Capitalism Exposed In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle is a novel in which a Lithuanian family moves to America in search of the “American dream.” During this time (early 1900s) America was becoming very industrialized. Industrialization to most people meant more jobs and more money. Though there were indeed more jobs available, the working conditions were less than favorable. The main character, Jurgis Rudkus, is able to find work in one of the large slaughterhouses in Chicago. The company “Brown’s” was a part of the Beef Trust in Chicago. A trust is defined as “a combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement; especially: one that reduces or threatens to reduce competition”1.
“So guileless was he, and ignorant of the nature of business, that he did not realize that he had become an employee of
Brown’s, and that Brown’s and Durham were supposed by all the world to be deadly rivals- were even required to be deadly rivals by the law of the land, and ordered to try to ruin each other under penalty of fine and imprisonment”.2 This quote is one of the first instances in the book where we see capitalism, which was a growing problem at the time. Since most of these huge industries were controlled by private investors, they were able to control profits made, wages paid, and how much to charge for goods. Even though they were separate entities, they worked as a unit when it came to monopolizing the industry. This lead to unsanitary working conditions, and unfair working hours, among other things. The fear of losing a job, and not having money to support families kept workers quiet and the companies richer.
For most of the book, the author described the harsh life that had come to Jurgis Rudkus and his family.
Like many other immigrants in the U.S. at the time they were taken advantage of because of their lack of education and understanding of the English language, and their desperate need of money. In addition to working in harsh conditions, they experienced death in the family, rape, and eviction. It almost seemed too much for one person/family to go through but the main point of the book was to expose capitalism at its worst. Depicting the worst of the worst was what made such a big impact on people because they could “see it” instead of just reading it.
Though the author wanted to put the focus on capitalism, most people were more interested/disgusted by the way the meat was processed and sold. “For it was the custom, as they found, whenever meat was so spoiled that it could not be used for anything else, either to can it or else to chop it up into sausage.”2 The biggest impact this novel had was upon federal regulations. Not long after its publication, the federal government passed the Meat Inspection Act (1906) as well as the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) which lead to the creation of the
FDA.