Introduction
The main social issue described in Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle is the problem of the capitalist economy. The given paper will provide a thorough analysis of the primary character of the story, who is a Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus. The author demonstrates how capitalism can possess the exploitation of workers, which can be as severe as slavery. In addition, the story illustrates the struggles of immigrants, such as poverty and the lack of opportunity to climb up the social ladder. Thus, a capitalistic economy can be a root cause of poverty, inequality, and exploitation.
Jurgis Rudkus
In the book, representatives of the intelligentsia appear episodically, as secondary characters. The main role in the novel belongs to the workers, and primarily to Jurgis. This character is a new image of the writer, an image that is individualized and, at the same time bearing the features characteristic of many workers. Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis and people close to him went to America, full of great hopes and expectations (Sinclair, 1906). They thought of a better life, of happiness, and found there the cruelest exploitation, the bestial struggle for existence, lies, and betrayal. The fates of the heroes of the book amaze with their tragedy, and this is the story of slaves of wage labor. This book is full of living truth, and it has some bestial vitality. Jurgis shares a lot of misfortunes because his relatives die. He himself suffers, but at the same time, it can be observed that there is a process of perception of reality, with which he becomes acquainted both on his own, sad experience and on the example of other people. Encountering a hero with different faces, introducing him to life, the author, together with him, makes a judgment about American reality (Sinclair, 1906). The book condemns and recognizes insolvent society as unjust, based on oppression and exploitation, and the idea of creating a new system.
The Impact
The novel ends with Jurgis becoming a participant in the movement. Under the conditions of American reality, this work was largely innovative. Innovative not only in its socialist content but also in the form that the new content required. One of the key features of the novel is that it contains a lot of material, such as facts, details, all types of information that are directly related to the topic of capitalism that interests the author. In particular, this can be easily observed from the detailed description of the Chicago slaughters (Sinclair, 1906). Sinclair tells in the most thorough way about the animals that arrived at the slaughterhouse, about the division of carcasses and the preparation of meat. The book gives a detailed account of the slaughter with links to figures and facts. The well-known factual nature gives reason to talk about Sinclair’s reporting.
One of the main characteristic elements of the Sinclair method is its sociologism. It should be noted that the writer solves many important issues in a somewhat simplified, schematic way, subordinating them to one main task – the disclosure of a central social topic. One can repeatedly blame Sinclair for the fact that he does not have complex human characters, and there is almost no love theme. He also pays little attention to revealing the psychology of his heroes, and there is a lot of truth in these reproaches. Evidently, it cannot be said that Sinclair completely ignores human psychology, but his inner world is illuminated somewhat one-sidedly. In addition to criticizing vices and abuses, Sinclair had another purpose. This is a demonstration of the hard life of workers, the propaganda of the ideas of socialism, and therefore the work goes beyond the books written by representatives of this movement. This novel is socially realistic, not only telling about an individual, isolated facts, but trying to comprehend them, generalize, and draw certain conclusions.
The moral compass of the time is manifested in the fact that Jurgis had to reevaluate his stance by joining the movement described in the book. He abandons the traditions regarding the American Dream, where people could work hard and achieve some form of success (Sinclair, 1906). Numerous struggles and adversities faced by the main character force Jurgis to be involved in politics, where he begins to fight for his rights, equality, and freedom. The economic aspect of the capitalism of his time was highly exploitation, with no regard for one’s work and effort. This pushes the main character and gives him enough motivational boost to demand significant social changes, which would allow him to lead a decent life.
Importance of the Issue
The major social issue described in writing is the problem of the capitalist economy. It is a highly relevant issue even today because the given economic system can function perfectly by exploiting people’s work and efforts. The system lacks the incentives to possess a moral compass and treat the working class ethically because the primary driving force is always profit or capital gain. The book does not have an indifferent, cold attitude towards people, events, facts, and likes and dislikes are very clearly delineated. The author is highly compassionate for his characters and often puts accusatory tirades into their dialogues, forcing them to make indignant speeches. Sometimes the direct speech of an actor is combined with the author’s speech (Sinclair, 1906). This, for example, can be seen in the scene of the slaughterhouses or in a scene depicting a socialist rally where Sinclair makes the speaker the mouthpiece of his ideas. This technique allows him to speak openly and journalistically sharpen the topic. Unlike the main message, which emphasized the sensationalism of the author’s revelations in the meat industry, some may be interested and worried about the problem of social transformations in society.
The prevailing laws and rules of society management, which are very close to the laws of the jungle, are completely unsuitable in order to ensure the development of a massive and, at the same time, diverse community of people. This applies to both groups and individuals because the exploitative aspect of capitalism really would not allow the working class to live face to face, despite racial, ideological, and cultural differences, to exert an increasingly active influence on the development of events. Now this social and political inequality, which was perhaps acceptable and, due to necessity, acceptable in previous eras, has become intolerable. However, tomorrow it will be able to play a fatal role in the development of humankind. Indeed, in essence, if one looks at the future in the long term, without justice, there can be no stable peace or security. In addition, there is no social development, no individual freedom, human dignity, or an acceptable quality of life for all. Thus, in a new era, justice becomes a condition for the very existence of human society. The concept of justice is now gaining a broader, different interpretation from the previous one. This is due to a growing awareness of the need for a more even distribution of power and income between all citizens, groups, and countries.
The author sees a way out in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and the cessation of the exploitative aspect of capitalism. Such an idea unconditionally implies a society based on a long-term prediction of the consequences of its activities in order to ensure the continuity of the renewal cycles. Such a society should avoid incompatible goals, as well as be a society of social justice since huge differences in wealth and privileges will create destructive disharmony. In other words, the concept is utopian, but it is worth striving for it. A society of sustainable growth would never have arisen within the world economy, based solely on the action of market forces, which are important in themselves for the development of innovativeness. Market forces respond to short-term performance and may not be a good guide in the long run.
Constantly growing capital requires the vastness of the world market, but the world market is not unlimited, and natural resources are exhaustible. The real, deep, and, it seems, an insoluble contradiction of capital lies in the fact that, on the one hand, it is an economic tool that is not superior in its effectiveness, capable of meeting the needs of society for vital benefits. On the other hand, his irresistible desire to maximize profits creates an artificial growth of these needs, the formation, and stimulation of needs that are not related to the need for the livelihood of human society. This process cannot go on indefinitely, at least on an ever-increasing scale. The tremendous power of total capital will face a situation where the natural reserves of growth are almost exhausted. There will be a need to balance and align the giant machine for the production of goods and services with their real needs. This contradiction cannot be resolved only due to a radical breakthrough in technology and the creation of new management institutions. It is necessary to change the consciousness of a person, or at least his consumer behavior, which is immeasurably more complicated. All existing religions are trying to change the worldview of man, and they have been doing this for millennia, but the result is not obvious. Life shows that the development of economic processes is much faster than worldviews. The communists radically and quickly tried to create a new man, but this large-scale experiment ended in complete failure.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the book showcases the underlying social issues of a capitalistic economy and its exploitation aspect. Describing the modern economic system, it is referred to as a market economy. The root of the problem is that humanity is developing without a specific goal. There are only national interests and, within their framework, particular tasks for the development of national capital and raising the material standard of living. All resources are spent on this, and the economy has become a self-sufficient goal. For many years, the question of the role of capitalism in the life of society was of an ideological nature and was obscured by all sorts of dogmas and political speculations. At present, when the capitalist system is dominant in the world, its problems and development paths have predominantly moved to the plane of scientific discussions.
Reference
Sinclair, U. (1906). The Jungle. New York, NY: Doubleday.