Page 30 - CL winter 2023 for web

history

Humanity in fiction where he has faced cruelty
and violence.
London pushes the narrative that
Tom is happier and safer inside the
institution, which is brought home
to him whether fleeing from a brutal
A short story by Jack London’, written from the perspective of an adoptive family or returning from an
institution resident who describes his thoughts, feelings and abortive attempt to find a gold mine.
Literature professor Don Graham
dreams, was hailed as groundbreaking, says Susanna Shapland suggested that the Endicotts, a
lightly fictionalised version of Jack
and Charmain London encountered
by Tom, were included in the tale
“to represent the unfeeling attitude
merican author behind Told in the Drooling Ward Sonoma State toward the feeble-minded held by
Jack London likely came from his surroundings Home in 1913: the the general public”.
(1876-1916) is in California. superintendent Whether that is the case, it
found London’s
best known for his Beauty Ranch abutted an story “in greater part would be wrong to suggest that
adventure stories, institution for the learning disabled to be true to life” unfeeling attitudes did not affect
such as The Call known as the Sonoma State Home. the fictional or the real-life home.
Aof the Wild. London’s sister Eliza managed For example, Tom’s frequent
In his later years, he moved to the ranch and occasionally hired plans to marry every nurse who
Beauty Ranch in California’s residents as day labourers. London shows him the slightest affection
Sonoma Valley, and experimented and his wife Charmain regularly are always thwarted by the fact
with different styles and genres. visited the home, getting to know that, to the nurses, he is a “feeb”.
This was when he wrote Told in both staff and residents. This attitude is endorsed by the
the Drooling Ward, a short story home’s policy that “feebs ain’t
narrated by Tom, a long-term Life on the ward allowed to marry”.
resident of an institution for the In 1911, London sent a draft of Told
learning disabled. in the Drooling Ward to the
The story has been praised as medical superintendent, n real life, residents experienced
unique in terms of style and subject Dr William Dawson. brutal restrictions under
matter within both London’s canon Dawson wrote that he found it “in Ieugenics laws, which often
and contemporary fiction. Telling greater part to be true to life”, and mentioned the home by name.
the story from Tom’s viewpoint was even surmised that Tom was based More than 5,000 residents
seen as groundbreaking. Moreover, on “our old inmate, Newton Dole”. “believed to be inappropriate for
he is vividly drawn, with thoughts, The real home was established in childbearing” were sterilised
feelings, hopes and dreams. 1891, after two mothers of between the 1920s and 1950s.
He considers himself high up in “severely disabled children” wanted Dr Frederick Otis Butler, medical
the hierarchy of “feebs”, as he refers to found “a school and asylum for superintendent for most of this
to the “feeble-minded” residents, the feeble-minded, in which they period and who performed over
and has important duties. may be trained to usefulness”. 1,000 of the sterilisations himself,
He also feels he is superior to For Tom, the said: “If a child cannot be born of
some of the staff, believing he has a home provides normal parents, it is better not to
better sense of how to interact with asylum: his be born – for the child’s sake.”
other residents – although this continued The home closed in 2018. n
does not quell his desire to marry a residency is
good number of the nurses. a conscious London J. Told in the Drooling Ward.
Just as London was inspired to choice, https://tinyurl.com/yjh3bvff
Graham D. Jack London’s tale told by a
write The Call of the Wild by preferable to the high-grade feeb. Studies in Short Fiction.
spending a year in Yukon, the ideas outside world 1978;15(4):429-433
State of California/Wikimedia Commons

30 Community Living winter 2023 vol 36 no 2