Jungle by Upton Sinclair: What Term Paper

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For example, the Lithuanian delicatessen vender, Jokubas Szedvilas, begins by owning his own means of selling foodstuffs in a more healthful and independent fashion that the mechanisms of production destroy, in contrast to what Sinclair calls the "metaphors of human destiny," in the form of the miles of cattle to be put in chutes and killed. (Chapter 3) Later, a young couple, Jurgis and Ona, recall they "had always been accustomed to eat a great deal of smoked sausage, and how could they know that what they bought in America was not the same -- that its color was made by chemicals, and its smoky flavor by more chemicals, and that it was full of 'potato flour' besides? Potato flour is the waste of potato after the starch and alcohol have been extracted; it has no more food value than so much wood, and as its use as a food adulterant is a penal offense in Europe, thousands of tons of it are shipped to America every year." (Chapter 13)

European immigrants before they came to their new land could recall working on a farm and selling the goods they raised naturally for food. Farmers were also able to reap the profits of the goods they sold, in contrast to factory workers who were always working for a wage and producing food they would never eat in such mass quantities, even if they should desire to consume the tainted product.

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The human animal under capitalism, Sinclair stresses, is reduced to a worker oxen, then ground up in the mechanisms of production like food. When a worker is injured, as Jurgis is in Chapters 11 and 12, he refuses to cease laboring, for fear of losing his miserable place at the factory. Even after her wedding day, when "Ona was scarcely able to stand with exhaustion; but if she were to lose her place they would be ruined, and she would surely lose it if she were not on time that day." (Chapter 7) The factory system, unlike the farm, is inhumane to its workers as well as its products.

The Jungle is not simply a literary text. The book changed the world. Beyond simply winning Sinclair fame and fortune, it led to the implementation of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 and created more human conditions for workers. ("Upton Sinclair, Online Literature, 2005) Also, it serves as an important reminder for readers today of the power of the pen and of muckraking journalism in the form of the novel.

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