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Lit Analysis Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Lit Analysis Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
Lit Analysis The Jungle Workers and citizens today have Upton Sinclair to thank for the improved working conditions and higher regulations in the food industry. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair uses vivid imagery and figurative language to expose the extremely unpleasant working conditions of immigrants and the Capitalist ideology of early 1900’s Chicago . A large Lithuanian family comes to Chicago in hopes for better life and work. The main character Jurgis is eager to work after a new marriage with his wife, Ona. The family of twelve quickly realizes that things are not quite what they seem. They are struck with hunger, poverty, injury, and death on multiple occasions. As soon as the family is approaching Packington disturbing imagery …show more content…
Sinclair uses the title to create a simile of the workers in Packingtown and the jungle and wildlife itself. After many hardships Jurgis is at the lowest point in his life and goes to a political rally to get warm. It is there where he is introduced to Socialism. The speakers talk low of Capitalism. Sinclair writes of how Capitalism is like the jungle and only the strongest, or in the books case the richest, survive. Sinclair always wrote of how Socialism would prevent this non-ending cycle of Capitalism. “Life was a struggle for existence, and the strong overcame the weak, and in turn were overcome by the strongest… it was so that the gregarious animals had overcome the predaceous; it was so, in human history, that the people had mastered the kings” (Sinclair 304). Sinclair writes of the citizens at the time as animals to show that they are fighting against one another in a jungle-like setting. The author wrote of the people as animals to show that in a Capitalist society people meant nothing more than the animals they worked with. Sinclair gave a solution to all these problems society faced. Referring to the “kings”, the rich individuals in capitalism, comparing them to the kings of the jungle. Upton Sinclair writes that they can master the rich in a Socialist society making all equal. Giving this solution gives the reader a view into how life would be different

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