London escaped this terror by drinking away at bars, and eventually he heard of a ship being sold by an oyster pirate. Intrigued, he borrowed money to buy the ship and become an oyster pirate. In order to stop The Apostate from becoming an autobiography, which did not fit his style, London described his escape from the abominable factory as the character in the story jumping on a freight train to freedom (Niemi 470). .
Jack London was highly critiqued on his motives for writing. The inspiration of his writing did come from his experiences in life; however a monumental factor in becoming an author was to refrain from preforming manual labor (Frank 258). Through Jack London's tribulations as a factory worker, a pirate, participating in the dangerous Klondike Gold Rush, and even going to jail, he wanted nothing to do with the middle, working class citizen anymore (Niemi 471). Jail time is what guided London towards the socialist paths present in between the lines in his stories. In London's books lie socialist elements smothered by adventure to hide the elements from capitalist readers (Hicks 260). London is considered to be a materialist, socialist, Darwinian, and Nietzschean all at once. Being this diverse led him to a constant inner struggle about his own beliefs (Wagenknecht 225). Being from the lower class, London believed that the rich could shepard the workers to initiate socialism in order to reinvent the environment that produced inferiority (Wagenknecht 225). His book with the most distinct socialist backbone, The Iron Heel, dips into the possibility of the United States lower class revolting out against the capitalist society that allowed them to fall into the slums of society. London believed this fascist regime would conquer and crush all the democracy which he despised (Trotsky 260-61). .
Jack London's experiences in the Klondike Gold Rush awarded him not with gold, but with the gold's weight in stories.
