The novel named “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair is arguably the most popular American novel of the first decade of the 20th century. The novel was popular in its time because of the controversy of muckraking and exposing the American industry and corruption. Upton Sinclair also somewhat advocates Socialism in his novel. Upton introduces all these ideas through his metaphors, philosophy, characters, and plot of the story.

            In the beginning of the novel, a Lithuanian immigrant family was inspired to go to America to become rich, which is an American ideal. The family started off living in Chicago but is deprived from working and barely surviving. They are slowly abused by the American capitalist system that is filled with corruption. Everyone in the family seeked jobs and the law didn’t enforce any sort of regulation. For example, the kids had to work and disobeyed the child labor laws, and uninspected meat continued to be canned. Everyone in the working class couldn’t make a decent living. They were looked down upon and anything wrong they did was held against them, such as being late to work would result in a wage deduction. Yet the higher class lived filthy rich and neglected the working class. Phil Conner, Ona’s boss, threatens to blacklist her whole family from getting jobs if she doesn’t sleep with him. In the end, a large amount of the family ends up dead or separated for money. All of these examples are the effect of the low working class in the American capitalist system. In the end the protagonist, Jurgis, is fed up with maintaining his morals after his child Antanas dies. Jurgis resorts to stealing and political schemes to make money, which gestures the corruption of American capitalism and American society.

            The Rudkus family symbolizes the whole working class and immigrants of American society as a whole. In the book, Jurgis notes out all the others that live like him and the rest of his family in poverty. This means that common events must’ve happened between the Rudkus’s family and other families.

Many times in the book, Upton compares the Meatpacking town of Chicago to a jungle. Upton compares Chicago to a jungle because a jungle is known for being wild, unsanitary, and scary. The corruption of the city has similar characteristics because of all the poverty of the working class and political schemes. The political figures and those with power in the city abuse the working classmen and value their money over the workers. They deprive the workers of free time with immense labor. These examples have all the characteristics of a jungle, wild, unsanitary, and scary.

            Upton’s advocating of Socialism is understandable because of the time period in which he wrote “The Jungle.” The novel was written in 1906 during Theodore Roosevelt’s term in office and the Progressive movement. The main theme of the Progressive movement was change and progress in American society. They wanted to make the American living better, and so did Upton, which is obviously noticeable in his novel “The Jungle”. The theme of resorting to Socialism and helping the working class is relevant to the Progressive movement because of the radical desire for change and progress. The novel made a huge impact on American society and beckoned the creation of the Food and Drug Administration in 1906, the same year the book was written.

            Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” awakened American society of the poverty and filth in the American system of capitalism. He was so disgusted by the system that he resorted to Socialism. He wanted to make the working class better by starting a Socialist revolution. His novel greatly impacted American society but instead of starting a Socialist revolution, the health and working class were regulated more for sanitary conditions.