Release in 1906, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is a graphic portrayal of Chicago’s meatpacking district and the pathetic—and often deadly—conditions that the industry’s big brass subjected onto European immigrants. The book is required reading for many students in this country, but somehow I managed to miss all the classes where it was assigned. I can understand why many contribute the passage of American food purity laws and overall higher food awareness to this book. However, until I read it myself—I finished this morning—I was completely unaware that the entire novel is one giant push for socialism. The last paragraph, an excerpt from a socialist rally, is particularly poignant:
“We shall bear down the opposition, we shall sweep it before us—and Chicago will be ours! Chicago will be ours! CHICAGO WILL BE OURS!”
Those are some big words from a book famous for its effects on the American food industry.
While I did enjoy the book, I would like to say that it was tough getting through the last chapter; the entire end of the novel is a socialist tirade against capitalism. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it was just something that I wasn’t expecting. Despite the typical stabs at the economic system, there were several points that broke the monotony and made me do a double take. My favorite is The Jungle’s take on that love chore in American households—dishwashing:
“…consider one single item, the washing of dishes…And note that this is the most filthy and deadening and brutalizing work; that it is the cause of anemia, nervousness, ugliness, and ill-temper; of prostitution, suicide, and insanity; of drunken husbands and degenerate children—for all things the community has naturally to pay”
Prostitution? Suicide? Insanity?? I wish I knew all these side-effects of cleanliness years ago. I am never washing another dish again!
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