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Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Industrialization Age

914 Words4 Pages

Matthew DeBacker
Mr. Shinabarger
AS American History
19 October 2015
Corruption in The Jungle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, was a very impactful book during the industrialization age and still impacts people today. It is considered one of the most important books in the Industrialization Age in America. Upton Sinclair was a muckraker and wanted to draw attention the the terrible things that went on in the meatpacking industry. So he highlighted several key themes such as poverty, capitalism, and immigration during that time period but most importantly he highlighted the constant corruption throughout the Industrialization Age. Upton Sinclair exposed the corruption in the political system at the local level(political machines), the higher class …show more content…

This leads to many corrupt systems because the friends that Mike Scully elected may not be the most qualified so they may make very bad decisions and may only want what is best for them and not what is best for the workers. For example, when Jurgis contacts the political machine and tries to get in with it, he is immediately given a job through the political machine at the meat packing industries so he can complete his task that Mike Scully gave him “‘But how can I get a job in Packingtown? I'm blacklisted.’ At which "Bush" Harper laughed. ‘I'll attend to that all right,’ he said.”(Sinclair 281). The corruption of the political machines during the Industrial Revolution was big and one of the biggest reasons why corruption was the most important aspect of The …show more content…

This is because the bosses of businesses did not let any of the workers get a promotion and deprived them from most all of their money. Also, many other companies lie and steal from the new immigrants that do not know what is happening. For example, when Jurgis and Ona move to America and get an apartment, they are very tempted to buy a house and the company selling the house does not tell them tell about all of the hidden expenses that come with owning the house (Sinclair 57). Another way that the rich keep the poor staying poor is by stacking the the court system and not giving the poor people that have been arrested a fair trial. They were kept so poor that they could not prepare for the trial and the lawyer given was not very trustworthy. Also the judges would not believe the lower class people that would come in because the court simply did not believe that it was true (Sinclair 181). The middle class was virtually non-existent because of the corruption of the Industrialization Age. Upton Sinclair highlights the absence of the middle class throughout the entire book showing us that corruption is the major theme in The

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