Upton Sinclair and His Influence on Society Essay

Upton Sinclair, the famous American author, wanted to be a great influence on society. He was born in 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland, from a family of Southern aristocracy. His father was an alcoholic and his mother came from a wealthy family. When Sinclair was ten, the family moved to New York. His father sold hats and spent his evenings in bars coming home drunk every night. As a child, Sinclair was an excellent reader and scholar. By the age of fourteen, he began writing in his spare time. He attended Columbia University and later he moved to Quebec, Canada. There he lived in extreme poverty; not knowing from where his next meal would come. Through poverty, Sinclair came to see the advantages of being a socialist. By the age of†¦show more content†¦In addition, Sinclair went to great lengths to ensure that his immigrant family was not foreign to the American mind. Sinclair emphasized that their values of hard work, family togetherness, honesty, and carefulness are the same as those of the reading public. People could see their own families as the one in The Jungle. They could not withstand the effects of greed and competition any more than individuals could. The Jungle impressed readers throughout the world and Sinclair became famous almost overnight. While influencing the families, the publication of The Jungle also influenced the workers of the meat processing industry. Although Sinclair claimed that he had not been concerned with the meat processing industry when he wrote The Jungle, it influenced the course of national legislation and produced a permanent impact on American life. Sinclair criticized the social and sanitary conditions in the Chicago stockyards. As soon as The Jungle was published, meat packers started working very hard to clean up or hide the worst abuses. They were fearful of Roosevelts investigations. The meat packing scandal was front-page newspaper material for weeks. The Jungle set off social protest and violent reactions from the public. It was a single novel, and it sparked the same protests and reactions from the workers of the factory. The Pure Food and Drug Act was a result of Upton Sinclairs writing. After the release of The Jungle, many peopleShow MoreRelatedA Blatant Agenda1280 Words   |  6 Pagesin the hopes of swaying readers to their cause. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a prominent example of this phenomena. Hailing from the early 20th century, The Jungle addresses the poor working conditions in which the emigrant workers of the time would labor, working up to what equates to a socialist rant at the end of the novel. 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