Hardships And Injustices In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle intends to expose the hardships and corruptions that occurred in America during the early 1900’s in industrial cities such as Chicago. Sinclair does this by creating fictional characters to represent the average working family in this time period, such as Jurgis Rudkus and his family, who are the main characters in the novel. Jurgis and his family experience many injustices after traveling from Lithuania to America and Sinclair uses these experiences to reveal issues involving hardships that immigrants were subjected to, the injustices portrayed in the workforce, the unsanitary practices of the meatpacking companies, and the evils of American capitalism opposed to the benefits of American socialism. One of …show more content…
Throughout the novel, Sinclair emphasizes these issues by giving examples of exploitation that Jurgis and his family experienced in their occupations. These examples tend to be rather shocking, such as workers getting laid off or replaced without any warnings, the issue that if an employee was late they either got a pay cut or got fired, and if an employee died or suffered from health problems because of the unsuitable environment in his or her workplace, the company would not be held responsible. The author uses these extreme examples in order to catch an emotional appeal with the reader and make them sympathize with the characters. He excels at using this literary technique because it made the novel much more convincing, sympathetic, and …show more content…
It is not very easy for the modern day reader to understand or relate to since so much has changed within the workforce and society as a whole. However, this novel is still important for scholars to read, not only to see how much the United States has grown as a country, but also to learn about the progressive era and all that it has contributed America’s modern society. The novel really makes the average, working, American citizen appreciate all the workforce protections that came from the progressive era and also outlines the evils of capitalism, so that it can be prevented from happening again. Because of the in depth detail the novel has to offer of the progressive era, it is valuable to anyone who wants to study a number of subjects, being capitalism, socialism, the early 1900’s, or how much America’s workforce has changed within the past 100 years. Overall, Sinclair was able to write a very informative novel that brought on a lot of change in the progressive era and he was able to do so with very little