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Comparison between capitalism and socialism
Social issues in the 1920s in the united states
Upton sinclair the jungle purpose
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Recommended: Comparison between capitalism and socialism
Over the course of history, many political systems have formed and dissolved throughout the world. These systems arose in order to promote solutions to problems that existed in a particular country. During the 1900s, the political system of capitalism was driving industry in the United States. However, capitalism made money more of a priority rather than healthy working conditions. With unrest among the working class, the political system of socialism was promoted to counteract the effects of capitalism. One author that used his profession to advocate socialism was Upton Sinclair. In his work, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair combated the social injustices of the twentieth century with socialism in order to change the poor working conditions many …show more content…
was born to Upton Sinclair and Priscilla Harden on September 20, 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. At the age of five, Sinclair taught himself how to read which would become a favorite pastime of his (“Upton Sinclair Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography.). When his family decided to move to New York City, Sinclair was only ten years old and an avid reader of William Shakespeare and Percy Shelley. His advanced reading at such a young age prepared him for college which he attended at the age of fourteen. Graduating first from the City College of New York and then from Columbia University, Upton Sinclair supported himself by writing children’s stories and dime novels while he was a student. After completing his schooling at the age of twenty, he began working as a journalist and wrote several novels, such as Springtime and Harvest, a work that was inspired by his unsuccessful marriage. Despite the lack of success he received with these novels, Upton Sinclair continued to write on a range of topics. It was not until he wrote The Jungle that Sinclair was seen as a successful author (“Upton Sinclair Biography.” The Biography.com.). However, while writing the novel, Sinclair could not have guessed the large impact that his work would have on combating social injustice throughout the entire United …show more content…
His inspiration for The Jungle stemmed from an assignment that he was working on in order to expose the social injustices of workers in the meat industry. (“Upton Sinclair Biography.” The Biography.com.). During this time period, “…more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States” which “…was equal to the number of immigrants who had arrived in the previous 40 years combined” (“Immigrants in the Progressive Era.”). With this increase in population, jobs became scarce and the mistreatment of workers escalated. The newspaper, Appeal to Reason, wanted to cover this, so Sinclair was sent to Chicago to research the working conditions of the meat packing industry (“Upton Sinclair Biography.” The Biography.com.). Here, Sinclair “…spent seven weeks observing the observations of a meat-packing plant…” before he was compelled to write The Jungle with a strong emphasis on socialism (“Upton Sinclair Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography.). The novel became an instant success, and regulations concerning the meat packing industry were changed forever. After Sinclair met with President Theodore Roosevelt and further inspections of the meat industry were conducted, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were passed (“Upton Sinclair Biography.” The
Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 20th 1978. Sinclair grew up in a broken household; his father was an alcohol salesman and killed himself drinking. While his mother would not even think about drinking alcohol. So these personalities naturally clashed. So Sinclair found some solace in books, Sinclair was a natural writer and he began publishing at the young age of fifteen years old. Sinclair started off going to school at a small college by the name of New York City College. This was just temporary as Sinclair would need time and money to move higher up to a form of better education. So as a result Sinclair took the initiative and he started writing columns on ethnic jokes and hack fiction for small magazines in New York. The money he earned writing these columns allowed him to completely pay for New York City College, and eventually enroll to attend Columbia University. Sinclair worked as hard as he possibly could to get into Columbia University and he was going to do the absolute best he could while he was attending the University. Since Sinclair needed ex...
The novel follows a family of immigrants from Lithuania working in a meatpacking factory, and as the novel progresses, the reader learns of the revolting conditions within the factories. Sinclair’s The Jungle illustrates the concept of Bitzer’s “Rhetorical Situation” and Emerson’s quote quite effectively. For instance, the horrendous safety and health conditions of the packing factories were the exigencies that Upton Sinclair was making clear to the reader. The rhetorical audience that Sinclair aimed to influence with his novel was Congress and the president, as both had to agree in order to establish health and safety bills to better the conditions within factories. Sinclair’s efforts did not go unnoticed as in 1906 both the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug act were approved by both Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt (Cherny,
The difficult living situations for many people in the early 20th century were discussed in the novel The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair. The book describes an immigrant family’s struggle to survive after moving to America. The family experiences unsafe working conditions, dangerous child labor and poverty. Sinclair uses these images to shed light on some of America’s troubles, to disparage capitalism and to promote socialism.
Upon his 1906 publishing of The Jungle, Sinclair was coined as an avid “muckraker” when President Roosevelt addressed an audience in April of that year. When asked whether or not the novel provided a realistic account of workers conditions within the Chicago meat packing industry, Roosevelt accused Sinclair of being a liar in an attempt to discredit him. A large part of this was credited to Roosevelt’s personal distaste for Sinclair’s apparent link to the Socialist party but, Roosevelt was also unaware that Sinclair had worked undercover at the plant to gather first hand and accurate accounts. The Jungle shined light on the poor working conditions of workers in a meat packing facility. Throughout the novel, Sinclair gave gruesome examples of what workers went through each and every day. Each department of the facility was faced with its own risks and challenges, “There were the wool pluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands of the pickle men; for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid to loosen the wool, and then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with
The Jungle, the 1906 exposé of the Chicago meatpacking industry. The novel focuses on an immigrant family and sympathetically and realistically describes their struggles with loan sharks and others who take advantage of their innocence. More importantly, Sinclair graphically describes the brutal working conditions of those who find work in the stockyards. Sinclair's description of the main character's
Cohesively, the chosen primary sources from the early 1900’s all show the negative connotations that were associated with Upton Sinclair, whether or not the writers manifested through that is a different layer. Today the American people see Upton Sinclair as a muckraker and activist with little attachment to the great knowledge he attained. We attribute Upton Sinclair to one book he wrote, The Jungle, when he wrote numerous books that were widely publicized and talked about during his day. The articles from his time appeared to include his overall literary importance. The single thing that has differed from the way he is viewed now as opposed to how he was portrayed during his time is that we removed the negative assessments of him based on his political and social beliefs. American people currently recognize how beneficial he was to our history.
Socialism versus Capitalism in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Even before the beginning of the twentieth century, the debate between socialists and capitalists has raged. In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, he portrays capitalism as the cause of all evils in society. Sinclair shows the horrors of capitalism. In The Gospel of Wealth, by Andrew Carnegie, he portrays capitalism as a system of opportunity. However, both Carnegie and Sinclair had something to gain from their writings; both men had an agenda.
The most significant event in the emergence of the twentieth century is the diversity and struggle of society's classes. The novel, The Jungle penned by Upton Sinclair attempts to display the social and economic challenges of the lower class by demonstrating the difficulties of a Lithuanian immigrant family.The predicament situation of Jurgis and his family reveals the dark side of the capitalism, therefore, it also revealed dominance and the exploitation of the bourgeoisie from the proletariat class.Throughout the novel, Jurgis and his family encounter varied difficulties from being unable to find a proper job to several deaths followed one after another due to the harsh life conditions consequently followed by the separation of the family
Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, wrote this novel to unveil the atrocious working conditions and the contaminated meat in meat-packing workhouses. It was pathos that enabled his book to horrify hundreds of people and to encourage them to take a stand against these meat-packing companies. To obtain the awareness of people, he incorporated a descriptive style to his writing. Ample amounts of imagery, including active verbs, abstract and tangible nouns, and precise adjectives compelled readers to be appalled. Durham, the leading Chicago meat packer, was illustrated, “having piles of meat... handfuls of dried dung of rats...rivers of hot blood, and carloads of moist flesh, and soap caldrons, craters of hell.” ( Sinclair 139). His description
In Upton Sinclair's book “The Jungle” he states many points that have big impact in our lives today, some points he declares are how dishonest the society was. The second thing that was mentioned in the book very well is the titles and metaphors. The third thing is “order” which is another way of saying social class of the people. The fourth thing is “cross section” where the plot can be laid out side by side and evaluated as it is. The last point that is said from Sinclair is “i aimed for the public's heart...and i hit the stomach which is a big part in history.
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.
Capitalism underwent a severe attack at the hands of Upton Sinclair in this novel. By showing the misery that capitalism brought the immigrants through working conditions, living conditions, social conditions, and the overall impossibility to thrive in this new world, Sinclair opened the door for what he believed was the solution: socialism. With the details of the meatpacking industry, the government investigated and the public cried out in disgust and anger. The novel was responsible for the passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. With the impact that Sinclair must have known this book would have, it is interesting that he also apparently tried to make it fuction as propaganda against capitalism and pro-socialism.
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.
Upton Sinclair was an American writer whose works reflects not only the inside but also the socialists view on things. Upton sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born into a family which held to it’s Southern aristocracy in every thing that was done. When Sinclair was ten years old, the family packed up and moved to New York City ( Where there were more opportunities to succeed ).
How The Jungle Influenced Social Reform and Socialism Beginning in the late 19th century, many people became concerned with many social problems resulting from the industrialization period of the United States. People began to demand reform. The writing of the book The Jungleby Upton Sinclair was one of the most influential tools used to reform many American industries. In this book, Sinclair focuses on the unsanitary conditions and corruption that was involved in the Chicago meat packing industry.