What problems does Upton Sinclair associate with industrialization and what solutions does he appear to offer to these through The Jungle?

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which was first serialized in a socialist newspaper, became an improbable best seller. Sinclair wrote this sentimental novel exposing the ruthless exploitation of workers in the United States in order to make a plea for socialism. Readers, however, were primarily shocked at the description of unsanitary conditions in the Chicago meatpacking plants. Sinclair's book did not bring socialism to this country, but it did influence legislation that allowed for government inspection of food supply and created the Food and Drug Administration. Sinclair famously said, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

Sinclair depicts an innocent, hardworking Lithuanian immigrant family that cannot get ahead because the system is stacked against them. They have no protections: no minimum wage, no sick leave, and no unemployment insurance. When they try to buy a house, they have no defense against an unfair contract that they do not understand, which inevitably leads to foreclosure. After the death of his wife, Ona, Jurgis stumbles onto socialism and finds meaning and purpose in it.

While sometimes exaggerated in its depiction of a family that suffers every horror brought on by industrialism, Sinclair did illustrate a world of raw capitalism. In this setting, workers have no rights because the logic of the factory renders them as widgets in a huge profit-making machine, rather than humans. The owners of the meatpacking plants and other factories, as well as the owners of farms hiring migrant workers, simply wanted to gain the most possible work from their employees for the least possible wages. Like Marx, Sinclair argued that industrialism destroyed the relationship between owner and worker and turned workers into dehumanized wage slaves. While the United States never became socialist, worker protections that we take for granted today were advocated by Sinclair in The Jungle. These benefits, such as fairer contracts and unemployment insurance, help provide a better life for the average person.