If you think about it, Upton Sinclair really isn't that great of an author. He wrote The Jungle in hopes more people would become socailists, but instead more people learned how disgustingly their meat was made in the stockyards so the USDA was created, amirite?

+143 If you think about it, Upton Sinclair really isn't that great of an author. He wrote The Jungle in hopes more people would become socailists, but instead more people learned how disgustingly their meat was made in the stockyards so the USDA was created, amirite?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Is this from Cracked?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Not that I know of

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Just because he didn't achieve what he hoped for doesn't make him any less of a good author.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

The Jungle was written to show the horrors of what the workers went through back then, not to promote socialism

by Anonymous 14 years ago

According to a trusted source, he was in fact trying to convert Americans to socialism.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Okay, how can you read that book and NOT know it's about socialism? The hero in the end finds salvation through socialism. The author flat out said it wasto promote socialism and teh horrors in the factory were only there to further illustrate the pains capitalism and corruption caused. Other socialist authors like Jack London recognized it too. It was DEFINITELY a socialist book.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I think it's sort of that people only heard what they wanted to hear. It didn't make me want to convert to socialism or anything, but it was really well written. The chracters were believable, their pain was understandable and you could sympathize with them. The only problem was that the main character was kind of a jerk sometimes, but even then your mileage may vary. Anyway, it did show people what corruption could be like and was a huge part of muckraking at the time, even if it didn't get it's intended job done. I mostly blame it on the fact that people didn't care about socialism, they didn't want to hear about it, and much like the unsympathetic rich people in the book, they only cared about how it affected themselves. Partially the readers' fault, but partially the author's fault too for believing in such a poor system.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I'm saying he's a poor writer for he had wanted to convince people to do one thing (convert to socialism) , but instead they did another, create the USDA, which is basically an almost unrelated reaction for what he was aiming for.

by Anonymous 14 years ago