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Analyzing Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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The Jungle The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair uncovers the horrors of working in the meatpacking district of Chicago. Sinclair acquired the inspiration to write The Jungle when he was sent into the stockyards to unveil the truth about the workingmen’s lives in Chicago. Sinclair’s story caused an uproar and led to him being labeled as a muckraker, a term that referred to journalists that documented the harsh conditions of workers during industrialization. He intended his novel to bring light to the socialist party, but instead the readers were more concerned about the diseased and mistreated meat that the were eating. Because of the upset, Sinclair’s novel led to the formation of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Sinclair published five novels between 1904 and 1906, but none were as influential or as popular as The Jungle. A silent movie was made as a film adaptation of this story in 1914. I have not read any of the other novels published by Upton Sinclair.
The book tells the story of a family living in the meatpacking district of Chicago during the early 1900s. This family is from Lithuania and moved to Chicago to build a life for themselves. Chicago in the early 1900s was a very unsafe place to work and it was very difficult to build a life there; so many businesses …show more content…

Socialism wakes up Jurgis from his despair and gives him something to fight for. “He would no longer be the sport of circumstances, he would be a man, with a will and purpose; he would have something to fight for, something to die for, if need be!” (Sinclair, 231) Without Ostrinski, Jurgis would not have learned so much about socialism and would have nothing to fight for. Ostrinski’s message turns Jurgis’s life around, Jurgis becomes a respectable laborer again and is devoted to the spread of socialism. Without this character, Jurgis would not have a purpose and would still have to beg for his life at the end of the

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