Upton Sinclair's Novel Oil! And Term Paper

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In Sinclair's novel, the whole vision is altered because it focuses mainly on Bunny's perception of his father and of the broader social concerns of the day. Here the father is less of an individual and more of a representative of the emergent and destructive force of the cruel capitalism. It is not the beastly, inhuman character of a man that is brought into focus, but the inhuman force of capitalism. Even from the first pages, everything is rendered through the yet unripe but keen eyes of the son: "Sometimes you liked to put your hand up, and feel the cold impact; sometimes you would peer around the side of the shield, and let the torrent hit your forehead, and toss your hair about. But for the most part you sat about and dignified because that was Dad's way and Dad's way constituted the ethics of motoring."(Sinclair, 5) the wider focus of the novel is thus the realistic aspect. The book focuses on labor exploitation and on the related socialist concerns:."..If men can find some way to chain the black and cruel demon...an evil Power which roams the earth, crippling the bodies of men and women, and luring the nations to destruction by visions of unearned wealth, and the opportunity to enslave and exploit labor."(Sinclair, 502) the new economy, capitalism is here the monstrous head which devours the masses of people, obligated to be its slaves. Joe Ross, who is the slave of oil and of his own greed, is but an exponent of this new exploiting and fierce power. The metaphoric images produced by the oil bursts and flaming explosions are almost an image of the earthly hell which comes into being once capitalism with its cruelty and lack of concern for the people appears on the scene: "There was a tower of flame and the most amazing spectacle -- the burning oil would hit the ground, and bounce up, and explode, and leap again and fall again, and great red masses of flame would unfold, and burst, and yield black masses of smoke, and these in turn red. Mountains of smoke rose to the sky, and mountains of flame came seething down to the earth.

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..the whole mass, boiling and bursting, became a river of fire, a lava flood that went streaming down the valley, turning everything it touched into flame, then swallowing it up and hiding the flames in a cloud of smoke."(Sinclair, 109) Thus, the book introduces Joe Ross as an individualist exploiter, the very image that reflects the cruelty of the capitalist exploiter. His son, the witness of his actions, develops a socialist attitude precisely because of his concern for the disregarded workers. Furthermore, the relationship between Eli and Daniel which is the main focus of the movie is paralleled here by the relationship between Bunny and Paul, the socialist who is Eli's brother. The novel is therefore much more concerned with the social realistic aspects rather than with the naturalistic depiction of the characters.

Both Sinclair's novel and Anderson's movie are very good artistic achievements, impressive through their force of description and portrayal.

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