee, Upton Sinclair, would later write an exemplar of this genre with his They Call Me Carpenter (1922).Williams writes that "London, like other socialists, was attracted to the idea that the organization of men behind Jesus was communistic in nature.Jesus's followers, the theory postulated, were the first to form an urban working class collective [whose] immediate goal was to overthrow Roman rule" ("Authorial" 25).London was fascinated by the figure of Jesus, but not because he regarded him as a deity.Rather, London was compelled by Christianity's ethics and economic philosophy, by "the socialistic nature of Jesus's message" ("Authorial" 27).But most importantly, he was interested in "the organization of men" who had made Jesus into a god; that is, he was drawn to the process and social-political function of god-making.As he demonstrates in "Revolution," London was keenly aware of the power of "religious propaganda" and wanted his Christ novelin whatever form it would take-to show that "the task of all socialists was like the task of the early Christians: to overthrow the corrupted institutions" that constituted capitalism ("Authorial" 25).
Though it would not be published by Macmillan until 1908, London composed The Iron Heel from August to December, 1906, just months after completing his evangelistic lecture tour.
London's research into ancient Jerusalem and the crucifixion of Jesus would not be translated into fiction until he composed The Star Rover between 1913 and 1914, but it was here, in The Iron Heel, that London incorporated the bulk of his forgoing work on the Christ novel; this was the culmination of the work on Christianity and socialism that he had been crafting and refining over the previous seven years.
Andrew J. Ball Harvard University ball@math.harvard.edu7 As in his earlier essays, in The Iron Heel, London characterizes revolutionism as a religious enterprise led by zealots, ascetics, and martyrs.The novel's Avis Everhard recalls that, "the Revolution took on largely the character of religion.We worshipped at the shrine of the Revolution, which was the shrine of liberty.It was the divine flashing through us.Men and women devoted their lives to the Cause, and newborn babes were sealed to it as of old they had been sealed to the service of God" (Iron 179).London suggests that the revolutionists are fulfilling God's plan and adhering to His will, depicting those who perform this holy task as saintly figures intent upon the salvation of humanity.Again, he reuses a passage from "What Life Means to Me," written just months earlier, to describe the novel's socialist combatants as martyrs whose vision was set upon "Christ's own Grail" and their "ardent idealism" intent upon the "maltreated" who were "to be…saved" by the revolution.Like so many of his peers in the movement, London exalted labor activists, imbuing them with a saintly aura, and sacralized socialism, depicting it as redemptive return to authentic Christianity.
The Iron Heel is essentially a hagiographical text that documents the final days of a Christ figure -Ernest Everhard -covering his evangelism, his recruitment of disciples, and the early stages of the revolutionary movement that would ultimately lead to his martyrdom.
Throughout the novel Ernest is by turns characterized as a prophet, "oracle," teacher, "father confessor," and evangelist, "one of God's own lovers" (Iron 5,56,44,133).It is clear that Everhard is modeled on London's interpretation of Jesus, but we must recall that London did not regard Jesus as a god, but as an integral figure in the progressive salvation history of humanity, who possessed a preternatural command of the divinity inherent in all people.Therefore, Everhard is depicted as a messianic figure or proletarian savior but not as a deity.London writes, "all his lifetime [Everhard] toiled for others...And all his life he sang the song of man.And he Andrew J. Ball Harvard University ball@math.harvard.edu8 did it out of sheer love of man, and for man he gave his life and was crucified" (Iron 132).
London's use of Jesus as the template for his socialist hero is perhaps most explicit in his account of the transfiguration of Ernest Everhard.Avis recounts, Ernest rose before me transfigured, the apostle of truth, with shining brows and the fearlessness of one of God's own angels, battling for the truth and the right, and battling for the succor of the poor and lonely and oppressed.And then there arose before me another figure, the Christ!He, too, had taken the part of the lowly and oppressed, and against all the established power of priest and pharisee.And I remembered his end upon the cross, and my heart contracted with a pang as I thought of Ernest.Was he too, destined for a cross?(Iron 49) Later we read, "he stood transfigured before me.His brows were bright with the divine that was in him, and brighter yet shone his eyes from the midst of the radiance that seemed to envelope him as a mantle" (Iron 61).We recall, of course, that The Transfiguration is the culminating event of Jesus's life as an evangelist, related in each of the synoptic gospels1 .Here, Everhard takes the place of Christ and is imbued with divine light which shown from his brow, enveloping him as it had Jesus.

Conversion to the Religion of Socialism
An alternative title for The Iron Heel could be The Gospel According to Avis as it consists of her account of Ernest's ministry, martyrdom, and the establishment of the church of the revolution.We read that, by preaching the gospel of socialism, Everhard provokes a conversion experience in many of his interlocutors, who receive his teaching as revelation and are born ball@math.harvard.edu9 again after attaining class-consciousness.The Iron Heel is a prime example of a common type of conversion narrative, one that concerns the redemption of a member of the leisure-class.As is standard with this type, the novel recounts a young, wealthy woman's "conversion into a revolutionist" upon meeting and falling in love with a charismatic socialist hero who opens her eyes to economic injustice and her class's complicity in the sins of modern industry (Iron 200).
Avis's conversion experience occurs when Ernest awakens her class-consciousness, and she describes this event in decidedly religious terms: "It was as though I were about to see a new and awful revelation...My whole world was turning over" (Iron 48-49).We recall, of course, that conversion literally means "turning over."Hearing Ernest's socialist gospel leads Avis to be born again, to become his leading disciple, and to join the church of the revolution.In this way, Avis joins the ranks of numerous middle-class women in radical fiction whose conversions are provoked by saintly socialist men, such as the namesake of Howells's Annie Kilburn (1888), Margaret Vance in his A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), Evelith Strange in his Through the Eye of the Needle (1907), Freda Hartwell in Charlotte Teller's The Cage (1907), and Sinclair's aptlynamed Mary Magna in They Call Me Carpenter (1922), to name but a few.Moreover, this literary motif is correlative with the real-world experience of many radicals at the turn of the century.Many socialists of the era described their experience of the movement in terms reminiscent of revival conversions.For example, Henry George reported that his awakening to the "social problem" in 1869 came to him as a "conversion after the pattern of evangelical Protestantism" (qtd. in Gutman 106n9).George writes, "Once, in daylight, and in a city street, there came to me a thought, a vision, a call-give it what name you please.But every nerve quivered.And there and then I made a vow" (qtd. in Gutman 106n9).Autobiographical conversion stories were a staple element of the radical publications of the time.Numerous papers Andrew J. Ball Harvard University ball@math.harvard.edu10 and journals featured articles written by prominent socialists in which they recounted how they were called to the movement.These accounts of political rebirth were invariably written in the idiom of the Christian conversion story and were pervaded by allusions to their religious analog2 .Further, Herbert Gutman finds evidence that suggests a "close connection" between "religious conversions and subsequent labor militancy among certain workers" (Gutman 106).For example, Samuel Fielden, one of the convicted Haymarket anarchists, had been a Methodist preacher, evangelist, and Sunday school teacher before being converted to socialism.Based upon Fielding's own accounts, Gutman concludes that "his 'conversion' to socialism suggests a close parallel to evangelical conversion" (Gutman 106n9).By conflating these two forms of conversion, radical authors suggest that salvation is to be achieved through the endorsement of socialist norms.In this way, socialist doctrine is transformed into a salvation ethic, the adherence to which is thought to confer redemption.
Perhaps the most widely read of the Progressive Era's radical conversion novels is Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906).The extent to which Christianity pervades Sinclair's conception of socialism is readily observable in the climactic pages of The Jungle.Before his ultimate conversion to socialism, Jurgis Rudkus joins a labor union, which Sinclair describes as the discovery of a new church.
Jurgis had always been a member of the church, because it was the right thing to be, but the church had never touched him...Here, however, was a new religion-one that did touch him, that took hold of every fibre of him; and with all the zeal and fury of a convert he went out as a missionary...after the fashion of all crusaders since the original ones, Harvard University ball@math.harvard.edu11 who set out to spread the gospel of Brotherhood.(Jungle 100) Not only does Jurgis undergo a conversion, he becomes an evangelist for his newfound faith.
Later, disillusioned with his trade union and in despair, Jurgis inadvertently stumbles into a meeting where he hears what can only be described as a The speaker offers a "message of salvation," a gospel of "deliverance" (Jungle 338, 339).At times, the speaker's words are indistinguishable from those of a revivalist who beckons unrepentant sinners to the mourner's bench with the promise of redemption: "there will be some one man whom pain and suffering have made desperate...and to him my words will come like a sudden flash of lightening to one who travels in darkness-revealing the way before him, the perils and the obstacles-solving all problems, making all difficulties clear!" (Jungle 340).Through conversion to socialism, the speaker promises, the believer will become "a free man at last!A man delivered" (Jungle 340).This message elicits a "supernatural experience" from Jurgis, causing him to feel as though he'd been born again (Jungle 353).The speakers words rang through the chambers of his soul...with a sense of things not of earth, of mysteries never spoken before, of presences of awe and terror!There was an unfolding of vistas before him, a breaking of the ground beneath him, an upheaving, a stirring, a trembling; he felt himself suddenly a mere man no longer-there were powers within him undreamed of, there were demon forces contending, age-long wonders struggling to be born, and he sat oppressed with pain and joy, while a tingling stole down into his fingertips, and his breath came hard and fast.[...]There was a falling in of all the pillars of his soul, the sky seemed to split above him-he stood there, with his clenched hands upraised, his eyes bloodshot, and the veins standing out purple in his face, roaring in the voice of a wild beast, frantic, incoherent, maniacal.And when he could shout no more he still stood