Upton Sinclair Oppression

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When someone looks back on the industrial period they might say it was gilded, Upton Sinclair was one of these people. Sinclair was an investigative journalist trying to expose the corruption of the political bosses and machines that ran the major cities in the era of industrialization. In the mid 1800’s industrialization and immigration were major waves of change for Americans. Immigrants flooded to the United States in the millions and received many jobs in factories. They forever changed the way of American culture, but alongside the good there was always bad. Sinclair worked to expose the bad results. Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, describes how alcoholism, poverty, and people in positions of authority had a negative impact on the life …show more content…
The lifestyle of poverty is first seen during the wedding. Though Jurgis and Ona wanted a simple and uncostly wedding, Ona’s stepmother - Teta Elizabeta - insist on a traditional veslaj. Many povertised people come to the party in search of good food and free alcohol, yet they are supposed to put forth a small donation to the bride and groom. This does not happen, and the family is put in a severe amount of doubt trying to repay for the party. A second example is when Jurgis comes back from the country, and does not stay with the family. Jurgis has to live on the streets in search for a job, that he almost did not find. The final example of poverty in The Jungle, occurs when Ona is in childbirth of her second child. Ona goes into labour right after Jurgis gets home from prison, which is much too early. Jurgis is left to find a midwife for a decent price, yet the only woman he can find is Madame Haupt. She is a stout woman from Germany, and she isn’t very kind to him. She twenty-five dollars for her services, though the child dies because of Ona’s malnutrition and how early it came. The family has to spend a very large amount of money repaying her though they lost two family members and Jurgis used their money to get drunk. When Sinclair wrote The Jungle, he was aiming to get the public to empathize with the working class, through the fictional
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