"The Heathen" is a short story by the American writer

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

. It was first published in ''

Everybody's Magazine ''Everybody's Magazine'' was an American magazine published from 1899 to 1929. The magazine was headquartered in New York City. History and profile The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little role ...

'' in August 1910, and later included in the collection of stories by London, ''The Strength of the Strong'', published by

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

in 1914.''The Strength of the Strong''
The World of Jack London, accessed 15 November 2015. In the story, two people, from different cultural and racial backgrounds, are the only survivors of a ship that encounters a hurricane in the Pacific, and they remain together.

Background

In 1907 London began a voyage across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in his

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

the ''Snark'', and visited islands in the south Pacific, concluding the voyage in Sydney, Australia. He wrote about the adventure in his book ''

The Cruise of the Snark ''The Cruise of the Snark'' (1911) is a non-fictional, illustrated book by Jack London chronicling his sailing adventure in 1907 across the south Pacific in his ketch the ''Snark''. Accompanying London on this voyage was his wife Charmian London ...

''. "The Heathen" is set among islands that London visited during that period.

Plot summary

The narrator, a pearl buyer named Charley, is a cabin passenger on a

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, the ''Petite Jeanne'', sailing from

Rangiroa Rangiroa ( Tuamotuan for 'vast sky') or Te Kokōta ( Cook Islands Māori for 'the Hyades star cluster') is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus and one of the largest in the world (smaller than Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands and Huvadhu in t ...

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

with a Kanaka crew, at the end of the pearling season in the Paumotas. The boat, having eighty-five deck passengers, is overloaded. Several passengers die of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

; Charley and the other cabin passengers drink whisky, until it runs out, in the belief that it will kill the smallpox germs. The boat is in the direct path of a hurricane. "The second sea filled the ''Petite Jeannes decks flush with the rails, and, as her stern sank down and her bow tossed skyward, all the miserable dunnage of life and luggage poured aft. It was a human torrent.... Out of all my experiences I could not have believed it possible for the wind to blow as it did.... It was a monstrous thing, and the most monstrous thing about it was that it increased and continued to increase." The ''Petite Jeanne'' is destroyed in the hurricane, and Charley survives by clinging to a hatch cover from the boat, sharing it with a Kanaka named Otoo. Eventually Charley loses consciousness, and comes to on the beach of an

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

; Otoo has saved his life by pulling him from the water. They are the only survivors from the ''Petite Jeanne''. They exchange names. "In the South Seas such a ceremony binds two men closer together than blood-brothership." They part in

Papeete Papeete (Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Papeete'', pronounced ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the France, French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. The Communes of France, commune of Papeete is located on the isl ...

and Otoo goes home to

Bora Bora Bora Bora ( French: ''Bora-Bora''; Tahitian: ''Pora Pora'') is an island group in the Leeward Islands. The Leeward Islands comprise the western part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, which is an overseas collectivity of the Frenc ...

; but he returns, because his wife has died. He accompanies Charley for the next seventeen years, ensuring that he does not come to harm. "Truly, he made me a better man. Yet he was not strait-laced. And he knew nothing of common Christian morality.... he was a heathen... a gross materialist who believed that when he died he was dead. He believed merely in fair play and square-dealing.... Otoo had my welfare always at heart. He thought ahead for me, weighed my plans and took a greater interest in them than I did myself." Otoo advises Charley to become a captain of a schooner, in order to save enough to own a plantation. He does so; he marries and has children. Otoo helps to bring up the children on the plantation. The relationship ends when Otoo is killed saving Charley from sharks on the coast of

Savu Savu ( id, Sawu, also known as Sabu, Havu, and Hawu) is the largest of a group of three islands, situated midway between Sumba and Rote, west of Timor, in Indonesia's eastern province, East Nusa Tenggara. Ferries connect the islands to Waingapu ...

. "And so passed Otoo, who saved me and made me a man, and who saved me in the end."

Commentary

In a 2006 collection of stories by London including "The Heathen", the editors comment: "In the early 1940s, when this story found its way into fiction anthologies and high school textbooks, it was admired for its fiercely detailed picture of a storm at sea and for its courageous examination of a friendship that transcended cultural and racial differences.... It is nowadays impossible for us to read the account of the friendship between Charley and Otoo so simply.... By the 1970s, as editors began to see the complexity of the ideas about race embedded in "The Heathen", it simply became easier to drop the story from collections altogether." pp129–130
Jack London, Gary Riedl and Thomas R. Tietze, ''Jack London's Tales of Cannibals and Headhunters'', UNM Press, 2006, accessed 24 November 2015.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heathen, The Short stories by Jack London 1910 short stories Nautical short stories Fictional works set in the Pacific Ocean