The Iron Heel

Jack London (1876 - 1916) was an American novelist, journalist and social activist. Pioneering the genre of magazine fiction and prototyping science fi ction, he became one of the first writers, who gained worldwide fame and a large fortune. Being one of the earliest of the modern dystopian fiction, “The Iron Heel” mirrors the rise of the oligarchy in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. It tells the story of Avis Cunningham, the daughter of a famous physicist, who meets Ernest Everhard, the ardent socialist. At dinner, she criticizes the entire system of modern society, accusing him of exploiting labor. Avis disagrees, and then Ernest gives her an example of a worker who lost his hand and was thrown out on the street by his masters. This fact prompts Evis to study the life of workers. The results are so horrifi c that she starts to understand the views of Ernest.