He shows that the people have little chance of getting employment, or even surviving in the brutal jungle of Chicago. According the Atlantic Monthly, "Sinclair's realism, indeed, got in the way of his socialism, in more than one fashion. His intention was to direct the conscience of America to the inhuman conditions in which immigrant labor was put to work. However, so graphic and detailed were his depictions of the filthy way in which food was produced that his book sparked a revolution among consumers instead. He wryly said of this unintended consequence that he had aimed for the public's heart but had instead hit its stomach". Equally horrifying to the processing of the food is the abominable working conditions and maladies those who worked in the packinghouses suffered. From those who de-boned shanks (with their stubs of a thumb), to the workers who removed the hides from the carcasses of animals (their hands all but eaten away from the chemicals they worked in). The theme of hopelessness is prevalent.
Realism might have gotten in the way of Sinclair's socialism undertone, but Sinclair was a socialist and his ultimate aim in The Jungle was to prove to his readers that socialism's doctrine is the only solution to the evils of America. In the last chapter readers find Jurgis, the main character, finding a renewed commitment to life, the remnants of his family and humanity in Socialism, which promises a way for workers to overturn the system that oppresses them. "As the final chapter of The Jungle demonstrates, socialists don't always agree on goals or methods. Some of them want total government control of the economy, some only partial control. Others, including communists, believe that it's necessary to use violence to replace a capitalist system with a socialist one. Sinclair didn't believe in violent methods or in the need for government to take over an entire economy. From 1902 until his death in 1968, he was a democratic socialist.
