Masculinity In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Derrick, Scott. “What A Beating Feels Like: Authorship, Dissolution, and Masculinity in Sinclair's The Jungle.” Studies in American Fiction, vol. 23, no. 1, 1995, pp. 85–100., doi:10.1353/saf.1995.0007.

This critical article review will focus on Scott Derrick analyzing the use of naturalism in

The Jungle in regards to highlighting the gender presence in the novel. Derrick considers that the “figure of the author and the structure of authoring are crucial to an understanding of the operation of gender” (85). Upton Sinclair exposes the inconsistencies and contradictions of gender roles during the late nineteenth-century. The development of Sinclair as a writer has been influenced by literary works such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin that contribute to

how his characters are constructed. All in all, the literary dynamics in The Jungle mediates the relation of the text and the world which derives from the historical position of the author. One of the strengths of this document is Derrick’s ability to exhibit how The Jungle operates as a naturalist novel by unpacking specific scenes that reflect naturalism while incorporating the background of the author. By doing so, Derrick leads the readers into identifying the gender presence in the novel which stems ultimately from Sinclair. This technique allows the audience to realize that even though the novel has a masculine authority, gender has an influence on this work. Nonetheless, the limitations of this article come from Derrick’s organization. He switches from different information that ranges from Darwinism, highlights social injustices in the book, to the autobiography of Sinclair. As a result of doing this, it becomes lost in translation in regards to what exactly the author is arguing and how this information has direct relations to gender. All in all, this document would be helpful for scholars wanting to understand naturalist novels and how their characters are influenced by the author’s experience. Then again, this piece of work is yielded by the organization of information that leaves scholars confused at what they can take away from this document.
The beginning of the article begins by stating that how Darwinism has relation to naturalism and its complex gendering’s. Derrick identifies that “Darwin raises the possibility of ‘a suddenly powerful and prolific Mother Nature dethroning the ancient figure of God the Father” (85). Thus, a feminine presence generated a host of masculine authorities, establishing male naturalist authors like Sinclair. To reinforce this idea, evidence was brought from the novel in relation to nature and how this environment has a feminine undertone. Nature in the novel crosses boundaries “between male and female, the workplace and the home, reflecting the fundamental incoherence of naturalism itself” (88). Derrick advances in the article to introduce how these crossing and the masculine freedom that the main character Jurgis experience derive from Sinclair.
The construction of authority throughout the narrative comes from “Sinclair’s own will-to-authorship twines itself around the ‘proper’ subject of the novel (91).

Derrick points out that the desire of a writer is to attain the position as the author. From there, the text provides background on Sinclair and his journey becoming a writer. The Jungle was written in relation to his unmitigated personal suffering in order to achieve humanist selfhood. In the process of becoming an author, “the materials a subject must manage in order to compose identity will always have a primary relation to gender” (93). Male authors during the nineteenth-century like Sinclair have a relationship with gender besides being raised by a female caregiver. In American literature, men experienced the prominence of women as a material reality and reacted to it (93). Hence, the feminine presence in the novel comes from the inspiration of Uncle Tom’s Cabin coining Harriet Beecher Stowe Sinclair’s literary foremother. The feminine presence is featured in the text by “producing images of female power which then poses problems for male identity”

(94).
As a whole, Derrick gets across that the novel exposes the inconsistencies and contradictions of gender roles during the late nineteenth-century. Sinclair highlights the feminine presence by comparing nature to the female body, the workplace, and the home which challenges the masculinity of the main character Jurgis. Nonetheless, the division of gender ultimately reveals the author’s struggle and how naturalism has a discontent for masculine authority.
As previously mentioned, the strengths of this article come from Derrick’s ability to exhibit how The Jungle operates as a naturalist while incorporating the background of the author.

One of the points made in this piece of work is how the novel is connected to the author. Similar to the main character Jurgis, the composition of The Jungle came from Sinclair isolating himself from the problems of family life. Derrick references that Sinclair’s son had been diagnosed with malnutrition that was unforeseen and his marriage to his first wife was falling into despair. Thus, the family in the novel turned into expressing the story of Sinclair’s family dealing with unforeseen fear, hunger, and illness. As a whole, these difficulties he faced were projected into the creation of The Jungle and Derrick highlights this well. Drawing a connection between the two help the audience recognizes the gender presence in the novel. Following gender expectations, one would think the man in the family would maintain gender differences by having control of his environment. However, the unforeseen events Sinclair experienced challenged gender roles by trying to manage the home, family, and the workplace like

Jurgis.
However, this article is limited by the organization of information. From an outside perspective, there is difficulty interpreting the writer’s argument since there isn’t a smooth transition of information. It’s presented at the beginning of the article that gender had an influence on Sinclair that’s projected in The Jungle. However, the article then transitions to Darwinism possibly deriving from a female presence and goes straight into how nature operates in the book. From there, Derrick highlights disparities in the book such as social injustice, poverty, and suffering that Jurgis’s family endures in Packingtown. Yet the writer does not begin to discuss the background of Sinclair and gender until the end of the article. All in all, Derrick’s argument becomes lost in transition since the information throughout the article does not come together until the end. As a result, the audience may disconnect from this piece of works since it appears that the material in the text does not appear to relate to what was originally stated.
Overall, scholars would benefit from this piece of work if one seeks to understand the author’s influence. The writer brings in the historical background of Sinclair and how that impacted the composition of Jurgis and his masculinity being challenged in the novel. Derrick states, “As Sinclair’s autobiographical writings underline, a paradox of naturalism, in and out of The Jungle, it produces images of female power which then pose problems for male identity” (94). Then again, the disorganization of the article hinders scholars from understand how all material in article correlate with Sinclair and gender. Eventually, it comes together towards the end but by that point the audience may have lost the message of the article. Therefore, introducing the topic of the article earlier on would help scholars comprehend the information and know exactly what the writer is arguing.