A cultural revolution ignited.” In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the country experienced a boom in the economy, but it came at the expense of poor immigrants. As long as businessmen were making a profit, they didn’t care who they exploited to do so. Additionally, there were no limitations on what any industry could or could not do. The United States government had a laissez-faire policy at the time, and the economy was left to its own devices.
This proved harmful to everyday Americans because they had no protection under the laws in their workplaces. In the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, he exposes the wrongs of our society at the time by using literary muckraking to dig the dirt” of our economic system. Society needed a red flag for humanitarians of society’s middle and upper classes to take affirmative action against inhumane acts involving the workplace. The Jungle was one of the key factors in the progressive movement because of its popularity. Also, it is a perfect example of muckraking, and even the graphic nature of the book tells the horrid tale of the meatpacking plants of Chicago.
It gave a realistic image of life for most of the population. This novel sparked political reforms. Meatpacking plants were inspected thoroughly, and child labor was outlawed in many states and successfully enforced. The reason action wasn’t taken sooner was that the government was controlled by the upper classes of society. Even after these atrocities were exposed, many politicians were reluctant to take action because it was bad business” with their peers involved in the business. The majority of people with greater means were distraught and took any action they could. For example, civic leaders such as Seth Low of NY challenged the political machine of New York’s Tammany Hall.
The progressives never went as far as starting their own political party, mainly because the two existing parties adopted many of the progressives’ goals. It never really took off on a national level because national level politicians knew where their bread was buttered.” The feedback this book received indirectly was phenomenal. It also served as a segue to many of the actions taken during the Great Depression. Upton Sinclair got his point across tenfold and it basically exposed every inch of the muck society had to offer.
The government officials of the time were almost forced to go along with this movement because, unless they wanted to be out of office, they had to adopt reformist policies. They had to regulate almost everything, which was never to be tampered with. They were looking at the problems as humanitarian, but they still left the economy alone, which proves to be a very bad mistake in our history. Upton Sinclair changed the way our society thought and acted towards being sensitive towards human needs, no matter the social background. Sinclair did it using a real family and real events, which made it a social stand against the exploitation of children and adults in the workplace. He lived it, so that is what made it a real experience for him and made the writing process much more vivid than it would have been without firsthand experience.
This set the standard for investigative journalism, even though it is a work of literature. It also sparked a revolution, which had been the most constructive socially in history up to this point. I hope Upton Sinclair received acclaim for his work of literature.
