The title of
Sinclair's novel is significant because it encapsulates his theme: that unfettered capitalism
has created a "dog-eat-dog" world in which people prey on each other just as animals
do in the real jungle. Some of the chief people preyed upon are the innocent and largely
defenseless immigrants who arrive in Chicago hoping to build a better life through hard
work.
In this work, they are largely cheated and exploited by those who
mercilessly take advantage of their naivet©. Sinclair blames this on a system that sees people
not as human beings but as widgets in a profit-making machine, to be used up for what money they
can make for others and then cast on the trash pile.
Sinclair does not place
the answer in becoming hard and savage to survive the system but in changing the system itself,
advocating socialism as a more equitable system to protect the weak and vulnerable and to help
them keep the profits of their hard work so that they can achieve the American
Dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment