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Why does Martin Eden feel uncomfortable at the start of the novel?
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Martin Eden feels uncomfortable at the start of the novel because he is thrust into a luxurious environment that is starkly different from his working-class background. Invited to the Morse family home, he is intimidated by their wealth, education, and refinement, particularly by Ruth Morse, with whom he quickly becomes infatuated. His lack of formal education and fear of appearing crude exacerbate his discomfort, despite his growing ambition to better himself and become a writer.
Martin Eden by Jack London is an autobiographical novel about a rough and rugged sailor who educates himself and eventually, after a long struggle, becomes a famous author. At the beginning of the novel, Eden has been invited to the home of Arthur Morse, who he rescued during a scuffle. He is used to the company of sailors, hard living, and frequent fighting, and feels uncomfortable and intimidated by the luxurious house full of books and paintings to which he has been invited.
Eden's discomfort is magnified when he is introduced to Ruth, Arthur's sister. He has never met a sweet, soft, gentle woman like her before and quickly becomes infatuated with her. His only salvation is his interest in books and learning, as otherwise the stories of his adventures that he recounts for the Morse family shock Ruth. His discomfort causes the dining table conversation to seem to him...
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to be more difficult than hard labor.
It seemed to him that he had never worked so hard in his life. The severest toil was child's play compared with this. Tiny nodules of moisture stood out on his forehead, and his shirt was wet with sweat from the exertion of doing so many unaccustomed things at once.
So the unfamiliarity of the luxurious home, the disconcerting presence of Ruth, and the effort to behave and speak properly in the midst of such an unfamiliar environment all combine to make Martin Eden feel uncomfortable.
Martin, at the start of the novel, is a working-class man being introduced to a different social stratum from what he has known so far. The Morse family enable him to see that he's capable of achieving things beyond the blue-collar jobs he has had, but he's uncomfortable among them in their middle-class world at first, because he hasn't had much formal education. He's unsure of how to act, and he believes his manners will seem rough and crude to them. But he immediately sees an opportunity to better himself. Merely looking at a volume of Swinburne's poetry awakens his own ambition to be a writer, though he is self-conscious about his own behavior and even about something as seemingly trivial as his uncertain pronunciation of the poet's name.
When he falls in love with Ruth, both his intellectual and his social transformation are furthered, but he still feels uncomfortable because he hasn't yet become a financial success as a writer. For this reason alone, Ruth's family—and Ruth herself to an extent—continues to reject him. It is only after his long struggle as a writer has finally paid off and he becomes a commercial success that the Morses accept him, and Ruth finally offers her love to him. But, by this point, Martin has become disillusioned; he's just as unhappy and uncomfortable in his new world of success as he was when living in working-class poverty. He is unmotivated by the new life he has, but he cannot return to his old, working-class life. In a state of severe depression, he decides that suicide is his only option.