All the elements and conflicts presented in the book leads to the theme of socialism. Upton Sinclair is a supporter of the socialist move. To the point of writing this work is to elicit sympathy for the working class and build support for socialism. Everything within the book is criticizing capitalism; the only remedy for the evils of capitalism is socialism (Sinclair). In capitalism, the upper-class keep getting richer by exploiting the lower working class, leaving a wide gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. Instead of splitting the population and using hardworking people unfairly, socialism allows an equal share among everyone so there is not a huge split between the wealth of a group. The packers and factory leaders all use the
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Show MoreThe Jungle is a story that revolves around the protagonist Jurgis Rudkus and his family, the Lithuanian immigrant who came to America to lead a better life and worked at meatpacking plants of early 20th century Chicago. The story showcases the hardship that they underwent due to the harsh and bad working condition, poverty, starvation and being cheated by unjust people agents, eventually losing all their money. The Jungle provides us ways to look at the unfettered capitalism that prevailed in the early 20th century. This book also exposes the corruption, inequality, unjustness, sickness and slavery that existed in the society.
During the end of The Gilded Age, technology and innovation expanded, and the United States was thought of as becoming a growing empire. With this growing empire came a lot of changes, trends and differences in opinions. Theodore Roosevelt, Ida M. Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair, sat down to discuss the continuing problems that started with the Gilded Age. Theodore Roosevelt was an astounding opinion leader and was someone people considered to be as the prominent head of the Progressive Era.
Towards the end of the novel, Sinclair uses the main character, Jurgis, to advocate Socialism and convey to his audience that this will be the solution to all his problems. Although Chicago still remains a capitalist society, Sinclair definitely had
Muckrakers was a term coined by Theodore Roosevelt for journalists or novelists who sought out controversial allegations and misconduct among businesses and politics; bringing awareness and causing reform within America. A fluctuation of muckrakers began to sweep America during the early 1900s; as its citizens questioned the very framework of the contentious country they reside in. Later, becoming a powerful force, where a single column of text had the ability to influence millions of Americans. Pioneering the path for thousands of journalists to follow in their footsteps, subsequently, finding answers to questions often overlooked by the general population. America’s government has always eluded from sharing inside information to both foreign
As stated before, Upton Sinclair, was ahead of his time with his ability to dig for the truth and show Americans the truth regarding the Chicago meat packing industry. Another large passion of his was politics and the belief in socialism. He advocated against capitalism and ridiculed it within his novel by portraying it as the cause of much downfall for the main character. Sinclair did more for this country with the novel he wrote then many politicians are able to do in a lifetime. He showed through his power of writing the importance of every citizen within America to be woke and involved in every aspect of their lives.
The 1890s to the 1920s witnessed the emergence and widespread of the Progressive Era filled with social activism and political reform which were supported by people of all classes, especially women and manual laborers, to fight against corruption across the United States. In this effort, many journalists and writers known as muckrakers worked their best to expose the social problems, crave effective solutions, and urge the public to take action. During this era, they identify numerous issues hidden beneath society. Among them, a well-known muckraker novelist, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1905, which significantly affect the meat industry with the implementation of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
“The same endless vista of ugly and dirty little wooden buildings. Here and there would be a bridge crossing a filthy creek.” This was Upton Sinclair’s description of the city of Chicago in the early 20th century in his book The Jungle, and it was not flattering. The things that went on inside the city was even uglier, and it was done by one corporate, capitalism. Capitalism became a major problem in America as it bred horrible working and living conditions for the working class, and there was many reasons for why this happened (i.e. greed).
As I stated before, to this day, many American’s disagree with the idea of socialism. One of the reasons why they dislike it is because it makes those of higher statuses and wealth or in power lose their opportunity to grow their businesses and become much bigger and more
Journalists and authors, such as Upton Sinclair from document 2, can be credited with exposing the corruption during the gilded age. Sinclair was know as a muckraker and his purpose in writing books such as The Jungle was bring light to what was happening in these factories. His work played a key role in the progressive era by holding these business men accountable. The Progressive Party also played a key role in the progressive era. Based on their platform, it is shown that their purpose is to benefit the working class by laws and
INTRO In the Book, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, we are taught that capitalism is evil and that socialism is the right way. This book is an political fiction that was written in 1906 which was just under 60 years after socialism, the enemy of the capitalism, was created but 11 years before the USSR was created. Due to this no one would know the evils that were to come from socialism. Sinclair uses the book, especially the the first twenty to thirty chapters, to display his thoughts and believes.
How would you feel people would feel knowing that they were ingesting contaminated foods? This was the case in the late 18th hundred and early 19th hundred many social and economic problems came to be in the United States. For example, one of the many problems that arose during these years were the sanitation conditions in the companies. To be more precise, food companies were getting away with many of the inspections the government would act on. Meat packing industries were becoming more unsafe everyday.
“Sinclair presents socialism as Jurgis’ only hope—and the only hope of workers like him”(1110). Jurgis, the main character in Sinclair’s book, was the father in the rather unfortunate Lithuanian family. The family made the decision to travel to America because to them as outsiders, the country was known as “the promise land,” a place to go in search for hope and well being in their future. It
During the time period of the 1900’s, the meat packaging industry in Chicago, as Sinclair mentions in his novel, The Jungle, was a very unsanitary and extremely dangerous workplace that lacked much more than just a few safety precautions. Simple things, such as enforcing hand washing or workers’ rights were unheard of in the working environment. It is clear that Upton Sinclair was trying to expose the worker’s horrendous labor conditions in order to improve their situation, along with the introduction of socialism. Upton Sinclair, in his novel, talks about how a Lithuanian immigrant by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, travel to Chicago trying to make ends meet. However, they soon realize Chicago was not the place for that.
The Bosses squeezed and drained the life of those men. In the book The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair he described the life of a struggling family try to work and stay alive in the filth. The working conditions in the factories were unsafe, unsanitary and people made little. The purpose of this book was for people to become socialist other than capitalist.
Basically, he explains how socialism is meaningless and is more of a religion than an idea. He says that it is “ideological” and “disastrous.” A claim brought up is “that an economic system that does not utilize money, financial calculation and market pricing will be unable to effectively value capital goods and coordinate production, and therefore socialism is impossible because it lacks the necessary information to perform economic calculation in the first place.” (Ludwig von Mises)