URBAN JUNGLE: A SOCIO-POLITICAL STUDY OF SINCLAIR’S THE JUNGLE

Rebwar Zainalddin Mohammed; Shler Ghafwr

doi:10.25098/4.2.18

Authors

Rebwar Zainalddin Mohammed Translation Department, College of Language, Cihan University- Sulaimaniya, Slemani, Iraq
Shler Ghafwr English Department, College of Language, University of Sulaimani, Slemani, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25098/4.2.18

Keywords:

URBAN JUNGLE, A SOCIO-POLITICAL STUDY, SINCLAIR’S THE JUNGLE

Abstract

It is obvious that the novel is one of the most preferable ways of story-telling and it is an important way of representing experiences and ideas in the context of various conditions. Being the most characteristic and powerful form of literary expression, the novel in the modern age has acquired a significant attention in literature. Like all literary forms, the novel can shape a set of attitudes regarding society, history and the general culture of which the novel is a part and this is a very important justification for reading novels. Upton Beall Sinclair the Jungle (1906), is one of the most effective and enduring pieces of American social protest fiction. The author has adapted the journalistic approach of earlier muckraking exposés such as Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives (1890) and Lincoln Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities (1904). The research shows the impact of capitalism, Social Darwinian theory and the political system of governments on social life, which can cause disappointment and a horrible life to people, whilst other political systems such as socialism can offer a better life. The Jungle traces the unavoidable death of Jurgis Rudkus and his family, poor Lithuanian immigrants have escaped to the USA, and whose dreams have been destroyed by the greedy capitalist system of Chicago’s meatpacking industry. Towards the end of the novel, Jurgis is shifted to a proletarian hero, who finds salvation in socialism. The study ends with conclusions and the list of resources consulted with abstract in both Kurdish and Arabic languages.

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