Rhetorical Devices In The Jungle

Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle had powerful political effects, resulting in his ultimate goal to create change. He was aware about the unsanitary conditions in the meat factories and therefore knew that something needed to be done. He was determined to implant a spark in readers and make them desire change. The variety of the rhetorical devices that Sinclair included helped him accomplish his goal. In chapter 14 from The Jungle, Upton Sinclair identifies imagery, personification, and pathos in order to inspire change upon the unhealthy standards and brutal work conditions in the factories.

The Jungle, being a persuasive novel in nature, is filled with different rhetorical devices or tools used by Sinclair to effectively convey his message. Sinclair’s goal of encouraging change in America’s economic structure is not an easy feat and Sinclair uses a number of different rhetorical devices to aid him. Through his intense tone, use of periodic sentencing, descriptive diction and other tools of rhetoric, Upton Sinclair constructs a moving novel that makes his message, and the reasoning behind it, clear.

This postcard builds suspense in the reader’s mind. Alex saying that this adventure could kill him makes the reader interested in finding out more. “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man.” (Krakauer 3).

In Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” the use of animalistic terms and connotations in the depictions of both the people and the politics created persuasive arguments for socialism and against capitalism.

Upton SInclair’s novel, The Jungle, is a novel based on the “Gilded Age” in american history. It is the life of a working man named Jurgis Rudkus and as the story progresses, it shows the corruption and dishonesty of the people during this time period, as well as their reasoning behind their actions. Also as the novel continued, it showed the author's inspiration for the title of this novel. Throughout the book, Upton Sinclair had scattered metaphors as to why Capitalism is corrupt and why Socialism is better. With subtle hints to social classes and how Jurgis progresses through them through corruption.

Many people wish they can drop everything important to them and isolate themselves from society; very few people will even attempt this, but Chris McCandless breaks societal norms to accomplish this goal. In Into the Wild, John Krakauer tells the story of this young man’s life to inspire the audience to chase their dreams through the use of logos, involved sentence, and anecdotes.

A prosecutor’s job is to find evidence to support his case against an individual accused of breaking the law while a defense attorney tries to present evidence to prove the innocence of the person accused. Neither can be truly be unbiased about their evidence but each of them is motivated to confirm a particular position. Much like a defense attorney, in his biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer attempts to prove that McCandless’s tragedy was not due to his incompetence or lack of knowledge about the wild. He asserts emotions and rational onto McCandless’s experience as well as drawing similarities between his personal experience and McCandless’s in order to create a more sympathetic response from readers.

In the book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair advocates for the overall elimination of oppression and exploitation of workers and immigrants and the use of socialism as a solution. The book depicts, and illustrates, the events and outcome of Jurgis and his family from Lithuania coming to the America’s in hopes of a better life, from the ideology of “The American Dream”. Jurgis believes that hard work will pay off no matter the size of the problem, however him and his family realize that the America’s posses corruption, harmful working conditions, and oppression of the worker and immigrants. Sinclair uses examples to express the hardships and cruelty that lower class workers faced to allow the reader to perceive whether or not there is a need for change in the system. Frederick Douglass uses the same form of writing to bring light to the harsh and unjust experiences he endured in order to persuade and communicate why there is a need to accomplish what he is advocating for.

“The Jungle”, written by Upton Sinclair, is an astonishing novel informing readers about the devastating truths involving impoverished life in America, particularly Chicago. This novel gives the reader an inside look into to the struggles of numerous European immigrants as they ventured to America during the early 1900 's. Sinclair depicts the disturbing and emotional realities average people in America faced daily and successfully demonstrates the correct societal and governmental reforms such as the meat packing industry would have allowed these issues to be avoided. The main societal and

Sinclair used metaphors to add further depth, descriptiveness and understanding to his writing. In this speech the author states, “feel the iron hand of circumstance close upon you a little tighter.” By this, he is referring to the injustice suffered by the laborers being a large, immovable hand virtually smashing them in its fist. This metaphor added an interesting twist and gave the speech goers a visual that made it easier for them to comprehend. Sinclair also demonstrates this by stating, “With the voice of those, who ever and wherever they may be, who are caught beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut of Greed!” Sinclair used this metaphor to highlight that even those brave enough to try and rise up are at time corrupted by greed.

The Jungle not only impacted food and labor laws, it also helped refocus American attention on Progressivism. Through Sinclair’s journalistic depictions and socialist beliefs, he helped fuel the Progressive Movement. During this time, Americans worked on improving working conditions and lifestyles, exposing corruption, and expanding democracy. Arguably, Sinclair’s work inspired Americans to demand change. Sinclair, like every other powerful writer, educated his readership and forced them to reevaluate their societies. In his case, the pen really was mightier than the

An author’s beliefs can often greatly influence their work and the responses to them. This is especially true with Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Sinclair had prejudices that affected how The Jungle was written and how the public reacted to it. These biased opinions both added to and distracted from the purpose of the novel in many ways. The text would be much different in style and content if Upton Sinclair did not input biased opinions. Likewise, the way the public and critics reacted to The Jungle was changed dramatically by prejudices present in the novel. There are positive and negative ways Sinclair’s beliefs impacted his work as well as people’s feelings towards it.

Upton Sinclair uses many techniques to show the theme and purpose of The Jungle. The title of The Jungle itself is an overarching metaphor of the theme and purpose. It shows that The Jungle’s purpose to tell people about the lives of immigrant workers and how the workers were treated, and to support the socialists’ ideas. The Jungle's subject is shown through the title as well; in the idea that animals and people are the same to the bosses of Packingtown.The Jungle’s title is an overarching metaphor for the purpose because Sinclair wanted to show that the lives of immigrant workers were difficult, full of strife, and they were treated terribly. In a jungle, it is survival of the fittest, and each animal has to work to survive. The same goes

The book is about a Lithuanian family who immigrated to America in hopes of a better life. In reality, moving to America came with many problems and hardships from getting a job to making enough money to get a home. Upton Sinclair was a journalist. He spent two months in Chicago in 1904. He had witnessed himself what many immigrant’s lives were like. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, communicates the pain and consistent tragedy that most immigrants went through back in the 1900’s. Since he witnessed firsthand many of the terrible things that had happened, he could use that information to to give a more raw and accurate story.

Upton Sinclair furthermore writes into his novel acts of theft, deception, and physical violence without giving any of the positive aspects of capitalism due attention, Upton Sinclair makes himself sound significantly out of touch with reality. Even worse, Upton Sinclair's demonization of capitalism sounds more exaggerated in comparison when one considers his embellished descriptions of the benefits of socialism, particularly with the implication that Sinclair believes that none of the evils of capitalism apply to a socialist economic system. Ultimately, this juvenile, lazy style of writing, if it isn't off putting and offensive to reader's of a different school of thought, serves to make socialists sound immature, dramatic, and unrealistic, none of which are traits one would typically want to project as being typical of their position.