William James describes in his Principles of Psychology the central role that habits and adaptation plays in the human experience. Habits affect an individual’s beliefs, actions, and emotions, and without habits an individual would not have any personality. In the nineteenth century, literary theorists such as Henry James describe the necessity for authors to create realistic characters and events. This thesis displays the intersection of these two intellectual movements in Jack London’s dystopian novel, The Iron Heel. I begin by examining the history of the theory of habits beginning with John Locke and ending with James’s own works on the subject. I then focus on literary theory and the ways it is conducive to the absorption of habit theory into the creation of realistic literary characters. I argue that novels that do this are “psychoepisodic,” or novels containing psychologically realistic characters that describes a piece of the psychological side of the human experience through various episodes. Finally, I use these theories to examine London’s The Iron Heel and the ways London uses habits in the development of the characters.
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