Examples Of Capitalism In The Jungle

1143 Words5 Pages

In the early 1900’s, many immigrants moved to America with hopes that they could live freely and work to have a better life. The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, is about a Lithuanian family who worked in the Chicago Stockyards and discovered the true horrors of working in the meatpacking plants. The theme in Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, reveals how much damage capitalism caused and the effect that capitalism had on people. As the main character goes throughout life, he is constantly being set back by capitalism. “Capitalism is an economic system where private entities own the factors of production”, says Amadeo. The book explains how capitalism is awful and how it affects the characters life and setting. Upton Sinclair is constantly reminding the readers that the unfair working conditions are due to a corrupt government. The Jungle is mainly about how capitalism has failed and how businesses have corrupted. Based on the book and how capitalism is portrayed, there are many examples to support the reasons why capitalism is corrupt. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, demonstrates how capitalism affected many U.S. immigrants and uses many examples in his writing to describe the correlation between unfair working …show more content…

His book caused many readers to understand what capitalism can do to a country. His contributions to American history were raising awareness about the effects of capitalism and contributing to the laws that protect US citizens today. For example, “Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection”(“Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History”). The Jungle provided vivid and horrifying examples of the brutal effects of capitalism and tied in how it caused poverty, hard working conditions, and