The story of the Mexican. Jack London the Mexican London the Mexican a summary for the reader's diary

Jack London - known to our public, he is known as the author of adventure novels and short stories. In childhood, many of us must have read his works about animals: "White Fang", "Brown Wolf" and others. Few of us know that this author was once an active public figure, passionately hating the bourgeoisie. He reflected his civic position in the story "Mexican". Thus, the ardent socialist tried to awaken the revolutionary spirit in the masses of working people. In this article I want to tell you about this story. So, Jack London, "The Mexican", a summary of the work.

Acquaintance with Felipe Rivera

Felipe Rivera is an ardent revolutionary who recently joined the Junta group. From other members of this organization, whose main activity was the preparation of the revolution, he was distinguished by a very gloomy appearance and a difficult character. Mexican blood flowed in his veins. The Junta did not like him.
Companions understood that Felipe's life was like hell. Perhaps this left its mark on his character. They just couldn't love him anyway. No one knew where he sleeps, where and what he eats. No one had a desire to climb into his soul and ask about his life. This is how Jack London described the main character. "Mexican", a summary of which is given in this article, is a story about courage and patriotism.

Felipe's first mission

Soon Felipe was entrusted with the first very important task. The members of the group found out that they had an enemy - Juan Alvarado. He commanded federal troops. Because of him, the Junta lost contact with their like-minded people in California. After Felipe returned from his mission, important contacts with the Californian revolutionaries were restored, and Juan Alvarado was found with a knife in his chest in his own bed. After the success of the first assignment, our hero's associates began to be afraid of him. It sometimes happened that he returned from the next task so beaten that he did not have the strength to get out of bed the next day. Describing all these facts, as well as possible, characterizes the protagonist Jack London. "Mexican", the contents of which are given here, came out in large numbers and won the hearts and minds of millions of people.

Junta needs money

The Junta constantly needed funds to carry out its activities. Felipe helped the group as much as he could with his money. He once shelled out as much as sixty gold dollars to rent a room for the organization. But this was negligible. The moment came when only a few days remained before the Mexican revolution, everything was ready for this, but there were no funds to acquire weapons in sufficient quantities. And our hero decides to take a desperate step - a boxing match with a famous and experienced athlete Danny Ward for money. And how does Jack London describe the events further? "Mexican", the summary of which is unlikely to convey the fullness of the conflicting moods of that time, is not just a story about the fate of an individual, but a story about the life of a whole people in a certain period of time.

Felipe and Danny fight

For this match, Felipe was offered a good amount - more than one thousand dollars. The newly-minted boxer was not familiar to anyone in the public, so everyone bet on Danny. Almost no one bet on Rivera. But this only inflamed our hero. He was sure of his victory. Although he understood that it would not be easy for him to get it. Danny met his opponent with a hail of powerful blows. The audience roared and demanded blood. But unexpectedly, Felipe knocked out his opponent. Everyone was against the hero, no one wanted to lose their money. Even the judge counted Danny's minutes so slowly that he found the strength to get up and continue the fight.

Felipe's victory

The fight went on for several long rounds. At the tenth stage, Felipe showed his opponent his signature move, putting him into the ring three times. The owner of the show and the coach began to persuade our hero to give up. But it was not in the nature of Felipe. The revolution needed funds, and that was all he thought about. Danny was furious. He could not admit that some unknown Mexican could defeat him, the famous champion. In the seventeenth round, Rivera pretended to be exhausted. Danny underestimated the opponent and was soon knocked out, now final. This moment ended Jack London's story "The Mexican".

This story can be called outstanding in the work of the writer. It evokes a feeling of patriotism and a desire to be as strong and strong-willed as the main character. There is a feeling that these feelings are familiar to such an author as Jack London. "Mexican", a summary of which is given in this article, I advise you to read in full.

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Jack London

Mexican

Nobody knew his past, and the people from the Junta even more so. He was their "little riddle", their "great patriot" and in his own way worked for the coming Mexican revolution no less zealously than they did. It was not immediately recognized, because the Junta did not like him. On the day he first appeared in their crowded premises, everyone suspected him of a spy - one of Diaz's paid agents. How many comrades were scattered throughout the civil and military prisons of the United States! Some of them were shackled, but even shackled they were transported across the border, lined up against the wall and shot.

At first glance, the boy made an unfavorable impression. It was really a boy, no more than eighteen years old, and not too tall for his age. He announced that his name was Felipe Rivera and that he wanted to work for the revolution. That's it - no more words, no further clarification. He stood and waited. There was no smile on his lips, no hello in his eyes. Tall, impetuous Paulino Vera shuddered inwardly. This boy seemed to him closed, gloomy. Something poisonous, snake-like lurked in his black eyes. A cold fire burned in them, a huge, concentrated malice. The boy looked from the revolutionaries to the typewriter, on which little Mrs. Satby was busily tapping. His eyes rested on her for a moment, she caught that look and also felt a nameless something that made her stop what she was doing. She had to reread the letter she had typed in order to get back into the rhythm of her work. Paulino Vera looked questioningly at Arellano and Ramos, who in turn looked questioningly at him and then at each other. Their faces expressed indecision and doubt. This thin boy was the Unknown, and the Unknown, full of menace. He was an incomprehensible riddle for all these revolutionaries, whose fierce hatred of Diaz and his tyranny was, after all, only the feeling of honest patriots. There was something else here that they didn't know. But Vera, the most impulsive and determined of all, broke the silence.

Great," he said coldly, "you said you wanted to work for the revolution. Take off your jacket. Hang it over there. Come on, I'll show you where the bucket and the rag are. You see, the floor is dirty. You'll start by giving it a good wash, and the other rooms too. The spittoons need to be cleaned. Then take care of the windows.

Is it for the revolution? the boy asked.

Yes, for the revolution, Paulino answered. Rivera looked at them all with cold suspicion and began to take off his jacket.

Okay, he said.

And nothing else. Day after day he came to work - sweeping, scrubbing, cleaning. He raked the ashes out of the stoves, brought coal and kindling, made fires before the most zealous of them sat down at his desk.

May I sleep here? he asked one day.

Aha! So they showed up - the claws of Diaz. To spend the night in the premises of the Junta means to find access to its secrets, to lists of names, to the addresses of comrades in Mexico. The request was denied and Rivera never renewed it. Where he slept they did not know; they also did not know when and where he ate. One day, Arellano offered him a few dollars. Rivera shook his head in denial. When Vera intervened and began to persuade him, he said:

I work for the revolution.

A lot of money is needed to raise a revolution in our time, and the Junta was constantly in cramped circumstances. The members of the Junta were starving, but spared no effort for the cause; the longest day was not long enough for them, and yet at times it seemed that to be or not to be a revolution was a matter of a few dollars. One day, when the rent had not been paid for the first time for two months and the landlord was threatening to evict, none other than Felipe Rivera, a scrubber in miserable, cheap, worn clothes, deposited sixty gold dollars on May Satby's desk. This began to repeat itself in the future. Three hundred typewritten letters (appeals for help, appeals to workers' organizations, objections to newspaper articles that misreported events, protests against judicial arbitrariness and persecution of revolutionaries in the United States) lay unsent, waiting for stamps. Gone was Vera's watch, an old-fashioned gold repeater watch that belonged to his father. Gone, too, was the simple gold ring from May Satby's hand. The situation was desperate. Ramos and Arellano tugged hopelessly at their long mustaches. Letters must be sent, and the post office does not lend stamps. Then Rivera put on his hat and went out. When he returned, he deposited a thousand two-cent marks on May Satby's desk.

Isn't that the damned gold of Diaz? Vera said to his comrades. They raised their eyebrows and said nothing. And Felipe Rivera, who washed the floor for the revolution, continued to lay out gold and silver for the needs of the Junta as needed.

Yet they could not bring themselves to love him. They didn't know this boy. His habits were quite different from theirs. He did not indulge in frankness. Rejected all attempts to call him to talk, and they did not have the courage to question him.

Perhaps a great and lonely spirit... I don't know, I don't know! Arellano spread his hands helplessly.

There is something inhuman about him,” Ramos noted.

Everything has dulled in his soul,” May Satby said. - Light and laughter seem to be burned into it. He is a dead man, and at the same time you feel some kind of terrible vitality in him.

Rivera went through hell,” Paulino said. - A person who has not gone through hell cannot be like that, but he is still a boy.

And yet they couldn't love him. He never talked, never asked about anything, never expressed his opinions. He could stand motionless - an inanimate object, except for his eyes that burned with a cold fire - while the debate about the revolution grew louder and hotter. His eyes pierced the faces of the speakers like red-hot drills, they embarrassed and disturbed them.

He's not a spy," Vera said to May Satby. - He is a patriot, mark my words! The best patriot of all of us! I feel it in my heart and head. And yet I don't know him at all.

He has a bad temper, said May Satby.

Yes, - answered Vera and shuddered. - He looked at me today. These eyes cannot love, they threaten; they are evil, like a tiger. I know: if I change the case, he will kill me. He has no heart. He is merciless as steel, cruel and cold as frost. It is like moonlight on a winter night, when a person freezes on a lonely mountain peak. I'm not afraid of Diaz with all his killers, but I'm afraid of this boy. I'm telling the truth, I'm afraid. He is the breath of death.

A surly, thin, swarthy gringo who appeared at the beginning of the story. To the reader, he seems to be an episodic character. In one of the revolutionary headquarters, where all the goals are for the sake of liberating the humiliated and insulted, an atmosphere of alertness and suspicion reigns. A new person came himself, without demanding money, he takes on the dirtiest work. The author deliberately exacerbates antipathy towards the 18-year-old boy, emphasizing his "poisonous, snake-like in black eyes." But the fact that Felipe Rivera is a real hero will not be revealed immediately.

In retrospect, John London reveals the reasons for Rivera's unusual behavior: the death of his parents from the bullets of the gendarmes, the thirst for revenge and the willingness to make any sacrifice for the sake of revenge. "This is for the revolution!" the guy says, cleaning out the spittoons. It's hard to love such a character. But the author does not aspire to this.

Love the winner. Circumstances can turn everything upside down. The crowd's favorite champion boxer Dani Ward needs to be beaten in the ring by a youngster and it will happen, even Rivera is destined to stand in the ring for 17 rounds. The referee counts to nine. You have to get up and fight. This is how money was raised for the revolution.

The background of the plot about the boxer River

The uprising of 1910 was massive. The unrest was supported by patriotic latifundists. The confrontation between the government and the masses was caused, first of all, by the increased interference of the Americans in the internal affairs of Mexico (an agreement was signed on the establishment of a US Navy base in the Mexican bay of Magdalena). The protracted rule of the 83-year-old dictator Porfirio Duarte hindered the reform of society. Duarte's election victory in 1910 was considered fraudulent. The third reason was the outflow of peasants from the villages as a result of a crop failure in 1910. Hunger gave rise to unemployment, vagrancy, and banditry.

Porfirio Duarte emigrated from Mexico to France in June 1910, an opposition led by Francisco Madera came to power. The long journey of the Liberal Party of Mexico, founded in 1901 (in 1906 renamed the Liberal Junta), was crowned with success.

The boxing match described in Jack London's story may have taken place after the events of June 10, 1910, when the customs post of Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican-American border was taken by the rebels. The way was opened for the supply of weapons. But arms dealers had to be paid.

Riots, coups and wars continued until 1920. The revolution claimed the lives of 2 million people in a country of 15 million people. In 1917, on February 5, the Mexican Constitution was adopted - the most progressive set of laws in the world in the first half of the 20th century. Operates to this day.

Political views of Jack London

Socialist Jack London could not but respond in his work to the events of the Mexican Revolution. John Griffith Cheney (the writer's real name), who took part in the march of the unemployed on Washington in 1894, carries out orders for the Socialist Party of America (from 1901 to 1914).

The protagonist of The Mexican helps the revolution by becoming an uncomplaining floor washer in a newspaper office. This is how Jack London himself earned his living after a 30-day sentence in prison for participating in a demonstration. After being released, Griffith Cheney, being 4 years older than his classmates, sits in school, delivers ice, serves in a bowling alley, having time to study and feed himself, his mother and sisters. Written in the story about Felipe Rivera, “put a thousand two-cent marks on the desk of May Satby” - a picture from the author's biography.

London did not participate in boxing matches, but he worked as selflessly as the hero of The Mexican. Especially when preparing to enter the University of California. The future student is ridiculed by classmates for his ragged appearance. In the 96th, Jack becomes a university student, writes a lot. There is no free time, it is spent on penny earnings. Thirst for quick enrichment promises "gold rush". Having left the university, Jack London and his comrades drag equipment to the headwaters of the Yukon River. But the land was empty.

Writer's success

Fortune smiled at the writer after writing a series of stories. Writing enriched no less than gold mines. The former hard worker turned into an oligarch, began to listen to the voices of the once “enemy side”.

Jack London at the end of his life (1916) became an adherent of centrist views. Contemporaries even testified to the pro-racist statements of London.

The story "Mexican" in the context of world literature

The short story "The Mexican" by London was included in the collection "Born in the Night", published in 1913 - two years later after writing, but still remaining relevant. Because of the strife between the parties, the revolution either calmed down, or flared up more strongly. Jack London, who served as a war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, could speak vividly about the confrontation of forces with an accurate description of the theater of operations. But the writer narrowed the conflict down to a fistfight. As a result, the revolution has become an extremely personal matter, a physiological need, a form of struggle for survival. Wounds, blood, pain and fainting are described in a naturalistic way - all that the author himself experienced more than once.

Brought up on refined works for the bourgeois Englishman Kipling, the American London learned a lot from the works of his idol. London imbibed, in the words of Boston's critics, "Kipling's power of imagination and dramatic rolling." With the difference that London has a special "admiration for heroism."

False feelings, far-fetched plots of America at the end of the 19th century bored readers and editors alike. The American public has new idols: O. Henry, Dreiser, Jack London. In 1921, the star of the American painter George Bellows flared up. The themes of the paintings are portraits of workers, strikes, boxing matches.

"Petrel of the Revolution" Maxim Gorky visits the USA in 1906. The literary elite liked the poetic style of the author of The Song of the Falcon, and Jack London was delighted with the novel Foma Gordeev. Gorky follows the work of London, writes reviews of the works of an overseas like-minded person. Both tend to romanticize reality, even if reality is the bottom. The once revered Kipling came under attack, even from Jack London. But in the "Mexican" the Kiplinian is clearly heard:

“... Know how to put, in joyful hope,
On the map everything that has accumulated with difficulty,
Lose everything, and become a beggar, as before,
And never regret it!"
(R. Kipling, The Commandment, published 1910)

A thin, dark-skinned boy of eighteen years old named Felipe Rivera appeared in the Junta suddenly. He came and declared that he would like to work for the revolution. There was not an iota of benevolence in his face. His eyes were filled with some crazy poisonous mixture of anger and rage. Everyone who was in the room at the time of his appearance shuddered, froze, interrupted their studies. Vera, the most fearless, offered him to mop the floor, and this would be his contribution to the cause of the revolution.

Felipe built a fire every day, brought coal, cleaned, cleaned. Where did he spend the night

What he ate, no one knew. Sometimes he came to work with bruises, wounded fingers, a beaten face. Sometimes he disappeared for weeks, months.

A lot of money was needed to prepare for the revolution. Participants sold their personal valuables. Once they could not pay for the premises for two whole months, Felipe, having learned about the threat of eviction, brought sixty dollars. Then he brought money again and again. Where he got them from, no one knew. And besides, he didn't really want to know. Malevolence, closeness, something inhuman filled the whole image of Rivera. During debates about the revolution, his eyes lit up with fire, sparkled and pierced the debaters like fiery arrows. He was called a patriot to the core, who can kill anyone who betrays the common cause.

Rivera was tasked with reestablishing communications between Baja California and Los Angeles. The order was fulfilled - communication was restored, and Juan Alvadoro, the commander of the federal troops, was found dead.

The revolution, which had long been brewing all over the country, was ready to break out at any moment. The Junta itself, socialists, anarchists, exiles, miners, soldiers, bandits - all were ready to fight the Diaz regime. There were no only weapons and money with which to buy them. Rivera promised to find five thousand dollars in three weeks and told Vera to order rifles.

Chaos reigned in Kelly's office - boxer Bill Carty could not participate in a duel with Danny Ward. Those boxers who could replace him participated in the competition. And then Rivera appears, ready to overcome Ward and not at all doubting his victory. Gloomy, silent, he created a striking contrast with the friendly, smiling and full of health rival. Coach Roberts had known the Mexican for two years when he showed up hungry for his first fight. After losing it, probably due to hunger, he received fifty cents and food. The next day, Rivera came again, and then appeared again and again.

Ward, greedy for money, an excellent businessman, always negotiated all his deals himself and was ready to win back every dollar. Evaluating Rivera, he decided that the victory was in his pocket, and with this young man he would have to be more careful in the ring so as not to inadvertently kill. The amount that was supposed to be received as a fee could be from five to eight thousand dollars. The boxers were supposed to get sixty-five percent of that amount, with Ward taking eighty percent, leaving an unknown weakling twenty. However, Rivera insisted that the winner must take all.

Rivera was greeted unfriendly in the ring, no one believed in his victory. He himself did not pay any attention to the disappointed public. Instead of spectators, these hated gringos, Rivere saw workers falling from hunger and fatigue, small children ready to work for a penny, their father and mother. I saw strikes, rifles, the tortured bodies of my parents in a pile of corpses.

The public was confident in the victory of Ward, all bets were placed on him. She saw his healthy, perfect body, behind him she could not see how perfect in battle the body of an eighteen-year-old youth could be, burning with a thirst for revenge and seeing a rifle in every spectator seat.

The fight has begun. At first, Ward won, but Rivera held on, knocked out his opponent several times. Spectators, his seconds - all were for Ward. The stubborn boy, who stubbornly did not want to give up, was not supported by anyone. Even the judge played along with the eminent athlete. During the seventeenth round, Danny fell and couldn't get up. He was not helped by any lies on the part of the referee and the organizers of the match. The referee reluctantly acknowledged Rivera's victory.

He is known to our public as the author of adventure novels and short stories. In childhood, many of us must have read his works about animals: "White Fang", "Brown Wolf" and others. Few of us know that this author was once an active public figure, passionately hating the bourgeoisie. He reflected his civic position in the story "Mexican". Thus, the ardent socialist tried to awaken the revolutionary spirit in the masses of working people. In this article I want to tell you about this story. So, Jack London, "The Mexican", a summary of the work.

Acquaintance with Felipe Rivera

Felipe Rivera is an ardent revolutionary who recently joined the Junta group. From other members of this organization, whose main activity was the preparation of the revolution, he was distinguished by a very gloomy appearance and a difficult character. Mexican blood flowed in his veins. The Junta did not like him.

Companions understood that Felipe's life was like hell. Perhaps this left its mark on his character. They just couldn't love him anyway. No one knew where he sleeps, where and what he eats. No one had a desire to climb into his soul and ask about his life. This is how Jack London described the main character. "Mexican", a summary of which is given in this article, is a story about courage and patriotism.

Felipe's first mission

Soon Felipe was entrusted with the first very important task. The members of the group found out that they had an enemy - Juan Alvarado. He commanded federal troops. Because of him, the Junta lost contact with their like-minded people in California. After Felipe returned from his mission, important contacts with the Californian revolutionaries were restored, and Juan Alvarado was found with a knife in his chest in his own bed. After the success of the first assignment, our hero's associates began to be afraid of him. It sometimes happened that he returned from the next task so beaten that he did not have the strength to get out of bed the next day. Describing all these facts, as well as possible, characterizes the protagonist Jack London. "Mexican", the content of which is given here, came out in large numbers and won the hearts and minds of millions of people.

Junta needs money

The Junta constantly needed funds to carry out its activities. Felipe helped the group as much as he could with his money. He once shelled out as much as sixty gold dollars to rent a room for the organization. But this was negligible. The moment came when only a few days remained before the Mexican revolution, everything was ready for this, but there were no funds to acquire weapons in sufficient quantities. And our hero decides to take a desperate step - a boxing match with a famous and experienced athlete for money. And how does Jack London describe the events further? "Mexican", the summary of which is unlikely to be able to convey the fullness of the conflicting moods of that time, is not just a story about the fate of an individual, but a story about the life of a whole people in a certain period of time.

Felipe and Danny fight

For this match, Felipe was offered a good amount - more than one thousand dollars. The newly-minted boxer was not familiar to anyone in the public, so everyone bet on Danny. Almost no one bet on Rivera. But this only inflamed our hero. He was sure of his victory. Although he understood that it would not be easy for him to get it. Danny met his opponent with a hail of powerful blows. The audience roared and demanded blood. But unexpectedly, Felipe knocked out his opponent. Everyone was against the hero, no one wanted to lose their money. Even the judge counted Danny's minutes so slowly that he found the strength to get up and continue the fight.

Felipe's victory

The fight went on for several long rounds. At the tenth stage, Felipe showed his opponent his signature move, putting him into the ring three times. The owner of the show and the coach began to persuade our hero to give up. But it was not in the nature of Felipe. The revolution needed funds, and that was all he thought about. Danny was furious. He could not admit that some unknown Mexican could defeat him, the famous champion. In the seventeenth round, Rivera pretended to be exhausted. Danny underestimated the opponent and was soon knocked out, now final. With this moment, Jack London ended the story "The Mexican".

This story can be called outstanding in the work of the writer. It evokes a feeling of patriotism and a desire to be as strong and strong-willed as the main character. There is a feeling that these feelings are familiar to such an author as Jack London. "Mexican", a summary of which is given in this article, I advise you to read in full.