Chicago is not ours.....yet!

There are many novels that deal with the issues of their current time, few of those however compare with the vicious settings of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The Jungle makes a point to clearly show what the whole purpose of the book is throughout the plot of the novel. This is, that the capitalist American dream is a lie and that socialism is the way to this American dream. Upton Sinclair’s socialist message is the butter to the novels bread and allows the story and message to flow simultaneously.  The novel clearly demonstrates that the piece of work at hand is a literary form of propaganda. This propaganda is targeted to sway the reader to a socialist point of view. These views correspond to Sinclair’s historical views on politics, since he in fact was a socialist. This socialist propaganda was made in a muckraking, realist style of portraying the real life conditions of the Chicago meat packing industry in the early 1900’s to the novels fictional one. By doing this Sinclair’s views are supported by this hyped version of real life working conditions. Since the story is meant to uncover the horrors of the Chicago meatpacking industry, the plot is centered on Chicago’s Packingtown. The process of capitalism and the realization of the fallen American dream through the idealistic views of Sinclair’s socialist persona is evident in The Jungle. Analyzing the elements of characters, business ideals, and settings in the plot of the novel we understand the following three things. The failing of capitalism in that situation, how the American dream is denied, and how socialism can improve the situation. When analyzing and examining these vital components of the elements of the novel Sinclair’s underlying message is slowly revealed and then prominently displayed in a passionate fury of the working spirit of America like in the final words of the novel “CHIGAGO WILL BE OURS!”
           The first element of the novel that should be addressed before anything else has to be the settings of the novel. These settings are important to understand the thesis because they allow the thesis statement to be shown in its proper element. These settings include the important areas of the novel like the Rudkus family house, Packingtown meat packing buildings, and the union meeting area. These places are more important than the rest because they extensively contribute to the thesis because they are the places in which the examples occur for the thesis statement. The first place we are introduced in the plot is Packingtown, a place where cattle are killed, cut down, made into various meat products, and are then shipped out for delivery.  This may seem like a neat and clean operation but in fact it is a chaotic, orderly, stew for dangers and oppression. This is made explicit in the quotation below
“[T]he meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water—and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the publics breakfast.”

the bread winners of families like Jurgis “They put him in a place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink—why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside—why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze?” This house shows capitalism’s failure by showing that they are not meant to own the house because of the misleading condolences of the agent. The deed is riddled with possible charges in case unexpected situations may occur. The family is meant to fail at paying the mortgage and this is helped by the legal and business system. Examples of this are Jurgis’s jailing sentence and the boss Phil Connor’s successful attempts to deny work for the Rudkus family through political and business influences. This shows that capitalism is promotes deception and evil.  The American dream is denied by having the sour reminder of powerful influences in the town working together to make sure you can not own the house, such as through the business and legal system like the efforts of the housing agent and Phil Connor. Socialism is an improvement to this because the government would control the prices of houses so everyone can afford a decent house for their income.  The Union meeting is one of the last important areas in the book because it distinctly shoes how capitalism is heavily faulted. It shows how capitalism fails by showing how the union can accomplish nothing remotely helpful for Jurgis and his financial crisis.  The American dream is denied because an equal representation in the work place is not obtained by the union. Socialism is presented as a better political system in the socialist meetings presented in the novel, by giving results that can be accomplished if their plan works out. These areas help convey the overall three messages this novel is trying to convey.
The second most important category of the novel is the business ideals portrayed in The Jungle. These sets of morals fit in to Sinclair’s argument that socialism is the way America should be modeled after because it is more equal for the citizens of America. One of these business ideals that is represented in the book is the idea of easily replaceable workers. This is shown in the narrator’s description of the large crowds of people waiting for their chance to work for a factory. This allows owners of the factories to make unreasonable demands and conditions for the workers, and if they object then they are fired and replaced. They are basically like the cattle in the meat packing factories that are herded and killed for the owner’s profit. The conditions are meant to sustain profit and make it easier for the crew to maintain the factory. The labor is used until it can provide no more strength and then these employee’s are fired. The quote below embodies Sinclair’s view of the worthlessness of these workers that is captured in the bleak destiny of the people “Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers; under such circumstances immorality was exactly as inevitable, and as prevalent, as it was under the system of chattel slavery. Things that were quite unspeakable went on there in the packing houses all the time, and were taken for granted by everybody; only they did not show, as in the old slavery times, because there was no difference in color between master and slave”. The meat products are handled with little care and are allowed to be tainted with disease to preserve the quantity of meat not quality. These factors contribute to capitalism’s failure because industries are not working hard to maintain a morally correct operation yet they are incredibly successful. This shows that the very definition of the American dream is soiled because these owners are making their dream damage the lives of others while preventing new dreams from intruding on their success. Socialism is the key to solving this according to the narrative persona because socialism enforces rules and regulations on business because the government would own the businesses. The businesses ideals help sell the product of socialism due to the owner’s failure to the capitalist system. 

the American dream had no place for her and her new family. Teta Elzbieta is the strongest character who endures the lies and injustice of capitalism because she endures the burdens of these lies without compromise unlike Jurgis. Overall she is a model for all socialists because of how strong willed she is to endure the pains of capitalism, even thought she is not a socialist. The representation of all the evils of capitalism is the character Phil Connor. This character is everything bad about the system of Chicago; he uses political connections and business relations to determine who gets jobs, while taking advantage of his workers like Ona. His willingness to take advantage of others fuels his existence and is the complete opposite of Sinclair’s socialist ideal for America. These characters show how personal the capitalist system affects these characters and provides the ideal solution of socialism.
The Jungle stands as a testament to Sinclair’s socialist outlook on life by exaggerating the cultural injustices of the time by portraying them in a heartbreaking tale. The novel clearly states the triumph of socialism as a dominant successor over capitalism in an attempt to reach the American dream. Sinclair conveys his socialist message through these trying times in America to convey an idea, a socialist America for a new world.

Quotes from The Jungle on www.sparknotes.com