Q's Views

Some folks find it surprising that I didn't enjoy The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. In one forum, I was accused of not understanding naturalism. That's not the problem. And I'm not going to argue the difference between naturalism and good old muckraking. My issue with the novel was with Sinclair's writing. By the end of the book I was just sick of it and wanted it to be over. Here's the $5 analogy.

I'm a married man. Like a good husband I have watched movies with my beloved that I would not choose to watch on my own. Examples include Beaches, Thelma and Louis, A Star is Born. Inevitably, I get to the point to where if the director isn't going to end the film, I wish someone would shoot me to put me out my misery. I cheered when T&L drove into the Grand
Canyon because I knew it was over and there could be no sequel. Everybody drive safely.

I don't dispute the relevance of The Jungle's impact on reforming the food safety laws, but I'm wondering if that was the fish Sinclair was after. Who was the audience? If it was the upper class, pointing out what's in that meat they eat, that's certainly a way to get attention to the quality practices in the meat packing industry. But that's only part of the story and it's the rest of it that just fails for me.

Am I supposed to be enraged by the unfairness of an industrial trust and the way it treats its workers? If so, it could be any industry. And if I'm the upper class of turn of the century American society, do I care about that? I'm probably exploiting workers in my industry so why would I wish the cancer of unionism for the meat packing industry when it could spread to mine, whether it be steal or coal or building railroads? Same thing for the plight and exploitation of the immigrant workers whose language works against them but their desire to work (for food, shelter, clothing) is enormous.

And poor Jurgis is the poor animal working his way through the jungle. He goes at everything as hard as he can and loses everything. But he is resilient and he gets back up. [Stay down, Rocky, stay down.] As a character, he seems wooden. By the end of the novel, he seems to be merely a puppet and I felt as though I was being lectured through him. And I questioned why Sinclair was keeping this character alive when his experiences should have killed him before the novel got to the point where it was primer for socialism. I just didn't care any more.

I'm currently reading King Coal by Upton Sinclair and I find it far more enjoyable than The Jungle. The characters seem more real and the story seems less contrived than The Jungle. These coal miners may not win their fight any better than Jurgis won his, but at least I care what happens to these characters. As sympathetic as I was for Jurgis throughout the novel, I got to the point where I just wanted him to go away.

In short, I wanted to buy this guy a powder blue Cadillac and give him a map to Arizona.

Until next time, Peace
Q