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Upton Sinclair The Jungle Themes

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The novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair is regarded as one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. It is considered an important and valuable analysis of several themes relating to turn-of-the-century life in America. One of the more important themes to be highlighted by Sinclair are the negativities of capitalism, an economic system that is based around profit being made through private businesses, in America.
Sinclair publicizes many of his realistic ideas and findings as a muckraker into the novel. The corruption of capitalism and its unfair practices are expressed heavily in the life of Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant who moves to America looking for good wealth, and his family. One of the signs of capitalism that we first see is the deceitfulness of real estate. Jurgis and his family have been many times mislead by the real estate company, first …show more content…

He goes on to describe the source of the family’s income, their work. Jurgis and many other family members are found to be working at multiple jobs for they would not survive on just one’s pay. Each person is hired to work for a meat producing related job, more specifically Jurgis is working directly for the meatpacking as a part of a factory line that kills animals. Sinclair now introduces the fact about health conditions relating to products being released into the public. A quote from the book describes the meatpacking, “This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat will be shoveled into carts and the man who did the shoveling will not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one." (Sinclair 146). This shows that government regulation is absent in businesses, even in bigger companies that release food in large quantities into the public. Sinclair calls attention to laissez faire, or the lack of government regulation in businesses especially ones that produce directly to the people of the

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