The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Jungle is a novel which was written in 1906 by the American commentator and novelist, who was known as Upton Sinclair. Sinclair was born in 1878 at a place known as Baltimore, Maryland, in the U.S and died in 1968. His father was Upton Beall Sinclair Sr. and mother was Priscilla Harden Sinclair. Sinclair was an American writer who wrote almost 100 books and other works in numerous genres. Some of the books which he wrote were; King Coal, Oil, The Flivver King, The Jungle, and The Brass Check. Sinclair won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943. He wrote The Jungle novel to depict the severe conditions and exploited lives of all immigrants at Chicago in the U.S and other similar towns.
Nevertheless, several readers were very concerned with his exposure of health defilements as well as unsanitary practices in the U.S meatpacking industry during the early 20th century in regards to the investigation he did for the socialist newspaper (Moss, and Marc 150). The novel portrays working-class poverty, inadequate social support, unpleasant and hostile living and working environment as well as lack of hope amongst many workers. These factors are contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption of the leaders in power. The review by the author Jack London referred to it as “the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of wage servitude.”
The primary purpose of Sinclair to describe the meat industry and its working conditions was actually to improve socialism in the United States. Nevertheless, several readers were very concerned with numerous passages uncovering health violations as well as unsanitary actions in the American meatpacking industry in the 20th century, which majorly contributed to the public outcry that resulted in restructurings including the Meat Inspection Act (Mattson 337). Sinclair superbly said to the public outcry, “I aimed at the hearts of the public, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach.”
Sinclair was widely considered as a muckraker or even a journalist who disclosed the corruption deeds in the government and business. In the year 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks collecting important information while working as an undercover in the meatpacking plants of Chicago stockyards for the socialist newspaper, which was entitled Appeal to Reason. Sinclair made his first publishment in serial format in 1905 in the Appeal of Reason newspaper (Smith 6). This exploration had motivated Sinclair to author the book, but a lot of resistance encountered all his attempts to publicize the entire novel. One worker at Macmillan stated that “I counsel without any hesitancy and wholeheartedly contrary to the publication of the story which is despair and revulsion unrelieved. A person may think whatever at the bottom of Sinclair’s aggressiveness is not virtually desire to assist the poor but as detestation of the rich people. Five publishers rejected his work since the content was very shocking.
He wanted to publicize a brief version of the book by himself in “Sustainer’s Edition” for readers when a publisher who was known as Doubleday, intervened. In 1906, the Doubleday version was finally published instantaneously with “5000 sustainers that gave the impression under the inscription of “The Jungle Publishing Company” with the symbol of Socialist Party stamped on the cover page both using similar plates. For the first six weeks after publication, the book had traded 25,000 copies (Smith 7). The manual is still in print from that time up to date, counting four more self-published versions of (1920, 1935, 1942 and 1945). He then dedicated the book “To the American’s Workingmen.” The copyright of this novel in various countries expired after a century; hence currently, there is an allowed or even “public domain” book’s copy, which is accessible on the website of Project Gutenberg (Mattson 337).
See Sharp Press printed an edition of “The Jungle” novel in 2003 grounded on the primary serialization of The Jungle in Appeal to Reason, which they defined as the “Uncensored Original Edition,” which looks just the way Sinclair planned it to be (Smith 7). The introduction and foreword of this book argue that the viable editions were amended to ensure their political communication satisfactory to the capitalist publishers in the United States. Other authors claim that Sinclair had revised to provide the book is more precise and engaging for readers, modified the Lithuanian orientations, and reorganized the novel to remove the boring sections just as Sinclair wrote as well as his memoir The American Outpost (1932).
The main reason for Sinclair to write this novel was to reveal the exploitation of distinctive American factory employees. Still, the public thought that the main pressing issue in this novel was food safety. Sinclair acknowledged his celebrity ascended not because people cared much about employees, but just for the public was not willing to take tubercular beef. Upton Sinclair’s account of employees plunging in rendering containers as well as being picked up with animal parts into “Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard” riveted the entire public (Smith 6). The lack of an excellent working environment and manipulation of workers exposed the dishonesty in meatpacking factories. Winston Churchill, who was a British politician, applauded the book in an assessment. In 1933, the book became the aim of the Nazi burnings of the book because Sinclair commended socialism (Moss, and Marc 148).
President Theodore Roosevelt described Upton Sinclair as an “unrealistic” due to Sinclair’s positions. Roosevelt wrote secretly to reporter William Allen White, conveying doubts concerning the exactness of the claims by Sinclair. Roosevelt claimed that he had absolute contempt for Sinclair since he is untruthful, hysterical and unbalanced. He further claimed that most of the contents written by Sinclair were pure falsehoods, but he accepted that there were some truths in various writer’s comments. When Roosevelt read the novel, he agreed with some conclusions. Roosevelt wrote, “Drastic actions must be applied to deplete efforts of arrogant as well as self-centered greed on the part of the capitalist. The president assigned Charles P. Neill, who was the Labor Commissioner and James Bronson Reynolds, who was a social worker to visit Chicago and investigate some of the meatpacking facilities. The public pressure resulted in the ruling out the Pure Food and Drug Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act; the hindmost also recognized the Bureau of Chemist in 1930, which they renamed as Food and Drug Administration.
Works Cited
Mattson, Kevin. “Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual.” (2014): 337-337.
Moss, David, and Marc Campusano. “The Jungle and the Debate over Federal Meat Inspection in 1906.” (2016): 143-156.
Smith, J. D. “Welcome to the Jungle.” American Book Review 37.1 (2015): 6-7.