SOURCE: Tietze, Thomas R., and Gary Riedl. “‘Saints in Slime’: The Ironic Use of Racism in Jack London's South Sea Tales.” Thalia 12, nos. 1-2 (1992): 59-66.

In the following essay, Tietze and Riedl discuss London's treatment of racism in his stories about South Sea islanders, concluding that his ironic style indicts the brutality and ignorance exhibited by white people toward the natives.

In Jack London's many stories of the South Seas, the white man has brought racism, cruelty, powerful weapons, and disease to a remote and beautiful wilderness in his quest—his calling—“to farm the world.” Ironically, the foreigners also have come to bring the word of God to the benighted heathen. Almost all of the stories hinge upon the issue of race, and some of London's characters display a white racism that makes reading many of his stories uncomfortable for today's readers, steeped in late 20th century...