Analysis Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair is renowned source of political fiction that pioneered the movement of food safety in the United States. The Jungle was first published in a socialist newspaper in 1905 and then later adapted into a novel in 1906 after popular demand. Sinclair initially wrote the exposé as a way to change the unfortunate circumstances of immigrant laborers, whose working conditions that were believed to be unacceptable for any laborer in the industry. Sinclair leaves short references of his political opinions in the novel in various locations throughout the text “As if political liberty made wage slavery any the more tolerable!” (Sinclair 31). Written as an indirect attack at the labor industry, the real driving force behind the popularity of the novel was that many readers could not fathom the truth behind the meat industry. Which means, rather than seeing change in labor rights, many people instead fixated on his vivid descriptions of meat packing in the text. Sinclair embodied such descriptions of rotten meat, toxic chemicals, dirt, sawdust and even rat droppings, that consumers across the nation could not believe was actually being sold in stores and butcher shops.
The story initially begins with a Lithuanian couple who have moved to Chicago in search for a better life. Following the wedding of the two, the main character in the novel, Jurgis, pursues a job at the stockyards of Chicago. Jurgis finds himself employed by Brown’s Slaughterhouse. Throughout the