Socialist Concepts in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Essay

Many people believe Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the harsh conditions of the meat-packing industry, which led to new federal food safety laws. This, however, was not the only point Sinclair was attempting to portray in this novel. While industry was one of the points addressed in The Jungle, another main point Sinclair wanted to get across to the public was that immigrants were being treated very poorly in American society. By 1904, immigrants made up most of the workforce of the meat-packing industry, so they had to deal with all the conditions of the workplace, including slim pay. These workers were crowded into small tenement apartments near the slaughterhouse, therefore making living conditions incredibly poor for everyone.

Upton Sinclair carefully weaves vivid accounts of political and legal corruption into his portrayal of the city of Chicago at the turn of the 20th Century. As Jurgis’s story unfolds, he becomes both the victim and perpetrator of nefarious actions, which undermine the overarching legal and political system. As will be demonstrated, Sinclair’s portrayal of corruption aims to convince his readers of the evident failings of unbridled laissez-faire capitalism and, by contrast, the viability of socialism as a potential alternative.

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.

At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started an investigation as he declared“ I spent seven weeks in Packingtown studying conditions there, and I verified every smallest detail, so that as a picture of social conditions the book is as exact as a government report” (Sinclair, The

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair and Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass both bring forth personal or fictional events that capture the interest of the the reader. The use of pathos in their writing along with true events questions the ethics, morality, and human rights of each individual at the time setting for the publication.

Critics often argue that Upton Sinclair, author of many classic American novels including The Jungle, was cynical and bitter even. However if one were to dig just a bit deeper they may realize that Sinclair was spot on in his idea that this “American dream” that our country sells is actually a work of fiction.

What societal and government reforms did “The Jungle” call for. Do you feel this novel was effective in bringing about any of these reforms.

Have you ever went to McDonalds and looked at the food and asked “is this even real food?” The food industry is a very questionable industry because of how corrupt it was during the late 1800s. A great example of the food industry corruption was the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. In the book, Upton Sinclair expose all the corrupt of the late 1800s capitalists who would dehumanize citizens and their workers. The book talks about a man named Jurgis, who just came to America with his family and tells how his life starts to change. They talk about his job and their very poor work conditions and how they value human life. The capitalists and their industries not only affected Jurgis, but also his family and other citizens. In the book,

As of 2015, immigrants make up more than 43.3 percent of the United States population. By the early 1900s there were already more than 10 million immigrants living in America. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle reveals the struggles and hardships of a family that immigrated to the United States from Lithuania during the 1900s. Although many immigrant families came to America in search of a better life, soon most found themselves barely surviving with no job, food, shelter, or money. As is the case of the family in The Jungle. The novel not only unveils the corruption of the political and economic system during the time, but also exposes the severe torment and misery that was faced by the working class. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, describes

The Jungle is usually associated with the federal legislation it provoked. Americans were horrified to learn about the terrible sanitation under which their meat products were packed. They were even more horrified to learn that the labels listing the ingredients in tinned meat products were full of lies. The revelation that rotten and diseased meat was sold without a single consideration for public health infuriated the American public. They consumed meat containing the ground remains of poisoned rats and sometimes unfortunate workers who fell into the machinery for grinding meat and producing lard. Within months of The Jungle's publication, the sale of meat products dropped

After reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair my understanding of what immigrants went through was tuned. I’ve always known immigrants were treated poorly, but I didn’t know the extent. Originally many immigrants moved to America to take advantage of opportunities that were not offered in their country. Most immigrants looked forward to starting a new beginning and getting a job. High hopes of a fresh new start were crumbled on arrival. Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite moved to America in search of work to pay off their debt and to start their new life as a married couple. I believe their decision to move to America is exactly what broke their family down. There were no free handouts given to immigrants. They weren’t given any help of any kind

He stated, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the

The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair was published in February 26, 1906 by Doubleday, Jabber and Company. As soon as the book hit the shelves, it sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It took its readers by storm. Upton Sinclair, however, was pleased yet he wasn’t entirely pleased. In his book, The Jungle, he wrote about an immigrant worker that goes through a lot of hardships and problems in his life, and becomes a socialist, and the horrid practices of the meat industry. Although, the majority of the readers didn’t seem to care that much about the protagonist instead it was the meat packing industry, in which where our protagonist works. The way Sinclair described the meat industry with such detail that readers were outraged, they could not

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle’s true purpose was to expose the horrible working conditions in the meat-packing industry. He described the diseased, rotten and contaminated meat that had passed inspection due to the negligence of the government inspectors and he described the political corruption that kept this immoral practice in place. Sinclair also picked the title as it is a hint to readers that Capitalism is evil and that it leads to corruption. The place where the story took place served as a jungle where the strong hunts the weak. The book was essentially a socialist book as it had implied many times in the last few chapters that socialism was the only solution possible to protect the working class as Unions at the time, were failing to

Have you ever heard of the book called The Jungle? This book was written by Upton Sinclair, a muckraker. Harry Sinclair Lewis was a janitor at Upton Sinclair's socialist colony and he was influenced by Sinclair’s idea of socialism. Therefore, their ideas are very much alike even though their childhood backgrounds were completely different. Upton Sinclair had a great impact on society by addressing social issues in the early 1900’s, so what is the significance of Lewis’s works? Some of his major representative works are Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith (“Assignment Five -- Sinclair Lewis Babbitt”). These books played a big role on muckraking the social corruptions in his time period.