Aloha Oe

by Jack London

Aloha Oe was first published in 1908. It is a story about a subtly powerful evocation of the race-based social divide between the Hawaiian native-born or half-casts, no matter how beautiful or handsome or talented or wealthy, and the white upper crust of Hawaiian society of the time.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Romance

8 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat touching, coming of age story, set on the dockside where our protagonist Dorothy is watching the departure of a ship in Honolulu, as she realizes that she has feelings for hapa-haole Stephen Knight.

[Fabio Zacà · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very touching short story

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Senator Jeremy Sambrooke and his daughter are leaving Honolulu following a one-month stay on the island with a junketing party. It is during the goodbyes at the dock that Dorothy realizes that she has feelings for Stephen Knight, a hapa-haole (half-caste) that entertained the senators and their families during their visit. Unfortunately, his tropic blood would never make him marriage material, and Dorothy has a very limited timeframe to respond to this realization.

[Cindy DeLong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dumb. Nothing really happened.

[Isabella Perego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piccola perla

[Erik Prime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underappreciated short story by American novelist Jack London. First published in 1912.

A Senator’s daughter learns the true meaning of the song “Aloha Oe” from a native Hawaiian surfing legend.

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

The studmuffin sounds just like Jack London. What an amazing coincidence.
Note: hapa-haole means half-white. Merriam-Webster says its first known use dates to c. 1916.

[Bill Jenkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a little nothing of a story.