Essay Upton Sinclairs The Jungle as Socialist Propaganda

The Jungle as Socialist Propaganda nbsp; In the world of economic competition that we live in today, many thrive and many are left to dig through trashcans. It has been a constant struggle throughout the modern history of society. One widely prescribed example of this struggle is Upton Sinclairs groundbreaking novel, The Jungle. 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. They have come to America, where in the early twentieth century it was said that any man willing to work an honest day would make a living and could support his family. It is an ideal that all Americans are familiar†¦show more content†¦Some believe that Capitalism is the cause for much of the poverty in the nation today, but any hardcore capitalist will tell you that capitalism inherited poverty, and far from being a cause of poverty, it is the only solution. nbsp; However, believers in socialism would completely disagree with this ideal. Socialism is the economic system in which the workers, instead of a rich minority of entrepreneurs, own all industry. Workers receive the full fruits of their labors instead of being given miniscule compensation for backbreaking labor. Since the people are paid well for their work, work becomes a cooperative entity where people come to rely on one another and people actually are more inclined to do their fair share to help the advancement of society as a whole. nbsp; In order to discuss these issues as they are pertinent to this story, a general summary of the story must first be given. The story revolves around the life and family of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to America with his wife Ona, their children, and a few members of their extended family. They have heard the stories of other Lithuanian immigrants coming to America and making a fortune in the free economic system of America. They are bright-eyed looking ahead into their futures. They are moved into a section of Chicago known as Packingtown, a slum full of run-down housing and largeShow MoreRelatedA Blatant Agenda1280 Words   |  6 Pagestheir cause. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a prominent example of this phenomena. Hailing from the early 20th century, The Jungle addresses the poor working conditions in which the emigrant workers of the time would labor, working up to what equates to a socialist rant at the end of the novel. Upton Sinclairs political bia ses in The Jungle are in no way cleverly tied into the story, in fact, Sinclair egregiously abused the plot of the novel as a tool to mercilessly drive the socialist agenda into theRead MoreUpton Sinclair and His Influence on Society Essay1552 Words   |  7 PagesUpton Sinclair, the famous American author, wanted to be a great influence on society. He was born in 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland, from a family of Southern aristocracy. His father was an alcoholic and his mother came from a wealthy family. When Sinclair was ten, the family moved to New York. His father sold hats and spent his evenings in bars coming home drunk every night. As a child, Sinclair was an excellent reader and scholar. By the age of fourteen, he began writing in his spare time. Read MoreEssay on The American Dream in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Jr.967 Words   |  4 Pagescorruption, scandal, or the like, especially in politics† (dictionary.com). Upton Sinclair gained fame in the early 1900†™s from his muckraking novel, The Jungle, describing the life of a young Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis, living in Chicago in pursuit of the American dream. Jurgis found out that America isn’t as good as it appeared; with higher wages came more expensive goods, and with cheaper houses came higher interest rates. The Jungle, a fictional novel, tells of the real horrors of working in a ChicagoRead MoreEssay on An Analysis of the Jungle by Upton Sinclair1396 Words   |  6 Pagesimmigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclairs novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclairs novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclairs purpose was for this novel. In the early 1900s a newlyRead MoreEssay An Analysis Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair1416 Words   |  6 Pagesimmigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclairs novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclairs novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclairs purpose was for this novel. In the early 1900s a newlyRead MoreThe Various Sources of Evils in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, by Chelsea Franks1155 Words   |  5 Pages The title, â€Å"The Jungle† (Upton Sinclair. The Jungle. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2005), when dissected after having read it, denotes Upton Sinclair’s view of the time period, where Capitalism was the corrupted script for people’s lives rather than Socialism. Throughout the course of the book Upton Sinclair explores, in depth, the evils levied upon stockyard workers, as a result of Capitalism, to include family and immigration, while narrowly serving his own agenda of pushing the conceptRead MoreThe Jungle by Upton Sinclair: Fame for the Wrong Reason Essay2798 Words   |  12 Pagesliving in Packingtown, the meatpacking district of Chicago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays life through the eyes of a poor workingman struggling to survive in this cruel, tumultuous environment, where the desire for profit among the capitalist meatpacking bosses and the criminals makes the lives of the working class a nearly unendurable struggle for surviva l. The novel The Jungle is a hybrid of history, literature, and propaganda. Sinclair, a muckraking journalist of the early 1900s exposedRead More Exploring The Jungle: The True Impact of a Literary Masterpiece2062 Words   |  9 Pagesthe power to profoundly impact society. One such novel is Upton Sinclair’s 1906 expose of the American immigrant, infamously titled The Jungle. The story is of the trials and tribulations of a Lithuanian family struggling to earn a living in the slaughterhouses of Chicago. The issues faced by this family are some of the most disturbing fictional depictions of the lower class, and some of the most well-read in the past century. The Jungle, now hailed as a literary masterpiece, is credited with beingRead MoreUpton Sinclair s The Jungle2164 Words   |  9 Pagesexpense of those left with nothing at the bottom. The book’s author, Upton Sinclair, sought to show America the cost of its capitalist system. Born into a poor family with wealth y relatives, Sinclair was aware of social and economic disparity in America from a young age (The Jungle v). The Jungle is the result of Upton Sinclair working undercover for seven weeks in Chicago’s meatpacking industry in 1904, as well as the socialist sentiments which he had developed over the past few years of his lifeRead More Slaughterhouses and the packing companies Essay2794 Words   |  12 Pagesaimed at the public’s heart, and by accident hit it in the stomach† (Bloom). With the publication of a single book, Upton Sinclair found himself as a worldwide phenomenon overnight. He received worldwide response to his novel and invitations to lectures all over the world including one to the White House by President Roosevelt. In late 1904, the editor of the Appeal to Reason, a socialist magazine sent Sinclair to Chicago to tell the story of the poor common workingmen and women unfairly enslaved by