Upton Sinclair's specific goal in writing 'The Jungle' was to convince Americans that socialism (communism) was the answer to America's problems. (The words 'socialism' and 'communism' meant the same thing in English before 1945 - since then the meaning of 'socialism' has changed.) The United States today is not a communist country, so clearly Sinclair failed. The book was a bestseller, and as we will see in class this year, the book did cause huge changes in the structure of American society and in the role of the government in American society. If the book was so influential, why does Sinclair ultimately fail? As you read the book, see if you are convinced that the U.S. should have become communist, and ask yourself why you are or are not convinced. Is there a weakness in the way the book is written, or is it something else? Compare this book to Uncle Tom's Cabin - in the 1850's a majority of Americans did not want slavery to end, and yet Harriet Beecher Stowe was entirely successful - 15 years after her book was published, slavery had been abolished forever.
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8 comments:
First of all, Communism is a good topic to talk about and wish that it could happen but it is impossible to turn a country to communist.Even if they manage to do that it basically become a dictatorship because humans cannot share property equally and a person always has to have control over things. The establishment of communism could be seen in Russia or Cuba. This is why Sinclair ultimately failed. But in the case of Uncle Tom's Cabin it was about treating the African people that came to America as slaves. Everyone has the liberty to live their life as free men and this was the main goal in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
I am not really convinced that they should have socialism. Maybe Sinclair should have go further and tell people what the socialism will bring. Then people might have changed their theory about socialism and changed to socialism. Communism is that even though a person tries to earn more money, they will get equal amount of money. So, maybe the Americans thought that it is unfair for the hard workers. Sinclair should have told the readers how they should change the problems specifically. Also, he should told them about how the changes will bring.
I think that the U.S. should not be communist, because in the book socialism would have helped the low working class like Jurgis, but as a whole country it would not have worked out since people would want to have more for their work as Min A has said. But in general people who are not in the same state as Jurgis looking for jobs trying, getting a few cents an hour, not being able to live a proper life style, would not want to be communist because their life is probably stable.
This kind of political mindset doesn't fit to the Americans, I agree!!!
I think the ultimatly the book failed because it had a great idea but the system in which socialism took place nothing got done. People fell in love with the idea of socialism but it didn't work and because the book doesn't say what happened after this I'm guessing that socialism was ineffective and they returned to other means of government.
I think I have to agree with Anu. See said that the out come of Comunism was seen clearly in Russia and Cuba. Socialism back then was considered the same thing and while the idea was great it never worked out. As i said in my previous post the out come of Socailism was not shown in the novel and there fore it gather a lot of followers and it started to climb. However once they saw what it had done to Russia and Cuba they abandend the idea.
I agree with what Anu has said earlier. Even though the government said that they are the communists, which means everyone is equal, it is impossible to have everyone equal. The government is the leader of the society, who controls everything in the society. This means that they are not equal. Maybe at first, people were happy to hear that everyone will be equal, if they have communism. But later they realized that everyone cannot be equal to one another. So, I think this is the reason why Sinclair had failed, even though he brought some changes to America.
I agree with everyone who said that America should not be a communist country. and that even if it was a communist country, there is no way that people can share everythings. it might be good for people like Jurgis but as whole, it would not have worked just like Benedict said.
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