Review Of Upton Sinclair's Novel 'The Jungle'

Upton Sinclair remarked about his famous novel exposing the horrors of the meat-packing industry, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit in the stomach.” Sinclair began his writing career when he left college without a degree to live in a cabin in the woods to pursue his dreams of writing an idealistic novel. In 1902, Sinclair joined the Socialist Party and viewed its ideals as a more inviting alternative than the horrors of American capitalism (Commentary on Upton Sinclair, 1999). The young writer was challenged through the socialist party to write a novel detailing the “wage slavery” of the conditions in the meat processing industry and headed to Chicago, Illinois to begin his investigation (Shafer, 2003). Upton Sinclair’s experiences and findings gathered in Chicago became his novel, The Jungle. …show more content…
Sinclair donned shabby clothes complete with lunch bucket to walk through meat-processing plants without being noticed (Klein, 2006). The Jungle became a way for Sinclair to excite interest in the difficult lives of workers and how capitalism exploited human labor (Shafer, 2003). However, the public was more interested in the disgusting tales about the meat production than in the tales of woe for the workers who dealt with the meat. After all, those reading about these conditions were concerned about the food that they themselves were eating and feeding their children (Sinclair Publishes The Jungle, 1906,

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