What Was Upton Sinclair’s Main Purpose In Writing The Jungle?

The jungle by upton sinclair

             (First Signet Classic Printing, November 1960).
             Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was written in the early 1900's when industry was becoming a big thing. Though the reader can expect to find some shocking, yet interesting facts about the meat packing industry in this time period (early 1900's), Sinclair may have had reasons other than displaying the truth behind meat packing for writing the novel.
             Sinclair wanted to show Americans how hard it was for unemployed immigrants to make it in the harsh new world. In fact, a main theme presented throughout The Jungle is hard work in hard times. Sinclair has his main character, Jurgis Rudkus, put through a series of mis-fortunate events throughout the novel, most of which are a result of a moral-lacking economic system. Sinclair also ties to make the reader understand that the problems faced by Jurgis are not faced alone, but by the working class as a whole, and still, Jurgis and the working class keep their faith in the "American dream.".
             Because The Novel is based in the industrial, early 1900's and Sinclair's main point is to show the trials of working men, the industrial environment of Packingtown, Chicago is a perfect setting for a narration that will support the themes of the novel. Also, the way Upton Sinclair narrates The Jungle, including a protagonist, a setting, and a plot, rather than simply giving out facts about the meat packing industry, supports the validity of the statement that Sinclair's main purpose for writing the book was not only to uncover the secrets of meat packing. Research will however, prove that Sinclair did investigate the meat packing industry rather heavily before writing The Jungle. In fact, in 1904 the editors of a socialist newspaper called Appeal to Reason, sent Sinclair to the Chicago where he spent seven weeks studying the work of meat packing, the home lives of workers, and the ways of the business in deep detail.

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