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Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclaire

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Throughout The Jungle, Upton Sinclaire’s social political agenda was very clear. When Jurgis and his family first arrive in America, they had high hopes and believed that they could achieve the American dream. However, we see a transformation in the family’s view of capitalism as they continue to face hardships. Sinclaire portrays big business as antagonistic through corporate leaders exploiting and taking advantage of their workers. As an author, Upton Sinclaire wanted to expose the flaws and horrors of capitalism to the public and used his characters to depict the lives of many immigrant workers struggling under the power and corruptness of American capitalism. One of Upton Sinclaire’s main intentions in writing this book was to show the …show more content…

As Jurgis’s family struggled to survive the cold winters of Chicago and on the verge of starvation, socialism was portrayed as their savior from suffering. Sinclaire showed the endless cycle of exhaustion leading to injuries and even death under the broken capitalist system in America and called for a social reform in government. All Jurgis’s family wanted was, “a chance to look about them and learn something; to be decent and clean, to see their child grow up to be strong.”(115) just like everyone who immigrated to the U.S., but Jurgis’s family was cheated by the realtor and were forced to compete for jobs that had horrible working conditions from the very beginning. The family eventually were reduced to nothing and had to morally degrade themselves in order to survive. Using Jurgis’s life as his instrument, Sinclaire was stating that through capitalism poor families could to fall into drinking, prostitution, and a life of crime. He was showing that even a good man like Jurgis could become selfish and corrupt under the capitalist

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