The Jungle Literary Analysis

One of our own, Upton Sinclair has now published his novel, The Jungle, in its entirety. Despite the “muckraking” as our very President might deem it, this novel is pivotal to the causes we believe in. Sinclair has used The Jungle, to simultaneously expose the problems layering our very federal and local governments, as well as the society in which we all partake in. His novel has forced the federal government to finally take action and begin to impose regulations on the Union Stockyards and the Armour, Swift, and Morris corporations. In his novel, Sinclair rallies socialist ideals behind the guise of Jurgis Rudkis as he, and the reader, are exposed to the plight of the proletariat; The need to slave under corporations for menial wages in hopes …show more content…
Jurgis becomes the personification of how our current system continues to fail the working class and those impoverished alike. Everything he goes through is representative of either what we have gone through ourselves or something that we know someone has gone through. Sinclair’s novel falters is in his portrayal of African Americans, denoting them as simplistic scabs (Sinclair et al. 290). Sinclair also manages to restrict his portrayal of women’s freedoms. Through Jurgis' perspective, woman are either meant to stay home to take care of children (Elzbieta) or to be provided for (Ona), whereas a working woman, like Marija, is constantly being asked to stop her job which is the only means to provide for herself and her family. In contrast, Sinclair does an excellent job in showcasing this workers struggle, the deplorable stockyard conditions, the corruption in local politics and his introduction of …show more content…
Through Jurgis’ engagement in a socialist rally the reader is meant to understand what socialism means to the people. Beginning with the imagery of men, children, and women all living in a system that enables them to have the concept of opportunity without giving them the real thing (Sinclair et al 323). Socialism is meant to be “political equality and economic freedom” by which the proletariat would have seized the means of production, regulated the economy (rather than continue the laissez-faire tactics) and make private ventures public (Foner 706). The foundations of a peoples society should be in their own hands. Through an economy that regulates and keeps the system in check. The people want public ownership of their food production, the steel and mining sectors, “[…] railroads and banking systems, government aid to the unemployed, and laws establishing shorter working hours and a minimum wage” (Foner 729). These causes may be achieved by the Socialist party. They would directly benefit the worker. As Sinclair continues on, he justifies socialism as “a process of economic evolution […] the workers were simply the citizens of industry and the Socialist movement was the expression of their will to survive” (Sinclair et al. 343-344). The belief is that socialism is meant to come. Rampant capitalism is bankrupting the people but the people will endure and