During the turn of the twentieth century, it was quite common for immigrants to come overseas to America in hope for a better life. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair follows Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, who is honest and extremely hardworking. Jurgis, who had immigrated to Chicago with his soon to be wife and family, came in search for his American Dream, but found it to be a series of misfortune and hardship. The extensive list of trials and tribulations that Jurgis was forced to encounter included hard labor, weather conditions in Chicago, family complications, and many more like, but most importantly facing, ".His own ignorance and the powerful forces of restrained capitalism and political corruption"(Sinclair,Vii). Ruckus's sad story highlights the many injustices and pitfalls of American political and social systems, and reflects Upton Sinclair's outlook on eradicating capitalism and eliminating its communal evils, with his socialist views. .
Upton Sinclair had a perspective based primarily on the living circumstances of his upbringing, being that he was from a poor, but also a higher aristocratic, southern family. He was an outspoken Socialist, who was a prominent advocate during this time. Sinclair, however, did not succeed in promoting his thesis in The Jungle about eradicating capitalism and eliminating its social evils. In fact, Sinclair inadvertently struck a chord that lead to a more harsh response from the audience. And from this, Sinclair's statement,"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I had hit it in the stomach."(Sinclair,Viii), proved to be extremely true. The diction used to describe the labor conditions that these citizens and immigrant workers had to work in were bold, and did not seem true because of how exaggerated the disgust was. But that was not the case, these Capitalists in charge of the Meatpacking district did not care for the conditions of their employees, their main concern was production and profit.
