Thesis Evolution

Thesis

Old Thesis

Sinclair was disappointed by the impact of The Jungle. The Jungle was written as a cry for social justice; it depicted the corruption of capitalism and the plight of expendable immigrant workers. Unfortunately, the public reacted with their stomachs; the FDA was passed but to the dismay of Upton Sinclair, the book did not do anything major pertaining to improving workers’ rights (until decades later) and democratic socialism was not uplifted as a major political party.  Although The Jungle was supposed to be what Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin did for slavery, it did not achieve its paramount goal. There are many reasons that The Jungle failed. For one, The Jungle’s realism undermines its socialist message. Another major reason was the discrimination and alienation of African Americans in The Jungle. Driven by his want to change society, he became blind to his own knowledge and substantially biased the book, distorting “facts” that were very doubtful to many of the government officials whose jobs were to inspect the very same meat packing plants –Armour & Co. The most significant reason to why the book failed to deliver the audience its original intent was because of the powerful opposition of big business and the Americans’ changing taste in literature.

New(er) Thesis

Sinclair was disappointed by the impact of The Jungle. It was written as a cry for social justice, stressing the importance of taking care of society's working class by redefining human rights. It had also depicted the corrupting of nature of capitalism, a game where only a very few can reach the "American Dream" exclusively by the exploitation of expendable immigrant workers. Unfortunately for Sinclair, the public reacted with their stomachs. The FDA was passed but the book did not do anything major pertaining to improving workers' rights and democratic socialism never became a major American political party. Although The Jungle was supposed to be what Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin did for slavery, The Jungle did not achieve its paramount goal. There are several reasons for its failure. For one, The Jungle's realism undermines its socialist message. Another reason was the discrimination and alienation of African Americans in The Jungle; although racism was still rampant in the early 1900's, many people were offended by the book's way of victimizing blacks, thus discouraging some would-be socialists. Driven by his want to better society, he wrote The Jungle as a means to convince others, especially appealing to the middle and upper classes, to convert their political philosophy to one that was then called the American Socialist Party. Woe to Upton Sinclair for he had become so blind to his own faith in socialism that he had substantially biased the book, having published the book punctuated with distorting "facts." A case in point was the government meat inspectors’ accusal of Sinclair's testimony: some of the sausages supposedly had human parts accidentally inserted in them. After inspecting the very same meat packing plants (Armour & Co., Swift, Morris, and Hammond) and finding no evidence of some “facts”, some seeds of doubt had begun to germinate, instigating some critics to condemn him of being a propagandist, and even worse, a phony. As distrust and skepticism from the government officials brought about doubt to Upton Sinclair’s works, supporters of the "beef trust" took immediate action to dismantle Upton Sinclair's credibility as a writer. His reputation was so tarnished that even the audience who initially appreciated The Jungle would sneer at him and deem him a lowly attention-whore.

Newest Thesis

Sinclair was disappointed by the impact of The Jungle. It was written as a cry for social justice, stressing the importance of taking care of society's working class by redefining human rights. It had also depicted the corrupting nature of capitalism, a game where only a very few can reach the "American Dream" exclusively by the exploitation of expendable immigrant workers. Unfortunately for Sinclair, the public reacted with their stomachs. Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, but the book did not do anything major pertaining to improving workers' rights, and democratic socialism never became a major American political party. Although The Jungle was supposed to be what Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin did for slavery, The Jungle did not achieve its paramount goal. There are several reasons for its failure. For one, The Jungle's realism undermines its socialist message. The concrete examples of dangerous meat products are considered a more important matter to take care of than the abstract message that oppressing immigrant workers is wrong and should be solved by converting everyone to the ideals of Socialism. Another reason was the discrimination and alienation of African Americans in The Jungle; although racism was still rampant in the early 1900's, many people were offended by the book's way of victimizing blacks, thus discouraging some would-be socialists. Driven by his want to better society, he wrote The Jungle as a means to convince others, especially appealing to the middle and upper classes, to convert their political philosophy to one that was then called the American Socialist Party. Upton Sinclair had become so blind to his own faith in socialism that he had substantially biased the book, having published the book punctuated with distorting "facts." A case in point was the government meat inspectors’ accusal of Sinclair's testimony: some of the sausages supposedly had human parts accidentally inserted in them. After inspecting the very same meat packing plants (Armour & Co., Swift, Morris, and Hammond) and finding no evidence of some “facts”, some seeds of doubt had begun to germinate, instigating some critics to condemn him of being a propagandist, and even worse, a phony. As distrust and skepticism from the government officials brought about doubt to Upton Sinclair’s works, supporters of the "beef trust" took immediate action to dismantle Upton Sinclair's credibility as a writer. His reputation was so tarnished that even the audience who initially appreciated The Jungle would sneer at him and even today, the damage still takes its toll: “apart from The Jungle, Sinclair’s works have been largely forgotten, or perhaps simply mislaid, his name confused with that of Sinclair Lewis, the author of Main Street, Babbitt, and Dodsworth” (Denby 32).