George Orwell's Animal Farm - Old Major's Speech

One of the most interesting speeches in Animal Farm is the one made by Old Major shortly before his death. It is a speech that seeks to ensure that the animals on the farm come to realize their rights and to spur them towards rebelling against their human masters. A consequence of this speech is that it has considerable ramifications, since it ends up leading to the revolution against Jones, the owner of the farm and makes the animals take control over the entire farm. Old Major’s speech is an important aspect of the story because it is what sets up its plotline while at the same time ensuring that there is the advancement of the recognition of the rights of the animals and the need for them to exercise these rights against tyrannical administrators.

Old Major’s speech helps the animals on the farm to ensure that they recognize their rights. The speech is reminiscent of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto because it allows for an analysis of the lives that the animals are undergoing and creates proposals concerning the best way through which to improve their lives for the better. One of the most significant statements that Old Major makes is that the life of the animals is “miserable, laborious, and short” (Orwell and Batchelor 27). This is an important statement that shows the lives of animals essentially being in the service of their master rather than for themselves. A consequence is that Old Major seeks to show that the animals, as intelligent beings themselves, have a right to have happy lives, and that the circumstances within which they live is not fulfilling. The statement mentioned above is full of socialist ideas because it seeks to encourage its audience to consider the miserable conditions of their life and ensure that there is the advancement of their own interests first over that of their master. Old Major, like Karl Marx, is of the belief that those that control the means of production are the cause of all the problems that the animals are undergoing. Therefore it is essential to make sure that the animals take action to “Remove Man from the scene and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever” (Orwell and Batchelor 28). This statement is reminiscent of Marx’s belief that all social problems, especially the class divisions, could only be brought about through the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.

Through his speech, Old Major proposes that the animals work towards the overthrow of Man from administering the farm. He states that “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing”, a statement that seems aimed at ensuring that that the animals’ ire is raised against their master (Orwell and Batchelor 28). This is especially considering that Old Major is seeking to bring about a revolution on the farm where the rule of Jones is brought to an end and the animals govern themselves. However, despite his noble perspective concerning the need to ensure that the rights of animals are respected, Old Major is shown to be an individual that has only a one-sided point of view. He does not consider that even without the presence of Man on the farm, it is possible that an animal might end up replacing him as a tyrant. He justifies his position by asking “Is it not crystal clear….that all the evil of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings?” (Orwell and Batchelor 29-30). This is an extremely pertinent question because it shows Old Major’s way of thinking and enforces his belief that Farmer Jones is responsible for the miserable life that animals have to endure every day of their lives. Therefore, he proposes that the only way through which to promote animal interests is to bring an end to the authority of man since it will allow the animals to create a society that is just. Old Major seems to be an individual that believes in the essential goodness of animals and fails to consider that animals might eventually seek to have an advantage over one another, as seen later through Napoleon’s actions.

In conclusion, Old Major’s speech is essential in bringing about a situation where the course of the story is set. This is especially considering that the speech encourages the animals to overthrow their tyrannical master and establish a society that, in the beginning, is based solely on equality. However, what the speech fails to consider is that without the presence of Man on the farm, a power vacuum will occur and that it will end up being filled by animals that are essentially more tyrannical than Jones himself.

Performance Review of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The performance of Macbeth by various theatrical groups has, from its beginnings to the present, been based on an attempt to replicate the original situation as was written by Shakespeare. The fact that this attempt has continued to be of immense influence in the performance of this play shows just how the individuals who are involved in it are conscious of the importance of depicting the play in an accurate way. Macbeth is one of the greatest plays and works that were created by Shakespeare for performance on stage and because of this; it has remained exceedingly popular to the present day. When this play is performed in theatres, one will find that most of the scenes remain loyal to the original play since changing any aspect of the script within Macbeth would be detrimental to it on stage. One of the most notable aspects of the play is the fact that some the characters, especially Macbeth, are portrayed in a very negative light, and he ends up doing things that are morally wrong. In the performance of the play, this happens despite these characters having the knowledge that what they are doing is wrong, they tend to do it because of the belief that they are within their rights. For the duration of most of the play, it can be seen that the various actors attempt to remain loyal to the original script often depicting the characters in the play in the most realistic manner as possible. In order to create a situation where there is a contrast of characters that leads the play to its culmination, the performance of the various actors is often crucial in the depiction of the laying bare of the original plot of the play for the audience and this keeps the latter interested in the play.

Just like in the original performance of Macbeth, the actors on the current stage performances often use the characters’ personalities, as depicted in the original script of the play, as well as other events to convince the audience that what they are viewing is the real plot of the film. By doing this, these actors ensure that they maintain the element of revelation that often serves to captivate their audiences at the high point of the play. These stage actors attempt to depict the characters in a way that is almost as exactly as Shakespeare did in his play and by being loyal to the script; the play follows the same course of events as when it is performed on the Shakespearean stage. The performance of Macbeth on stage is highly significant because it is a revelation of the true nature of human beings in the medieval Scotland as told in the sources that Shakespeare used in writing the play. One of the most noteworthy themes in the play, in any of its performances, is that of ambition and this is seen when Macbeth takes steps to take the throne of Scotland despite the fact that he is not in direct line to the said throne. The dark tone which is dominant in the play is also highly significant because it is a revelation of the dark nature of Macbeth and his wife because it shows that they are blinded by their own needs and they cease to care about the needs of those with whom they share their lives (Curran 392).

In the performance of the play, it can be said that the actors put a lot of thought in their characters especially when it comes to the physical appearance of the said characters. In performances, it is seen that the actors seem to be selected from those people who are similar in appearance to the characters that are depicted in the play. This gives the audience the opportunity to appreciate the various characters within the play and to identify with them in a more intimate way than if their appearance were changed. In addition, there is the potential that many of the audience prefer the characters on the stage to remain loyal to the original. It can therefore be said that the performances of the play are highly successful because they ensure that there is a sense of continuity from the original play by Shakespeare. It can be concluded that when the performance of Macbeth is done on stage in the current period, most of the actors tend to remain absolutely loyal not only to the appearance of their characters but also to the original script and this goes a long way in making the play authentic.

Disarming Iran: A First Step by Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s speech seeking to address the Iranian nuclear program is one that promotes the idea that the United States is ready for negotiations. This is especially the case considering that at the time the speech was being made, Iran had just elected a new president who was more open to negotiations with the West and this speech was a means of showing the world that the United States had also chosen to follow suit. However, Obama also offers a warning to the Iranians that if they do not cooperate fully with the United States, they will face further isolation from the international community through the imposition of sanctions. It is also essential that Obama also made comments concerning the steps that have been taken by the United States and its allies to ensure that the Iranian nuclear program is brought to a halt including the imposition of a broad array of sanctions. Additionally, Obama’s statements, especially concerning the willingness to engage with Iran, contain a message of hope that the United States and Iran will be able to reach a deal that will promote the interests of both nations while containing the nuclear ambitions of the latter.

A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia

The issue of women’s rights and their contribution to society is one of the most pertinent debates that are taking place in the contemporary world. This is because a significant number of individuals have come to believe that women have been oppressed by male dominance for a long time and that it is time to ensure that their rights as individuals are respected. The achievement of this goal has the potential of making sure that there is the advancement of means through which women can become active participants in society while at the same time promoting gender equality. An important case concerning the rights of women in the contemporary world is that of Saudi Arabia; a country that has been vilified for years for denying women even the most basic of rights that are enjoyed by women elsewhere in the world. Madawi Al-Rasheed’s book A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia is an extremely important addition to the scholarship concerning the manner through which women are treated in this country. This is because it provides an important contribution to the manner through which the relationship between the state and religion can end up leading to the denial of rights to women in their societies. It also creates the advancement of a situation where there is a conversation concerning the status of women in Saudi Arabia and what can be done to ensure that there is the achievement of a larger debate concerning the association between gender and religion.

While Al-Rasheed does not dispute the central position that is played by religion, she suggests that gender stratification in Saudi Arabia has developed because of a complexity of factors not necessarily related to religion. The result has been that there has been considerable gender stratification in the country to such an extent that women are essentially seen as not equal to their male counterparts. She draws on her research concerning the history of Saudi Arabia to come to the conclusion that because the country was essentially a new state that lacked a unifying national narrative, its leadership turned to the Wahhabi religious revival as a means of fostering religious nationalism. A consequence of this situation was that rather than growing towards the achievement of social cohesion through the use of a nationalist narrative, the new political establishment sought to achieve legitimacy through the use of religious nationalism. This created a situation where religious nationalism ended up becoming distinct from religion because it enforced those characteristics that may have been considered too radical even from a religious standpoint. The religious nationalism of Saudi Arabia developed on a path identical to secular nationalism and this in such a way that promoted the creation of an environment where the state got involved in almost every aspect of life. Through this analysis, Al-Rasheed is able to develop a strong insight into the relationship between gender, politics, the state, and religion through a diversity of contexts. She shows the manner through which gender stratification in the country was legitimized through the association between these aspects of social life.

The religious nationalism present in Saudi Arabia is unique because it is one that has been combined with the intense modernization of the state since the beginning. A result of this situation is that modernization, which has been at the center of state formation since its earliest days, has worked hand in hand with religion in order to affect the gender system in a diversity of ways. One of the arguments that this author makes is that there have been considerable fluctuations to the manner through which the gender gap has been affected over the last fifty years. This gender gap has been maintained through state sponsored interventions rather than by religion. The trend has been legitimized through the manner in which the state has taken what appear to be contradictory stances on a diversity of issues concerning gender. One of the most prominent of these has been widespread encouragement of the education of women yet these individuals have ended up being restricted one they have completed their education. Furthermore, state sanctioned religious fatwas have been common in undermining the gains made by women in society because there has been a failure to consider the impact that that they might have on women who have been empowered by education. Moreover, the state has taken initiatives aimed at bolstering its international image through the promotion of a situation where there is an increase in the public presence of some women. Most of the latter have been those who support the status quo and are unlikely to challenge it, with other being kept in the background. Therefore, Al-Rasheed concluded that the abundant oil wealth of Saudi Arabia has been both an obstacle and facilitator of the participation of women in public life.

From the beginning of her book, Al-Rasheed issues a challenge against the simplistic and often contradictory image of women in Saudi Arabia. She challenges the assumption that the women in this country are either the veiled victims of an extremely patriarchal society or glamorous cosmopolitan entrepreneurs. These stereotypical representations have for the most part thrived because of a scarcity of literature of high quality concerning gender relations in Saudi Arabia and the actual lives of the women in this country. The second part of the book is instrumental in showing the manner through which the women in this country have reflected on the gender system and in some cases even ended up challenging it. Al-Rasheed makes an extremely sensitive and sophisticated analysis of interviews, literary texts, and personal exchanges with the women of Saudi Arabia in a bid to show that these individuals are not as homogenous as they seem. Instead, they are individuals of varying backgrounds and different convictions who live their own lives as independently as they would like. This statement poses a direct challenge to those individuals who believe that the women of Saudi Arabia are all victims of the religious nationalism that has dominated the country for decades. It shows that the women of this country are as independent of thought and as aware of the social circumstances around them as other women in the rest of the world. Al-Rasheed seeks to show that women in Saudi Arabia are free thinking beings who, because of their diversity in backgrounds, have different ways of thinking. She also advances the conviction that the women of this country are all independent in their thought, and are not all victims, as is often represented in Western media when it comes to its depiction of these women.

In her analysis, Al-Rasheed considers the diversity of viewpoints of women such as Raja al-Sani and Bariyya al-Bishr. The latter, who is a sociologist, has raised considerable objections concerning the negative manner though which women are treated in the country based on the restrictions that have been placed on them when it comes to becoming active participants in politics and economics. Al-Sani, on the other hand, is a woman that is well known for being a member of the second generation of Saudi women writers as seen through the success of her novel, Girls of Riyadh, which performed very well at a commercial level. Al-Rasheed therefore makes use of the opinions of these women to show that the women of Saudi Arabia are not as homogenous as is often thought and are instead independent individuals who also have very strong opinions concerning their society. In addition, she also considers the contributions that have been made by numerous other women in Saudi society, including those women who are strictly committed to the Islamic tradition and believe that it is essential to apply Islamic solutions to everyday problems. A result of this analysis is that Al-Rasheed comes up with a means through which to show the diversity of opinion that can be found among Saudi women, and this to such an extent that shows that they are extremely complex and sophisticated individuals rather than the oppressed and restricted individuals of Western narrative. The achievement of this goal cannot be underestimated because it promotes the idea that women in Saudi Arabia are mistresses of their own lives and have actually taken an active part in challenging the negative narrative concerning them.

The Grimm Fairy Tales

When on reads the Grimm Fairy Tales, one comes to the conclusion that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are attempting to express their feelings about the world and the contradictions that exist within it. This collection of stories reveal the irony of living the human life as well as those of other creatures, some being happy with their lot in life while others remain sad due to their poverty as well as the tragic events that happen in their lives. The Grimm brothers use their stories to display the true nature of human beings; that nothing is ever permanent and that changes occur once in a while. Throughout their stories, one comes to the realization that there is the extensive use of imagery, symbolism, figurative language, style and tone in relation to the development of the themes involved.

The use of imagery is very extensive in throughout the Grimm Fairy Tales especially when making contrasts between the beauty of the world and the ugliness which is contained within it. This can be seen when, in Tom Thumb, the two men, not caring that their offer to buy Tom from his father would end up separating them. In fact, their only concern seems to be able to make a lot of money using Tom and they do not care at all concerning the feeling of alienation that they would be subjecting him to. The image of Tom as a tiny individual is used to show just how much individuals look down upon the less privileged individuals in society and how they make every attempt to exploit these people. It can be said that the image of Tom Thumb as a little fellow shows that despite his size, he is able to survive in a world that is hostile to his existence as Tom uses his wits to ensure that he is able to survive within it. This image may also be used to show the price which human beings have to pay because of their greed as well as their unthinking ambitions, and this instance can also be perceived in Hans in Luck. The image that is presented of Hans attempting to make his life better as well as to have something useful shows how human ambitions can at times be detrimental instead of helpful because he ends up losing all of his wages as well as all that he attained through barter. While this is the case, in most of the Grimm Fairy Tales, the image of happiness is continuously displayed with very few instances where there is any form of sadness, showing that most of these stories were written for the purpose of entertaining children.

Symbolism is a major style used in the development of the theme of the Grimm Fairy Tales and an excellent example of this, is in The Fisherman and His Wife, where the wife, despite having everything wants more; a symbol of her greed. The fact that she continues to demand more from her husband despite having everything that she needs can be considered to be symbolic of human nature, where we are never satisfied with what we have but continue to aspire for more. In addition, in the story Old Sultan, Sultan the dog can be considered to symbolize unwavering loyalty because despite the favor which the wolf did him in saving his life, Sultan decided to bark at the wolf whenever he comes to steal his master’s sheep. Furthermore, the fight between domestic animals and wild animals in this story shows that despite the poor treatment that the former receive from their masters, they are extremely loyal, while the latter are very cowardly creatures.

The Grimm brothers use figurative language to depict the contrasting characteristics of the characters that they depict in their stories, and a good example of this is that of the talking wolf in Tom Thumb which is an oxymoron used to depict the possible unique ability of Tom to communicate with animals. It is well known that wolves do not have human speech and the Grimm brothers depicting it as talking clearly shows the contrast in a situation where it would normally be impossible for normal conversation to take place. Figurative language can be seen all over the Grimm Fairy Tales and it is used to express the points or instances which can be considered to be the most important in the stories.

The tone of the stories can be considered to range from either being neutral to ironical. This is because of the contrast which the Grimm brothers attempt to make between the different characters in their stories, often depicting extreme good and extreme evil. The tone of the stories can be said to show that the world is a very beautiful place to be born into if one does not mind there not being any happiness all the time. The tone in these stories can be said to bring about quite a number of ironical scenarios, where an environment which is described as being beautiful is infested with evil people such as the thieves in Tom Thumb. In addition, the tone of the stories, such as that of The Elves and the Shoemaker, displays the advantages of doing good because eventually, these good acts are going to be rewarded. It can further be said that the tone of the stories depict the true feelings of their writers about the world and how the situation within it affects the different people living in it. The irony in the stories, such as The Fisherman and his Wife, helps to deliver the writers’ message to the reader as well as fostering an understanding of the subject matter involved.

In conclusion, the use of imagery, symbolism and figurative language in these stories greatly contributes to a greater understanding of the stories. They create situations which are familiar to the reader and they allow him to decipher the true meaning of what the stories is saying. Despite what many people who read it may think, they are not the kind of stories to be taken lightly because they are full of lessons. Instead, they have many lessons to give about the reality of human life in the world and the main message which can be made out of it is that there is not guarantee of happiness in the world and that we should live in it as best as we can.

A World Without Books

Books have, over the centuries, been among the greatest inventions of the human race and it has been through them that human civilization has been able to advance. Books have become so essential that it is difficult to envisage humanity without them. Books have been the way through which the history of the human race has been transmitted from one age group to another. In addition, they have been the through which official records have bee kept, and without them, all the great civilizations of the past would not have been able to blossom and flourish as they did. Throughout history, scholars and those people who could read have been greatly revered by their fellow men because they were believed to be the carriers of and transmitters of knowledge. Before the modern times, books were extremely rare and were intensely sought after by those who could read them. In the Western world, books were so rare that the only book which many of those who could read had read was the bible, a book that certain priests could not even read. The ownership of and the ability to read books were therefore a source of great prestige for those who had the privilege of having them. This privilege eventually came to be spread all over the world as more people became literate and books became commonplace. There has, however, recently developed a trend where people have come to prefer other forms of entertainment at the expense of books, which are slowly, but surely, being viewed as relics of the past.

A world without books is a concept which many people are yet to comprehend due to the fact that a majority of the literate people in the world today at some point enjoys reading. While this is a fact, one has to consider that there have developed newer and seemingly more interesting forms of entertainment, which many of the younger generation is adapting to instead of books. This is creating a situation similar to that in the novel Fahrenheit 451 where books are of no value and any that are found are destroyed. In the world of this novel, books are considered by society to be useless and due to popular demand, it has become the duty of the firemen to destroy every available copy that is found. The influence of other media such as soap operas has become so great that the population prefers it to books, which are looked upon as being too strenuous to read. Many of the characters in the novel have become disillusioned by books, mainly because of the conflicting information which is found within them. Beatty, the boss of the main character, is said to have once been an avid reader, but his disillusionment with books soon led him to get involved in their destruction as a fireman. His disillusionment with them seems to be so great that he makes Montag, the main character, destroy the book which he realizes that the latter has in his possession.

One would say that a world without books would be a dreary place within which to live because books have traditionally been the means of transmitting knowledge from one generation to another. Through books, issues are discussed more deeply and in the process, the reader gets to have a better understanding of the issues being discussed. This is not true of other sources of information, because these sources are scarce in content and this creates a situation where individuals get only a shallow understanding of the subject matter. In Fahrenheit 451, it is seen that because of the destruction of books, knowledge has become static, not being able to grow as it should. Those people who possess books are completely ostracized from society and are put in mental asylums because of their intellect. This makes it extremely difficult for knowledge to be transmitted and the lack of this knowledge has made the people in this society disillusioned with life. Because of their hatred for books, the society in Fahrenheit 451 is not equipped to deal with the issues of day to day life and they have instead become artificial. This is the likely scenario that would face the world if there were no books from which people could get the knowledge and wisdom that they could use to make their lives more meaningful. In addition, it is possible that the intellectual development of the human race would be brought to a standstill because intelligent thought is often written in books.

Books have been a source of history for the human race for centuries, and without them, one would conclude that there can be no history. The study of the history of the human race is extremely important because it enables people to learn from the events of the past and this knowledge helps in the making of future decisions. The study of history is only possible through books and because of the developing lack of interest in them, slowly but surely, the human race is going to end up without a history. This can clearly be seen when, in Fahrenheit 451, most of the women prefer watching interactive soap operas to having intellectual discussions. This has led to a situation where the women in the novel have no life other than that which they watch on television. The power of the media has become so great that the characters in the novel do not have the will, or the inclination, to live a different sort of life. When Montag asks his wife if she remembers where they met, she declares that she does not remember. In fact, she does not seem to show any more interest in the matter despite the fact that it is supposed to be one of the most important events of her life. Her obsession with soap operas has damaged her intellectual ability as well as her long term memory. Perhaps if she had been obsessed with reading books instead soap operas, then she may have had an interest not only in her life but also in her past.

Independent thought has greatly been encouraged through the reading of books and this has ensured the development of new ideas. This ability would be immensely diminished if there were no books in the world because it is only through the study of old ideas that new ideas are developed. Such technology as the internet will inevitably lead to the extinction of books from the world because it is the source of plenty of information. However, despite the large reserves of information within it, the internet does not have the qualities which books have because most of the information gotten from it is often instant and shallow. The internet does not allow individuals to contemplate on the information which they have just received, as books do. The lack of independent thought due to the absence of books is likely to put the human race into a dark age of intellectual stagnation. The ability to think through the learning of the previous work of others is what has helped the advancement of the human race. The inability to think and the reliance on shallow sources of information such as the internet is likely to see the end of the world as we know it. Human beings learn about their past from books and with this knowledge, the take action to avoid the mistakes of their past. Therefore, without books, the human race will probably end up destroying itself because it will not have the ability to learn from its past.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is a novel which depicts the unpleasant conditions within which workers had to work in meat packing plants in order to earn a living. It is a description, in the form of a story, of the experiences which Upton Sinclair had while working undercover for six months in an attempt to gather information on an article he was writing. These working conditions are described so vividly that anyone who reads them might become revolted by the conditions in these meatpacking plants. The novel is most realistic, as it follows the life of an immigrant, Jurgis, and his family who comes to America in an attempt to have a better life. In doing so, he ends up working in a meatpacking plant, where the exact opposite of his dreams come to take place. It must be noted that many of the people who ended up working in these plants under sometimes appalling conditions tended to be immigrants and these had no other choice other that to go on doing the same jobs because they had no education and had little knowledge of English. It was therefore difficult for them to recognize the injustices in their lives and in doing so work towards escaping such injustices. It can be said the The Jungle is an attempt by Sinclair to describe the working conditions of the United States according to his socialist views and a way to push the American public into taking action against such conditions, since they are the ones who are the largest beneficiaries of the labor of the immigrants.

The Jungle is basically a political novel whose main purpose is to propagate the socialist view of the ideal America. It is an attempt by Upton Sinclair to show how workers in the industries in the United States worked under bad conditions to earn a living. One of the main themes that can be found in this novel which are an obvious part of the socialist views of Sinclair is that of exploitation. The factory owners and managers exploit their workers in every way possible and treat them more like slaves than as free human beings. Among the most appalling things which the factory managers do is to sexually abuse some of their female workers. This can be seen when Ona, Jurgis’s wife, is raped by her employer, with the latter threatening that she would lose her job if she does not continue giving him sexual favors. Moreover, many of the factory workers have no job security because they can lose their jobs at any moment at the slightest pretext. An example of this sis when Jurgis ends up losing his job because of an injury sustained while working. While this would not, in normal circumstances, get him to lose his job, in Jurgis’ case, it is different because he is not aware of his rights. When it is seen that he will not be able to be as productive as before, he is fired, and this is done without his being provided with any compensation by his employer. While it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the workplace is safe for his employees, this is not the case in The Jungle. Although it is the employer’s fault when accidents take place in the workplace, the employer does not take steps to improve the working conditions. Instead, workers who get injured lose their jobs, and the families of those who lose their lives are not compensated.

One of the main themes that are dealt with in this novel is that of the evils brought about by capitalism and the idea that socialism is its cure. For most of his political life, Upton Sinclair was a dedicated socialist whose actions and works tended to upset many of the mainstream Americans who were dedicated capitalists. While Sinclair did not call out for the abolition of capitalism, he advocated for the inclusion of socialism into the American way of life. This would have ensured that there was a balance in the economy, with the people in the lower classes in society being provided with the opportunity for advancement. Throughout The Jungle, Sinclair shows how the family of Jurgis is destroyed by the cruelties that are brought about by capitalism. Most of the disastrous and tragic things that happen to his family are as a result of their lack of a stable financial base through which to support them. Their faith in the so called American Dream is tarnished as the realities of the capitalist ways that are prevalent in America are felt directly. They turn from a family that is full of hope for a better future, to one which gets involved in some of the most abhorrent practices in society. Sinclair’s narrative is one designed to show that capitalism is evil and that the best way to get rid of it is to adopt communism.

In the novel, the American Dream is considered to be just that, a dream and this is because of the fact that despite moving from Lithuania to America in anticipation of having a better life, this does not happen for Jurgis’ family and instead, they end up living in worse conditions than those in their home country. This can be considered to be a parallel of the life which Upton Sinclair’s family lived due to their relative poverty. While both his parents’ families were of aristocratic backgrounds, his father’s family had been ruined during the American Civil War and despite being in America, they had not managed to regain the wealth and prominence that had once been theirs. Instead, Sinclair’s father had to become a salesman in order to make ends meet, something he barely could because of his alcoholism. Sinclair therefore spent some of his childhood with his wealthy maternal family and because of this, experienced both poverty and wealth. In The Jungle, through the portrayal of the tragedies which are encountered by Jurgis and those around him, Sinclair comes to reveal the ugliness that is capitalism, and his belief that the lot of the poor in America has to be improved for the American Dream to finally come true. It is this theme which he used throughout his political career and despite not being able to gain any elective position; he ended up being influential in other matters.

In conclusion, it can be said that The Jungle is an influential novel whose main endeavor was to prove Sinclair’s view that capitalism was an evil practice. Instead, there is the recommendation for the adoption of socialism as the best way of improving the lives of those who have been deprived in society. Sinclair wanted the American public to see the evils which were brought about by the greed and inhumanity of those who practiced capitalism. The unfortunate working conditions that the poor had to undergo everyday of their lives to make their employers wealthier than they already were is a recurring theme in the novel. While this was the novel’s original intention, the public did not come to view it the way Sinclair did and instead, they came to look upon it as a revelation of the unclean environment through which the food they consumed was processed. In the end, The Jungle failed to represent the real intentions of its author and instead, it became a revelation of the food health issues that were prevalent in the United States. The novel was a representation of the political views of Upton Sinclair but it ended up coming into the service of the larger meat processing plants at the expense of the smaller ones.