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��I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.��
-Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is best known as the novel that led to the Meat Inspection Act and partially to the creation of the FDA after much public outcry against the unsanitary conditions of food processing and packaging. However, this was not the aim of the book and the unsanitary food was but a mere detail in a novel written to expose the horrific conditions of the working class, from unsafe conditions at work, corrupt factory owners, exploitation of children, fixing votes, blacklists, and especially predatory housing that got rich off the suffering of others. Especially immigrants. That this is all glossed over says quite a bit about society (yes, food safety is important too, though), and even Upton Sinclair himself his rise to celebrity over the book was ��not because the public cared anything about the workers, but simply because the public did not want to eat tubercular beef.�� Written after spending weeks working in meat packing plants in Chicago to gather information and write about the lives of the people working there, Sinclair crafter this story of Jurgis and Ona who have come to the US hoping to pursue the mythological American Dream only to have their hopes dashed and dreams shattered at every turn as they find themselves mere pawns for the wealthy to have their lives burned up for the sake of profit.

��There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.��

President Teddy Roosevelt called the book ��hysterical, unbalanced, and untruthful,�� and the Bureau of Animal Industry rejected Sinclairs claims of unhygienic practices, saying the novel was ��willful and deliberate misrepresentations of fact,�� which is comically inept of them seeing as it was published as a novel and not non-fiction. However, the public outcry did lead to the passage of the , which is great and prove that literature can certainly spark outrage that leads to change, though it is a shame it didn’t also spark outrage towards improving conditions for the working class.

��The rich people not only had all the money, they had all the chance to get more; they had all the know-ledge and the power, and so the poor man was down, and he had to stay down.��

As a novel itself, it is certainly rage inducing though not necessarily one that is the most enjoyable to read in terms of literary quality. I mean, sure, its great, but Sinclair is definitely more a journalist than a novelist. To be fair, the point was to spark outrage not write ‘fine literary works,�� and he did what he set out to do. The book has an agenda and it does it well. The ending uses socialism as sort of a deus ex machina, which, whatever I’m into it, but it isn’t not heavy handed. The big problem, though, is there are some rather racist tropes used at the end, hoping to get white readers upset over Black workers mingling with white country girls, and using some really problematic characterizations. Most of the scab workers are said to be Black and described using racist stereotypes. So that is not great. But the novel does capture how awful conditions were and how people got trapped in this. It also definitely gives you the overwhelming sense of futility that broke people’s spirits, feeling as if ��she was standing upon the brink of the pit of hell and throwing in snowballs to lower the temperature.��

If you are interested in this story and the main points, there is actually a really wonderful graphic novel adaptation, The Jungle by Kristina Gehrmann, that is well worth reading. It’s a decent novel though and certainly a piece of history even if a bit heavy handed, and part of the frustration is seeing how many of these issues still cast a shadow over life today.

3.5/5