Analysis Of The Main Message In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Upton Sinclair a muckraker, aimed to inform the nation of the ferocious living conditions of immigrants through his narrative “The Jungle” referencing the title to the lifestyle of most as they are forced to adapt an inhumane way of living. Newcomers live in jam-packed premises and boarding homes with zero admittance to sewage and pure water setups in the ghetto of Chicago, near the city dumps. Sinclair suggests the foreigners are exploited by the capitalist system. Upton Sinclair’s purpose for writing the novel is to bring light on injustices and to advance and foster socialism.
The commencement of the story takes place in the wedding ceremony of Ona and Jurgis Rudkus. Two Lithuanian migrants and their family arriving in Packing town Colorado, seeking the American Dream. Ordinarily, most migrants work in the meat packing corporation like Jurgis in the Browns Slaughterhouse. They sign a document, however due to the language barriers migrants don’t read the fine print and are hustled out of their homes and money. Working for just a few pennies per hour. Moreover, tragic hardships they endure unveil as unsafe working conditions such as, slaughtering animals in dark rooms with no oxygenating have injured and killed many of the personnel. As a result, Rudkus’ father was killed in a job-related incident, while one of the boys that migrated with the Rudkus family died of food poisoning. Jurgis envisioned America to be the land of opportunity and prosperity instead he faced poverty, starvation, corrupt politicians, and debt. Nevertheless, Ona met the same fate as the father and the boy. While giving birth her and the infant pass away.
For this reason, Jurgis leaves the city and copes with his loss with alcohol. Living as a hobo. It is then that he accepts and transforms to socialism. Given these points, I can infer the message being promoted by Upton Sinclair’s novel is to raise awareness of inequality and unfair labor in a capitalist society. Indications of the novel imply constant socialist to capitalism attacks. “Human creators might be haunted down and destroyed by the wild-beast powers of nature” as quoted in chapter 11 Jurgis’ first rude awakening where he realizes the capitalist society is run like a jungle people are prayed whereas, hunger, cold, and poverty are the predators. “To Jurgis the packers had been equivalent to fate; ostrinski showed him that they were the beef trust they were a gigantic combination, of capital which had crushed all oppositions, and overthrown the laws of the land, and preying upon the people” as quoted on chapter 29 it depicts capitalist as empowered and corrupt beings, thus introducing Jurgis to politics and furthering the socialist party.
Consequently, the impacting details of the novel stirred up the audience, questioning the claims are we eating rotten meat? The vivid descriptions included working in floor’s overspread with blood, diseased animal meat was processed while the canned meat was often mixed with rat meat, and human urine. Unfortunately for Upton, the community overlooked unfair wages and labor and was instead outraged with the filth claims. President Theodore Roosevelt addressed the claims and opened an investigation against the meat facilities, although he never publicized the results. Soon after, the Meat Inspection Act was established later renaming it FDA as can be summed up there were truths to Sinclair’s novel hence, the major lesson the public learned.
