Critical Analysis Essay of The Jungle
Upton Sinclair’s Purpose in The Jungle
Upton Sinclair describes the severe working conditions in the meatpacking factories. The workers suffer from serious shoulder and back injuries, lacerations, and amputations. They are also exposed to dangerous chemicals. The workers are not given high regard as they can be “easily replaced and entirely disposable. He also describes a very disturbing incident where a man fell into a barrel and got turned into lard. The plant still continues to canning and sells the lard to unsuspecting consumers. The book stirred a great debate, so President Theodore Roosevelt ordered an independent investigation to check the meatpacking factories in Chicago. The federal investigators confirmed the speculations of Sinclair. They confirmed that the laborers were indeed suffering from dire conditions. However, they connected this condition to the health of the consumers. As a result, the Congress enacted food safety legislation in 1906. However, no further action was done to improve the working conditions in these factories (Schlosser, 153). Despite the political success of the book, Sinclair was not satisfied because he aimed for a greater purpose.
His primary purpose in writing the book was to show the negative effects of capitalism. He regards capitalism as an imbalance within the society because it encourages unjust distribution of wealth and exploitation of the poor (Deinzer, 4). In The Jungle, he targeted the negative effects of capitalism to laborers. Through the book, he shows that situation of immigrants who travel to America because of the hope to achieve success. In the beginning og the story, the main protagonist, Jurgis is young, energetic, and hopeful for a good life in the new country. However, they were exploited by the monopolistic capitalist society. He later turned to crime and drinking. He left his family in despair. The treatment to them was brutal, and their well-being was always threatened. Another character who is also an immigrant, Marija, tries hard to maintain the values from her homeland. However, by the end of the story, she has completely renounced her traditional values, accepted her life as a prostitute, and looks life “from the business point of view”—a principle that is very evident in capitalist point of view. This is why Sinclair chose jungle as the title of the book. The book shows life in an economic and social jungle wherein the rules of survival is greed and competition. Rather than having survival of the fittest, this kind of jungle encourages survival of the richest. This is evident up to the 27th chapter of the book. In the succeeding chapters, the book serves another purpose: to preach socialism to cure the damages brought about by capitalism.
In the book, it is stated: “He had one unfailing remedy for all the evils of this world, and he preached it to everyone; no matter whether the person’s trouble… a twinkle would come into his eyes and he would say… vote the Socialist ticket (Sinclair)!” When the main protagonist, Jurgis, learned about socialism, it becomes clearer that the core purpose of the author is to persuade the readers to adhere to socialist principles by pointing out the negative effects of capitalism. Specifically, Sinclair attempted to seek the support of the immigrants. He contested the American dream that is like the canned meats in the book: flashy on the outside, but diseased and spoiled in the inside. Nevertheless, he argued that the American dream still has its hope: socialism. Like Jurgis who eventually finds himself home again with his family, America can also be fixed through socialist principles.
Works Cited:
Deinzer, Eva. The Representation of Immigrant Life in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2007.
Oatman, Eric. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. New York, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 1984.
Schlosser, Eric.Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.