"The Jungle"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, in his evocative expose detailing the evils of the Chicago meat packing industry appositely titled "The Jungle", Upton Sinclair launches a searing indictment of wage slavery. It examines how according to Sinclair, the Beef Trust ruthlessly exploited workers, subjecting them to a grueling fate worse than chattel slaves. It looks at how he constructs his indictment of wage labor through his protagonist's rude awakening of the cruel system, his frequent analogy of workers to animals and the packing district to a grand machine, as well as by providing a litany of the unfair labor practices that kept the trusts in business.

From the Paper:

"In order to illustrate the miserable condition of labor in the stockyards, Sinclair often constructs parallels equating workers with animals. He addresses those who challenged the plight of workers and the cause of the unions claiming workers were trying to "restrict the productive capacity of the factories." Sinclair responds in saying that no one really understood the message of the unions; the "editors of newspapers, and statesmen, and presidents of employers' associations and universities" didn't understand that "what the unions were trying to do was to put a stop to murder." "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle: the Uncensored Original Edition. Tucson: See Sharp P, 2003

More papers on "The Jungle":

• Book Review # 93471 : "Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"
• Analytical Essay # 89549 : "Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"
• Book Review # 119163 : "The Role of Capitalism in "The Jungle"
• Persuasive Essay # 72975 : "Stephen Crane's "Maggie" and Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"

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