American Manifest Destiny & Jack London

While reading Jack London’s “Riding the South Seas Surf” I thought a lot about the pervasive trope stressing the importance of man’s need to conquer the waves and ocean. It made me wonder when will Americans ever be satisfied? It seems to me that after Americans colonized Hawaii they had to conquer not only the land and people but the ocean as well. 

Jack London begins by defining surfing as, “a royal sport for the natural kings of earth.” Just the fact that he has to redefine surfing for his American audience can be seen as an American claim on Hawaiian culture. By describing the sport as “royal” he indicates that the rulers are the ones that are supposed to be in charge- on land and at sea. When he says that this sport is for the “natural kings of earth” I cannot help but see two meanings of that statement. The first being what I believe London meant which was that man- meaning man in a collective global way; mankind- is the natural king as the top species on Earth, and so it is only natural that we should conquer the sea as we have the land. 

I see a more sinister meaning behind those words. I see a privileged white American male perpetuating the idea of American Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is the American political trope conjured up to justify American claims to Western lands already inhabited by natives. Once Americans reached the West coast they ran out of land to conquer so they continued West, across the Pacific and colonized Hawaii. Once Hawaii was annexed as a territory, Americans had control of the island and overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. Which brings me to my point, in class Rob talked about the irony that Jack London would say things like, “he is a man, a natural king, a member of the kingly species that has mastered matter and the brutes and lorded it over creation” (139). But I see this as a natural extension of the American attitude as colonizers. Of course Jack London would say that surfing is for kings, because as the new kings of Hawaii, Americans can now master (the once feared and despised) art of surfing. By doing so, they truly establish themselves as conquerors.

By Matina Tryforos