The Jungle by Upton Sinclair February 15, 2007
Posted by Book Reader in John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair.1 comment so far
Well, I did not expect the book to be so shocking. I did not realize until some 50% of the book that at the time it was written the topic of capitalism and masses working for cents, industrial society and extreme poverty of immigrant masses was a very current one.
I appreciated the parallel of the industry utilizing “everything but the squeak” from pigs, and treating basically in the same way the workers in the mills and plants. The grose descriptions of how meat is processed, what is made of body parts, and what is added to food were almost revolting. Jurgis’s journey from young and strong, to destroyed, to success, failure, and eventually to socialism was not a surprise for me.
The literary value of the book for me is a bit diminished by the final part that basically is an essey on socialism. Same applies to Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand (“This is John Galt speaking”), but I understand the principles on which the authors decided to put their political manifestos in their literary work.
5 of 5, a must read for people who like Steinbeck, especially Grapes of Wrath.
