Facing lack of opportunities to earn money and good standing in their homelands due to political and economic crises, 20th century European citizens thought of migrating to America as a quintessential success. The overseas country promised wealth and stability to any person or family who was willing to dedicate their hardworking souls to building a new, capitalist state. Therefore, there is no wonder why millions of Europeans chose the uncertainty of the American dream over their homeland’s destined economic despair. However, the vision of welfare quickly turned out to be a lie once the immigrants experienced the reality of working in industrial America. Upton Sinclair, in his book The Jungle, describes two concepts of industrialization and mass-migration that transformed American society. The Jungle argues that industrialization, though a necessary step for progress, changed and divided American culture into the poor and the wealthy, fueled by the immigrant population deceived into wage slavery.
Purpose for Writing the Jungle in Historical and Political Context
Since Sinclair portrayed the life of immigrants that were lured by the American dream and capitalized on, the purpose of The Jungle is inherently political since the author urges people to a core societal change. Sinclair’s narrative follows the life story of Lithuanian expatriates to show Americans the reality behind the 20th-century transformations. Industrialization ultimately led to unequal division of wealth, leaving immigrant workers on the verge of poverty, which was fundamentally wrong for the author. The natural progression towards capitalism in society, in the eyes of Sinclair, transformed the American dream into a lie to persuade foreigners into serving the wealthy. His purpose for showcasing this perspective was to ensure that the immigrant population has a story they can relate to. Additionally, he wanted to guarantee that Americans have a detailed report on how exploitation of workers acts as the cost or the means to the ideal capitalist life.
Therefore, Sinclair’s ultimate motive for publishing this detailed narrative was to convince people that industrialization is an exploitative mechanism that devalues the human lives of the working population. The author portrays immigrants as victims of urbanized and divided America who are unable to break from the vicious cycle of wage slavery they have been tricked into. Taking into the consideration that Sinclair was a socialist, his novel, The Jungle, serves as an exemplary piece of far-left literature. Appealing to the common belief in freedom, Sinclair urges American people to political action and changing the society from solely profit-oriented one to an environment where every person is equal and valued.
First Transformation
Mass-migration for the Rudkus Family and in History
Firstly, Sinclair explores the transformation of the mass-migration in early 20th century U. S., depicting a lively representation of the American dream before and after facing the true nature of exploitative working conditions. As described by the main character, the flow of immigrants created a perception that the United States was the ultimate escape to a better future. Sinclair writes: “America was a place of which lovers and young people dreamed; if one could only manage to get the price of passage, he could count his troubles at an end” (27). Due to this transformation, the Rudkus family is driven to move countries and abandon their homeland for a brighter future. However, the Jurgis Rudkus eventually realizes that the promises of that transformation are deceptive. At the pinnacle of his revelation, Jurgis exclaims, “the law was against them, the whole machinery of society was at their oppressors’ command” (Sinclair 185). This comment points out how the immigrants changed the perception of the American dream from an opportunity to advance in society to a harsh reality of discrimination.
For the Rudkus family, mass-migration was initially an escape and then slavery trap, for the United States’ capitalism – a needed workforce to fuel the progress. The story of the Lithuanian family translates to the universal experience of many other immigrants that decided to move overseas decades after the Civil War. The rapidly developing country invited people from all over Europe: Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Scotland, Italy, and many more. American dream has been motivating the most naive to seek moving to America as the ultimate escape from the routine world to someplace where the efforts will be fruitful. If a person works hard, he/she earns more – that was the general understanding of the American utopia that many tried to achieve. However, this oversimplified equation of honest work for honest earnings appears to be nothing more but a mirage.
Historically, migration transformed America economically and industrially, providing an abundance of the workforce to suit the ambitions of the wealthy and powerful. However, the excess of working expatriates also marked the drastic decline in valuing the foreign population. The overwhelming asset of cheap and socially unsecured labor was taken for granted and taken advantage of. Similar to the Rudkus family, 20th-century immigrants faced the wage slavery, exploitation, abuse from the people of higher social status, unfairness of corrupt law, and generally the destruction of the American dream they were all longing for.
Second Transformation
Industrialization for the Rudkus Family and in History
Secondly, The Jungle makes a point of industrialization being the major transformation that changed people’s perception of status and division onto poor and wealthy. The industrial revolution meant a fundamental change for the American society: from a primarily agrarian state, the country started to become increasingly industrial, with growing worker’s population and factories. For immigrant families like the Rudkus, this change meant both positive and negative changes. On the upside, the expatriates had the employment opportunity. However, this benefit was deceptive since the working conditions were extremely unsafe, and the employers exploited the workers and led them to wage slavery. The author describes how “all day long this man would toil thus, his whole being centered upon the purpose of making twenty-three instead of twenty-two and a half cents an hour” (Sinclair 147). The money-centered, capitalist society separated the population according to their wealth; immigrants have fallen on the unfortunate side of the transformation.
For the Rudkus family, as well as many other workers in the early industrial America, this transformation meant to be confined to the vicious cycle of wage slavery. Sinclair writes, “Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent upon the whim of men as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave-drivers” (77). This description of wealthy employers manipulating and capitalizing on the dependence of workers was prevalent in America. Tricked by the factories, managers, real estate agents, and bankers, the working class had to rely on every cent to survive, with little to no chance to change their lives. For the wealthy, however, this metamorphosis of rural America to the country of consumerism promised the never-ending flow of money supported by the slave labor of salary earners. As the name of the book implies, the society was metaphorically transformed into the industrial jungle that was divided into wealthy predators and the working class prey, without any chance to advance to higher levels.
The First Audience of The Jungle
Missing the Point
Although the purpose of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was ultimately to spur political change in early industrial America, the majority of the readers focused on surface-level meaning. The author famously said, “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” His work, unlike his original incentive, did not lead to rethinking the working class oppression and empathy to the socialist ideas. On the other hand, many readers and legislators were repulsed by the detailed descriptions of the unsafe environment of the meat industry. This reaction eventually resulted in passing the Pure Food and Drug Act and the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration. Therefore, it can be concluded that the significant audience was middle-class Americans who saw The Jungle as a call for action to ensure the safety of the goods, not the people. They failed to read between the lines and empathize with the oppressed immigrant population that produces the consumer products that Americans value. Another fraction of the audience might have read the book because they wanted to relate to the experiences of the working class, or for political reasons.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Upton Sinclair, in his book The Jungle, showed how two interconnected transformations in early 20th century America, migration and industrialization, separated the country into poor, wage-dependent workers and rich, oppressive employers. While the massive influx of the socially unsecured foreigners ensured the excess of the labor force, the employers spur industrialization further by luring workers into wage-slavery. The destruction of the American dream, along with the progress at the cost of human dignity and life, was the notable transformation that changed the United States’ society at the time.
Work Cited
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition. Dead Authors Society, 2016.