Pelle the Conqueror - A Motivation to pursue social democracy In the early twentieth century, a famous Danish writer Martin Andersen Nexo wrote many literature masterpieces to depict the life of working class in Scandinavian countries. Pelle the Conqueror Volume 01, one of his most reputational works which he described as “ the novel of the first organized stage of labor’s development,” ( Thompson, 1) has won the fame of the world and given people the inspirational power to fight for their freedom and human rights. More importantly, his works accurately reflect the period when people in the lower class, especially workers had experienced the oppression of the upper class and reveal the beginning of socialist movement in European countries in the early nineteenth century. “Martin Andersen Nexo was born in Copenhagen on 26 June 1869” (Ingwersen, 1) . As a communist writer, he devoted his whole life in the career of socialism and to spread communist ideology in those countries, he wrote many literature works depicting the labor movement in Scandinavian countries, especially Denmark. As an adamant opponent of Fascism and Nazism, Nexo was temporarily detained from the German Army and eventually realeased. He experienced many turmoils and finally moved to East Germany and passed away with the East German’s citizen honor. During the time Nexo was writing Pelle the Conqueror, the countries in Scandinavian region were still in agriculture centralized economic condition, and the social injustice was widely existing in those countries. Better farms of the island were captured by wealthy people and poor people could only receive barren land. Those independent peasantries then became the class of proletariats. Some people who hope to have a better future decided to move to towns to be apprentices in the factories rather than staying in farms (Johanson, 1). One important reason for the flow of immigration is that those workers in the farm were not treated well and had a hard life. However, the competition of machine-made goods and the trend of industrialization lead to the situation that many workers fell into proletariats again and they experienced intolerable working condition since the owners of factories exploited the toil of their apprentices. The towns were filled with poverty, unemployment, and disease (Johanson, 1). To fight for their human rights again, they started establish unions and used strikes and other tools or improve their working condition. Pelle, the main character of this novel, had experienced similar situations and eventually he became the leader of union. This true story shows the beginning of the epic of labor during the industrialization period. The significance of this novel is that it awakens people’s sense of human rights and inspires more people to fight for it. Pelle’s had experienced many misfortunes in the early periods of his life but succeeded eventually. His experience encourages more people to start to devote themselves in the career of labor movement. One important reason his works had a significance influence in Western society is that the Grundtvigan idealism found in his works is not influenced by Strindberg, Zola or other Western European authors. His novels reveal a humane occidental tradition which in different from Western ideology seeing from many perspectives ( Thompson, 1). Like the experience of Pelle, Nexo also had a difficult life. He was living a period of social and political changes in different countries. By depicting the life of those people who were marginalized in the society, his attitude of egalitarian started to show. He claimed: “ You shall not allow yourself to be ruled by others, and you shall not rule over others” (Ingwersen, 1). One example is that in Pelle the Conqueror, when Pelle received a job to manage the farm, he rejected but to pursue his freedom and to finish Erik’s dream of traveling around the world. Pelle did not want to be a landlord to bully other workers but instead to pursue the dream. From 1917 to 1921, Martin Andersen Nexo wrote five volumes of Ditte menneskebarn, which is also a great novel describing the poor life of a little servant girl named Ditte. She had similar experience to Pelle but “had no ambitions for the cheap conforts of lower middle class life” (Thompson, 1). As a product of social environment which breeds revolution and discontent, Ditte also had a hard life but still was pursuing a comfortable life. This novel showed sympathy to people in the lower class by using a silent protest. In all, by depicting the true story of workers in the lower class, Martin Andersen Nexo inspired many people to pursue their dream of freedom and justice. He works greatly supported the labor movement in Scandinavian countries and had a significant impact on European culture. More importantly, his works reveals the epic of labor movement and witness the development of socialism in the nineteenth century. It should be realized that his works played an important role motivating more people to establish the justice and equity in modern society and pushing forward the development of social democracy. Works Cited Ingwersen, Niels. "Martin Andersen Nexo." Twentieth-Century Danish Writers. Ed. Marianne Stecher-Hansen. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 214. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Johanson, Joel M. "Pelle, the Conqueror: An Epic of Labor." The Sewanee Review 27.2 (Spring 1919): 218-226. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 43. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Thompson, Lawrence S. "Martin Andersen Nexø, 1869-1954." Books Abroad 28.4 (Autumn 1954): 423-424. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 43. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

-----------------------
Zhang 4