Capitalism Exposed In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair takes the reader on a journey through the inadequate factory conditions throughout the industrial revolution. The Jungle introduced us to the the Rudkus family, with the father (Jurgis) being the main character of the book. Upton Sinclair uses this family to show how extremely terrible the environment was for new immigrants into America. As the story begins to unravel Upton becomes frustrated with the capitalist society; He had been cheated plenty of times out of work and medical care. With two people in his family who has already passed (due to environmental conditions), the climax of the story begins when young Antana’s dies in Chapter 21, he then realizes just how much capitalism is destroying his family and
is determined to do anything to take down the capitalists society.
Sinclair wants the reader to fully understand what immigrants went through during the Industrial Revolution under a capitalists society, and this contributes to the theme of the story; Capitalism is wrong! At the beginning of the book Upton Sinclair begins creating a story of horrid conditions by describing what the family goes through on a daily. Jurgis said during one of his first times in the factory, “I work in a place where my feet are soaked in chemicals, and it was not long before they had eaten through my new boots (Sinclair).” Along with the horrible conditions we also see protest starting to arise against capitalism foreshadowing the climax of the story. In Chapter 11, Marija and her group of women working in a canning factory walked out and begin a protest because of their cut in wages. The Jungle states that the capitalist society begin to, “cut down on
their wages by a third in the past two years and a storm of discontent was brewing that was likely to break any day (Sinclair).” This is the first real site of people wanting to override the capitalism system. We then see throughout the book two deaths in the Ruckus family due to no medical care and a horrible environment. In chapter 21 we see where young Antana's dies, in which leads us to the climax of the story; Jurgis wants to put a stop to capitalism. Throughout the rest of the book wee see Jurgis going to protest and calling up people against capitalists, it’s like he completely lost all of his thinking process after young Antana’s dies. Upton Sinclair used this climax, plot line to show you how capitalism broke people down and how unfair people where treated at this time, especially immigrants (Sinclair). I believed Upton Sinclair developed the theme well throughout the book.
Although very gruesome at the time I think it was important to describe the conditions around the Ruckus family and exactly what they went through. It gave me a better understand on exactly what happened during the industrial revolution. I do believe that the theme, a full Capitalist society can have a big impact on the economy, is relevant for teenagers, because they need to learn the origins of America at the time and be grateful for how it is today. I think Sinclair did a good job addressing the issue so that a high school audience can understand the point of view of immigrants during this time. I know that before I read this book I never really understand how bad the Industrial Revolution was. So many people died and the environment was unbelievably disturbing. This book brought light to capitalism and how corrupt it can be in the wrong hands and I think thats something the author really wanted to get
across. As one can see Upton Sinclair used the Ruckus family to illustrate just how poor the conditions where during the Industrial Revolution. Sinclair used this family and the horrible conditions as the plot for the story and a breaking point for Jurgis as the climax, which also contributed to the theme of the story; the industrial revolution was a terrible time and capitalism was int he wrong hands, it destroyed families. So what ? Why does this matter to you ? Because we must understand the industrial revolution and the society that those people lived in to be sure that it never gets that way again.