Upton Sinclair: The Horrors of American "capitalism"

Upton Sinclair: The horrors of American "Capitalism"

In Upton Sinclair's novels The Jungle, Oil!: A novel, and The Coal War, he supports Socialism by revealing the terrible conditions faced by the unskilled laborers in "free" Capitalist America, and depicts these conditions in such a detailed manner that even the most apathetic readers are moved. The accuracy of his details is amazing: His books brought about several investigations, and they found that almost everything that he wrote was true and there were very few details that could not be confirmed.

Sinclair's The Jungle was his first foray into the cruel horrors faced by the working class of America. In this book, Sinclair uses Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian with a dream of wealth and the end of his troubles, to show the injustices done to the working man.

Jurgis... had heard of America. That was a country where, they said, a man might earn three rubles a day; and Jurgis figured what three rubles a day would mean, with prices as they were where he lived, and decided forthwith that he would go to America and marry, and be a rich man in the bargain. In that country, rich or poor, a man was free, it was said; he did not have to go into the army, he did not have to pay out his money to rascally officials--he might do as he pleased, and count himself as good as any man. (The Jungle 22)

With this prospect of happiness, Jurgis takes his soon-to-be wife and her family to America to live in the stockyards of Chicago, where one of his friends had become rich. Little did he know that the promise of wealth and an end to his troubles was just a ruse, but soon he began to see the true nature of how things were in America. He was soon swindled into "buying" a house that he truly had to rent for much more than he originally thought, which forced the rest of his family to work, and even the children were forced to work so that they might have enough money to pay the payments on the house and still have money to buy food to eat and coal to keep warm with. After suffering a sprained ankle, Jurgis is forced to leave his job and stay at home, leaving the rest of family to work even harder to get their dirt-poor wages. His wife soon gave birth to a child, however, and the sight of his baby's face was the only thing that could keep Jurgis from going mad. Jurgis was soon better and back working again, but after learning that a boss was forcing his wife to have sex with him, he got in a fight and was sent off to jail for three months, a time in which he knew nothing of how his family was doing. After getting out of jail, he found that his house had been taken away from him since the family couldn't keep up with the payments. Eventually finding where his family went, he finds his wife dead from child-birth. Jurgis continues to look for work, but finds that he has been black-listed because of his fight, and could find no work in the stockyards. He looks into the city for a job, and finds one, but as he comes home from his new job, he finds that his son has also died. Grief-stricken, he resolves that "There should be no tears and tenderness; he had had enough of them--they had sold him into slavery! Now he was going to be free, to tear off his shackles, to rise up and fight" (The Jungle 212) against the world, and he becomes a tramp, going where he chose and doing what he wanted. Soon the winter came upon him, and having no where to go, he turned back to the city. Here he became a thief, and with the help of some "friends", he became a boss, one of the people who had destroyed his life and his family. He was soon hardened with greed, and became just like all of the other bosses, doing anything to get a little more money. Soon he had another run-in with the boss he had fought before, and again they fought. This time he was once again sent to jail, but there was nowhere for him to go after he came out. He sees a campaign meeting, and wishing for warmth and rest, goes to it. While there, he learns of Socialism, and how with it, every man could work together for the