The Iron Heel

Summary

The Iron Heel, published in 1908, is Jack London's dystopian novel about the rise of an oligarchy in the United States, often called one of the first modern dystopias. It is presented as the Everhard Manuscript, a memoir written by Avis Everhard and discovered seven centuries later, edited with footnotes by a scholar named Anthony Meredith in a future socialist society called the Brotherhood of Man. Avis, the daughter of a Berkeley physicist, tells how she met Ernest Everhard, a powerful working-class socialist philosopher, at dinner parties where he challenges clergymen and businessmen. He predicts that the great capitalists, threatened by the growth of labor and socialism, will combine into an oligarchy that will crush all opposition, and he calls it the Iron Heel. Avis investigates the case of Jackson, a worker who lost his arm in a mill and was denied compensation, and discovers the corruption of the courts, press and churches. Her father, Bishop Morehouse and other independent men are ruined when they question the system. Ernest is elected to Congress, but the oligarchy uses a staged bombing to arrest the socialist congressmen. The oligarchs buy off the strongest unions, creating a privileged labor caste, and use mercenaries to destroy the rest. Ernest and Avis join an underground resistance, and the First Revolt in Chicago is drowned in blood by the oligarchy's forces. The manuscript breaks off mid-sentence, and the editor's notes reveal that Ernest was executed and that the Iron Heel ruled for three centuries before the Brotherhood of Man arose. London's novel is openly political, and its predictions of fascist-style power influenced later writers including George Orwell. Students can study it as a work of political prophecy written decades before the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century and as a powerful example of the dystopian form, while weighing the strengths and weaknesses of its argument.

Plot or Argument

• Foreword

  The future editor introduces the Everhard Manuscript.

• Ernest's arguments

  Ernest debates clergy and businessmen and predicts the oligarchy.

• The Iron Heel descends

  Independent men are ruined; the socialists are arrested; unions are divided.

• Revolt

  The resistance goes underground; the Chicago Commune is crushed; the manuscript breaks off.

Characters

• Avis Everhard, narrator

  A professor's daughter who becomes a revolutionary.

• Ernest Everhard, protagonist

  A working-class socialist leader.

• John Cunningham, Avis's father

  A physicist ruined for questioning the system.

• Bishop Morehouse, clergyman

  A bishop who tries to live by the Gospel and is confined as insane.

• Jackson, worker

  A mill hand who lost his arm.

• Wickson, capitalist

  A businessman who speaks for the oligarchy.

Lessons

• Dystopian warning

  London imagines how democracy could be overthrown. Students can compare his predictions with later history.

  • How does the oligarchy gain power?
  • Which predictions came true in the 20th century?
  • How can a free people guard against tyranny?

• Frame narrative

  The future editor's footnotes give a long perspective.

  • Why does London use a found manuscript?
  • How do the footnotes affect our reading?
  • What is the effect of the sudden ending?

• Faith and justice

  Bishop Morehouse tries to live by the Gospel and is declared insane.

  • Why is the bishop's charity seen as madness?
  • What does London think of the churches?
  • How do Christian teaching and the novel's socialism differ?

Context

The early 1900s saw great industrial combinations, violent strikes, and a growing American Socialist Party.

Composition

London, a member of the Socialist Party, wrote the novel in 1906-07; Macmillan published it in 1908.

Reception

Socialists were divided over its pessimism; later readers saw it as an anticipation of 20th-century fascism and totalitarianism.

Comparisons

• Nineteen Eighty-Four

  Orwell's later dystopia of total state power.

• Brave New World

  Huxley's dystopia of control by comfort rather than force.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The Foreword and footnotes.
• Ernest's first dinner-table debate.
• The case of Jackson's arm.
• Bishop Morehouse's fate.
• The ending of the manuscript.

Key terms and names

Oligarchy

Rule by a small, powerful group.

Dystopia

An imagined society of oppression.

Frame narrative

A story presented within another story.

Mercenaries

Soldiers paid to fight for whoever hires them.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Who wrote the Everhard Manuscript?
2. Comprehension What happens to Bishop Morehouse?
3. Comprehension How does the oligarchy divide labor?
4. Interpretation Why does the manuscript end mid-sentence?
5. Interpretation What is the Iron Heel?
6. Big Question How can liberty be defended against concentrated power?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 25:40 (Scripture)

  Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these; Bishop Morehouse tries to obey.

• Amos 5:24 (Scripture)

  Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Concentrated wealth will defend itself by force when threatened; London warns that democracy can be overthrown from within.

Rhetorical device: found-manuscript frame. Footnotes from a future editor explain present-day terms as relics of a dark age.

Debate: Resolved: that The Iron Heel is more accurate as a warning about fascism than about capitalism.

Memory Work

We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does London use the future editor to shape the reader's view of the present?

Comparison with Nineteen Eighty-Four: Compare how power is maintained in The Iron Heel and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Which of London's predictions came true, and which did not?

• Dialogue

  Write a debate between Ernest Everhard and Bishop Morehouse on how to help the poor.

• Classroom

  Compare the structure of The Iron Heel with Nineteen Eighty-Four's appendix.

Further Reading

• The People of the Abyss, Jack London