Who Is Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: A Critique Of Socialism

Upton Sinclair has famously remarked, “All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” These words are especially befitting for Sinclair’s most famous novel, The Jungle. Sinclair’s novel follows the devastating collapse of an immigrant Lithuanian family as a result of the ruthless practices of capitalism. Thus, The Jungle is a severe critique of capitalism, and it possesses the intention of persuading readers to adopt the views of the socialism. With this objective in mind, the book has been heavily classified as a piece of socialist propaganda by many critics. Sinclair’s goal to convert readers to socialism failed for the most part, however, but the novel did help pass landmark legislation dealing with food safety conditions. The Jungle as a piece of socialist propaganda ultimately fails as the result of various factors including Sinclair’s biased argument against capitalism,
One of these techniques is known as free and indirect discourse. As noted by Christopher Taylor in his article “Inescapably Propaganda”, “Sinclair uses free indirect discourse in two ways. In many instances, the narrator paraphrases information accredited to a character but does so while maintaining an ironic distance from the character’s ideas” (Taylor 173). In using this technique, the narrator speaks for Jurgis, declaring, “All that a mere man could do . . . was to take a thing like this [the slaughterhouse] as he found it, and do as he was told; to be given a place in it and share in its wonderful activities was a blessing to be grateful for” (Sinclair 40–41). Free and indirect discourse such as this gives the reader a much larger understanding about particular issues than if they were to be explained by the novel’s