Theme Of Socialism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Throughout Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, there is an underlying theme of hatred towards the capitalistic system. Capitalism Is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners, rather than by the state. This is a more self-serving system, and often people are left to fend for themselves.Sinclair’s socialist views are easily noticeable with his depiction of big businesses and the upper class as being evil. The Jungle was mainly written to inform the public of the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in Chicago factories, but it ended up being a huge proponent for socialism in addition to workers rights. Also, The Jungle focuses on the possible negative aspects of

They become obsessed with the American dream and Jurgis even believed that the house would be an investment, stating “If we paid rent, of course, we might pay forever, and be no better off; whereas, if we could only meet the extra expense, there would at last come a time when we would not have any rent to pay for the rest of their lives” (Sinclair 38). This false hope is inevitably crushed upon the realization that therealestate company is completely crooked and only hopes to steal the family’s money and turn them out onto the street. After Teta Elzbieta is tricked into signing a lease she knows will have dire financial consequence, the narrator says “They felt that all was lost; they sat like prisoners summoned to hear the reading of their death warrant. There was nothing more that they could do—they were trapped” (Sinclair 43). Upton Sinclair that this entire incident is the fault of the capitalist system because it allows the wealthy criminals to take advantage of the poorer immigrant, and eventually throw them into the streets to freeze. Later in the book, when Jurgis is released from jail he learns that his family had been evicted, and the house had been repainted and sold again the next week. In agony, Jurgis cries “Our home! Our home! We have lost it! It was monstrous, it was unthinkable, after all they had suffered for that house. Their sacrifices in

Working conditions are horrible, as Jurgis describes when he says “The men worked ankle deep in blood on the hottest days of July for hours on end without a break” (Sinclair 33). In the Winter, Jurgis also describes “Fingers snapping from frostbite” and “Workers dozing off only to never wake again.” As shown by these examples, the bosses don’t care about the workers at all, and the book states, ”Jurgis had come there, and thought he was going to rise and become a skilled man; but he would soon find out his error—for nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work. You could lay that down for a rule—if you met a man who was rising in Packingtown, you met a knave. That man would rise; the man who told tales and spied upon his fellows would rise; but the man who minded his own business and did his work—why, they would "speed him up" till they had worn him out, and then they would throw him into the gutter” (Sinclair 54). Sinclair believes that if the factories had been run under a socialist system, the workers would have more rights and the companies would be regulated by the government, not run by a crooked CEO. At the end of the book, when Jurgis discovers the socialist party, Dr. Schliemann asserts that” Under the Socialist rule, a man