The Jungle: Upton Sinclair's Impact On Society

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The foods we consume and the drugs we take affect our lives in a various amount of ways, but what if instead of nourishing and helping us, these products were endangering our health. Upton Sinclair brought this issue to light in his most known novel, The Jungle. From there he continued to write about political issues and tried to get many movements for change going, which he was an important part of the advances in the early 1900’s. Through examining Upton Sinclair’s early life, adult life, and major accomplishments, it is apparent he affected the course of history and greatly impacted our society today. Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. was born on the twentieth of September in 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were Upton Sinclair and Priscilla …show more content…

With Mrs. Fuller, he had a son named David in the month of December the same year they got married. Also in 1901, Sinclair wrote his first novel. Springtime and Harvest, which was a modest success and brought some fame to his name. He continued to try to write more novels but none compared to his first. His future started to look dreary until he got the opportunity to write about the meat packing industry in Chicago, Illinois. His sixth novel, The Jungle, was a huge success and turned out to be an international best seller. This novel exposed the disgusting truth about the unsanitary conditions of the packing houses and the unfair labor conditions there. Also, in the novel, he provided socialist solutions and view of the matter. Socialists believe the community as a whole should be apart of the production, distrubution, and sales of products. In 1913, Upton divorced Meta Fuller and married Mary Craig Kimbrough. He continued to write about politics and social issues of the times until in 1920 when he first started to run for governmental positions, where he brought his socialist views with him. In 1920, he ran for Congress in California, in 1922 he ran for senate in California again, then in 1926 and 1930 he ran for Governor of California. His campaign for governor was one of the most influential campaigns in the history of state

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