Dec 20, 2009

The Jungle | Themes and Characters

Before the publication of The Jungle, Sinclair commented in the Appeal,a Socialist journal, that his novel would "set forth the breaking of human hearts by a system which exploits the labor of men and women for profits. It will shake the popular heart and blow the roof off the industrial tea-kettle." Critics have generally viewed his success in this plan as at least as mixed as his metaphor. Breaking human hearts requires more skill in characterization than Sinclair possessed, but in blowing roofs he succeeded most admirably. Concerned with all the evils suffered by wage...