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Example research essay topic: Makes The Reader Feel Upton Sinclair - 1,364 words

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... yes of a variety of people using a god-like narrator. This mix of views helps to strengthen his socialist beliefs in the novel. The other narrator expounds upon certain events that occur in the novel. This narrator is like an aside in a play; it is just like Sinclair stepped into the story to deliver a message to the reader. This narrator is used when Sinclair feels that a traditional narrator is not enough.

The narrator is used in muckraking passages to show things that Jurgis couldnt possibly know, such as articles in newspapers. This is evident in when Sinclair writes: If he had been able to buy all the newspapers of the United States the next morning, he might have discovered that his beer hunting exploit was being pursued by some two score millions of people, and had served as a text for editorials in half the staid and solemn businessmen's newspapers in the land. (321) This shows that the second narrator comes along at certain points to inform the reader of what is happening to Jurgis and the world around him in the meantime. During the course of the novel, Sinclair puts forth a plethora of themes, some major and some minor. One major theme is materialism and unyielding competition have made 1900 s America into a metaphorical jungle. Theme is generally regarded as the main way to put across an idea, so Sinclair uses this to its full extent. When Sinclair describes the thousands of people waiting to just get a chance at getting employment, he shows that the naturalistic nature of the packing yards.

He shows that the people have little chance of getting employment, or even surviving in the brutal jungle of Chicago. These naturalistic lives are something that Sinclair wishes do to away with, and replace it with democratic socialism. With democratic socialism, the big business would be obsolete; instead families or individuals would run regulated versions of the big business (Ebenstein 242). So under socialism, Sinclair argues that the naturalism would be gone because the common people have a chance for survival.

So during the course of the novel, Sinclair uses theme to illustrate his point. Another major theme that ties into the previous theme is giving the business to the public and running them democratically. This was probably Sinclair's main theme in the novel. This theme was enforced mainly in the second half of the book.

In the beginning, there was very few reference to socialism, the first of which is a wise old women, who is a socialist, revealed to them that they were hoodwinked by the company that sold them their house. As the book continued, the socialism was brought up more and more. The last chapter shows that not even all socialists agree on everything. The best example of this is the socialist orator and Comrade Ostrinski. These two combine to give Jurgis his first taste of socialism.

One could argue that this is the turning point in the novel because it changed the entire mentality of the novel. The tone changed from hopelessly depressed in the first four fifths of the book, to hopefully optimistic in the last fifth of the book. After socialism made serious gains in Chicago and other areas of the country, Sinclair foreshadows bright futures for socialism in the future. The writing of Sinclair in the chapter and others, show that he took a kind of nonfiction approach to writing the novel. He used statistics to show the vote increases in a variety of places, and on page 116, Sinclair even footnotes a United States Live Stock Ordinance. Sinclair intended to use statistics because people cannot dispute facts.

The nonfictional approach Sinclair uses helps him to show why socialism is better that the existing governmental system. In addition to the major themes, Sinclair incorporates many minor themes as well as major themes. One minor theme is those on the bottom rung of the social ladder are literal wage slaves who do the bidding for their master. This is evident many times in the novel, such as when Ona is forced to have sex with her boss, Phil Conner, a boss in the political machine. When Jurgis gets angry and beats Conner, no one listens to his side of the story because the judge and Conner are both involved in the deception of the people, and is sent up the river. The intent of Sinclair in this incident is showing the insensitivity of the leaders of the political machine and big business.

This minor theme relates to the major theme of competition and greed have made America into a jungle Another minor theme used by Sinclair is industrial capitalism is an efficient, impersonal killing machine that has absolutely no regard for human life. This can be shown the brutal treatment of the people that work in the plant. Sinclair writes: Worst of any, however, were the fertilizer-men, and those who served in the cooking rooms. These people could not be shown to the visitor, for the odor of the fertilizer-man would scare any ordinary visitor at a hundred yards; and for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting-sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durhams Pure Leaf Lard! (120) This shows the incredible danger that the workers put them selves in everyday just to try and make a living and with no sympathy from the greedy, money hungry boss. In addition to the themes, Sinclair uses figurative language.

Sinclair's figurative language use is used mostly in metaphors and similes. When Sinclair uses similes and metaphors, he usually compares the character to a type of animal. One example of this is comparing Jurgis to a wounded bull and comparing Conner to a great beast. Both of these help to contribute to the jungle-type atmosphere that Sinclair has created through figurative language. Through these metaphors and similes, Sinclair makes the powerful people in the world see as the hunters in the jungle, and the lower class people are shown as being the hunted. This depicts the power of the ruling class over the plebeians, and the reader starts to feel the plight of the workers through the metaphors and similes used by Sinclair.

Also, Sinclair is a master at sensory details. He makes the reader feel like he is in the story. He uses olfactory imagery to show the awful smell given off by the dump, the auditory imagery to show the sound of the instruments at the wedding. He uses visual imagery the most, however. When Sinclair describes the slaughtering process, he elaborates upon every detail. He makes the reader feel that he is there watching the hogs actually get killed.

His reason for describing every detail is to show the reader exactly what happens, and to make the reader feel that they are actually there, watching the events unfold. In conclusion, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written to show the goodness of socialism and the evils of capitalism, in addition to show the plight of the workers in the packing yards of Chicago. Due to the graphic nature of this book, it instigated many reforms, most notably the immediate pure food reform. It also brought forth many regulates for workers, such as child labor laws and forty hour work weeks. In this novel, Sinclair brings the reader along the path to socialism using a variety of techniques, such as characters, conflict, point of view, theme and style. These help Sinclair write one of the greatest proletarian novels of all time.

William Bloodworth, Jr. writes that few readers-and not very many American writers-could ignore what he had done. (64) Works Cited Bloodworth, William A. Upton Sinclair. Boston: Twayne, 1977. Ebenstein, William. Todays isms.

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1970. Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Penguin, 1985


Free research essays on topics related to: upton sinclair, makes the reader feel, major theme, democratic socialism, figurative language

Research essay sample on Makes The Reader Feel Upton Sinclair

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