Introduction
The life of different people in the society may be of two types, those who are famous and those who are not. The life of famous people is followed and their impact on the society is also considered. Upton Sinclair is the person who became famous in the American society at the beginning of the XX century and made a great contribution in the people’s self-consciousness and their awareness in the modern world.
Main Text
Shifting to the biography of such famous person, it is impossible to avoid that his family was rather poor. He was born in 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. Being 15, he began to write his first novels. Having married, the financial situation of the family was bad, and the birth of the son led to the worse condition. The refusal to devote his life to nothing but writing, led to numerous conflicts and the divorce followed in 1911 (The Jungle by Upton Sinclair).
The life of the writer had changed significantly after the edition of his book “The Jungle”. Upton Sinclair was invited to the White House by the President Theodore Roosevelt. Moreover, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was adopted after the book was investigated and the necessary information taken into account. There were a lot of other (more than 90) publications of this author. Besides the numerous books of his, the articles were also rather productive. There were several articles, which contained the information about the author’s devotion to foreign languages. In addition, Upton Sinclair could fluently read on French, Italian and German, knew Greek and Latin grammar, and was proud of his knowledge (Subačius, 2006).
The contribution of Upton Sinclair was not only the written works, which were rather useful to the society, but also his support of the social layers of the society. Miners, women and other people were supported by Upton Sinclair. He was one of the creators of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was one of the leaders, who made offered the society to change the system which was and to address all the inconveniences to the government. The ideas i8n the change of the society were as follows, to create the minimum wage, to state the maximum working hours, there was “no employer liability, no food and drug laws, no votes for women, no education on birth control and venereal disease, few unions, no health insurance, no social security, and no unemployment compensation” (Whitt, 2008, p. 32). Upton Sinclair fought for all these changes and believed in their providing in the society.
One of the biggest works which was provided by Upton Sinclair was the agitation work, as the life of simple workers was not good, and Upton Sinclair was trusted, he was famous and, what is the most important, he came out of the poor family and knew the problems of simple working people, and being the writer by the nature he could state his opinion correctly.
Conclusion
So, it may be concluded hat Upton Sinclair was a very significant person in the society of his time. He managed to be not only the great writer, whose works were read all over the country, but to become the idol of t society. The programs which he offered to provide in the society, the letters which he wrote and pamphlets, which he created, heat up the society and made it understand that there may be the other life that people may live better and it is the responsibility of the government to make this life better.
Reference List
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. (2006). Sinclair Biography. Web.
Subačius, G. (2006). Upton Sinclair : the Lithuanian Jungle: upon the centenary of The Jungle (1905 and 1906) by Upton Sinclair. Rodopi, Netherlands.
Whitt, J. (2008). Settling the borderland: other voices in literary journalism. University Press of America, New York.