Remember The Jungle Book Review

Scholarly Source Review Upton Sinclair’s novel, “The Jungle,” is known for how it changed the American meat-packing industry by exploiting the dangerous, unsanitary conditions. James Barrett’s article, “Remembering the Jungle,” discusses the impact of Sinclair’s novel and why this novel is still remembered over a century later. Barrett argues that Sinclair’s “The Jungle” has achieved a major influence on American Society, and it has become a part of American history. Barrett provides multiple reason and examples to show why Sinclair’s novel has had such great influence. He first explained that the novel’s greatest importance stems from Sinclair’s goal. Barrett states, “ Sinclair was not aiming at the public’s stomach but, rather, at its
He writes, “In The Jungle, we confront this reality of social class on a human scale and with a drama missing in contemporary studies and in most social histories of this era” (Barrett 4). Barrett shows that Sinclair described the reality that most people were oblivious to. He also says, “Sinclair’s relentless narrative of the destruction of the immigrant workers and their families at the hands of the great “meat trust” gripped and inspired me. The Jungle’s animation of this experience remains an important reason we continue to read the book” (Barrett 4). Sinclair’s depiction of the immigrant’s experience has had a major effect to readers during the early 1900s, and it still has an influence over a century later. Sinclair also discussed the issue of the working class. Barrett mentions, “The real-life history of The Jungle demonstrates the role that working people have played in facing the problems created by industrialization and in transforming the social and political history of our society” (Barrett 6). The novel showed the struggles of the working class, and how society controlled the life that they lived. Sinclair’s ability to show the life of immigrants, who also made up the working class, played a large role in the success of his