Dec 27, 2009

The Jungle | Themes

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 of the industrial teakettle." 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 blowing off roofs (or lids) is essential to effective propaganda, and in this he succeeded...