The Effects of Literary Elements in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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“I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit them in the stomach” (Sinclair). Upton Sinclair uses these words to describe the reaction his novel, The Jungle, receives upon first publication. Sinclair’s original purpose of The Jungle intends to illustrate the difficult challenges of immigrants in Chicago at the turn of the century; giving details and samples of abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry to highlight their troubles. Instead, the public demands government intervention against the atrocities and this public outcry leads to the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Elements of Naturalism exist throughout most of the text. Naturalism attempts to apply scientific ideals and division when studying the human race. In Upton Sinclair’s brutally descriptive novel, The Jungle, the literary elements of character, setting, and theme show three areas where the book illustrates naturalistic fictional trends. Characters present within naturalistic fiction consist typically of lower-class people who struggle with forces which they cannot control. Sinclair ...

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