Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Yes, you can talk someone’s ear off. No, you may not have to cover his/her medical expenses, but you may have to pay a steeper price. If you talk off the ear of an investor, then he will not hear the reasons why your business idea is destined to flourish. Therefore, you will never receive the financial boost you desire. Someone should have told this valuable advice to Upton Sinclair. While he sought to change the system of labor in the United States with his novel, The Jungle, he instead impacted the food industry, which saw changes in the food and production process. Fortunately for Sinclair, I have discovered why he failed. Unfortunately for Sinclair, I am forty-nine years too late. Sinclair fails to make labor changes through his novel because

When Ostrinski speaks to Jurgis, Sinclair repeats the phrase “Ostrinski explained,” however the phrase “Jurgis asked” is nonexistent. Essentially, Ostrinski is lecturing Jurgis. In fact, all three Socialist characters seem to simply lecture, and this is purposeful. Metaphorically, the characters operate as Sinclair’s soapbox. In theory, Sinclair attempts to proselytize the readers into Socialists by amazing them with his rhetoric. Realistically, Sinclair fails because his propositions stand unopposed and feel like a lecture. When Schliemann, Ostrinski, and the Speaker deliver lectures unabated by challenges, the Socialism they champion appears sketchy. The appeal of Socialism isn’t amplified by the lack of dissenters, but obscured because of the character’s romanticizing. Without a doubt, challenges to Socialism or simply Jurgis interjecting and catalyzing an exchange of ideas, would have transformed these lectures into a conversation. And a conversation would stimulate a stronger appeal because it invites the people, instead of patronizing the

Both Jurgis and Schliemann exemplify this claim. First, Jurgis works in Hind’s Hotel: “And so Jurgis fell to work, and toiled like a Trojan till night” (350). Socialism advocates that the community controls and regulates the means of production. Also, Tommy Hinds, Jurgis’ boss, is lauded as one of the best bosses in Chicago, a state organizer for the Socialist, and one of their best speakers (350). Nevertheless, Jurgis still “toils like a Trojan.” He doesn’t control the means of production at the hotel. Honestly, he engages in the same drudge work he did at the meat packing industry. I’ll concede that the intensity and work conditions differ, but relatively, he still finds himself at the bottom of the totem pole—a hierarchy remains. Furthermore, his boss wields the same power as a capitalist, despite his subscription to Socialism. If Socialism is as grand as Sinclair’s lectures advocate, why do Socialist characters fail to uphold the ideologies of Socialism