party and for him the American Dream was just a mirage leading many immigrants to
poverty and oppressions. Sinclair tried to show how working people live in a very
though life in industrial cities. They live in very poor places and mostly in tenements,
small flats having many families. Workers had to spend all day sacrificing their life
dangerous places just to gain a minimum wage
The graphic realism of the Packingtown environment engages readers through
the stimulation of their senses, but in order to understand the human costs of such
unsafe and unsanitary working conditions readers need to feel a sympathetic
connection to the workers.
When The Jungle was published, the nation reacted in
horror. After reading the novel, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered an immediate
investigation into the meat industry, though privately he told Sinclair that he disliked
the Socialist polemic near the end of the novel
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.
The art of Upton Sinclair highly effected to the society and led to many changes
of that time political conditions. Firstly and initially, “The Jungle” brought to light the
problems in meat industry. It was tied to the rise of the Progressive Era was all about
getting the government more involved with society problems instead of letting society
take care of itself through natural selection. The impact of The Jungle was very high
and is still seen with the creation of agencies which are still on the action today, such
as Food and Drug Administrations. In the book, governments of federal were hired at
each packing facility to make sure that the meat products being sold to people are fit
for consumption.
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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. New York 1906, publisher Dunlap 12pp.
3. Roosevelt Theodore (1906), Conditions in Chicago Stockyards.
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On the other hand, The Jungle takes the reader along on a journey with a group
of recent Lithuanian immigrants to America. As well as a physical journey, this is a
journey into a new world for them. Through reading this book, readers comprehend
that, writer is engaging them in a symbolic and metaphorical war that is against
capitalism. Today, many people believe that this novel, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
is highly significant for anyone living in America, because some problems are still
existent with their and many other societies as well. Throughout the story the author’s
main focus or theme is the conflict of socialism versus capitalism and the depressing
truth of the American Dream. Many of his messages concerning wage slavery,
socialism, poverty and trickery of factories are still common dilemmas that exist until
now. The most important effect of the publication of The Jungle that the people during
the progressive movement were not afraid to speak their mind and wanted change. This
also shows us all the improvements that were made during the progressive movement
because people wanted change.
The Jungle, in the way of conclusion, was created to be social expose and
muckraking. The author accurately described the hard life and rotten labor conditions
of the working class at that time being mainly as in images of immigrant who really
believed in American Dream. Sinclair himself considered that, the American Dream
was an ambition for him and thought could never be gained without socialism. At the
end, the book not only achieved its high popularity but also its main objectives and
made remarkable promotions to change the laws of regulating food industry.
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REFERNCES
1.
Early socialism in the United States – HowStuffWorks. Web, 1 Feb.
2.
“Revisiting “The Jungle” in modern times” by Bill Savage, Nov 5, 2015.
3.
Roosevelt Theodore (1906), Conditions in Chicago Stockyards.
4.
Sinclair Upton. The Jungle. Cambridge Mass: R. Bentley, 1971
5.
The Jungle and the Progressive Era // The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History.
6.
“Upton Sinclair” Wikipedia Foundation Web, 2005.
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