Essay | The Influence of Love on the Evolution of Jurgis

The Jungle undulates with tumultuous waves of love. They are choppy, always gray and sharp. Sinclair presents a love story, bittersweet and almighty, showing the immense magnitude of love's power and the influence love has on a person's character. Yet, Sinclair has been quoted time and again as having said that he considered The Jungle a failure because he felt had accidentally dealt a blow at the public's stomach and had been aiming to strike at the public's heart. Upton Sinclair does strike the heart. Perhaps not in the way he intended (awakening Americans to reject capitalism's system of greed and inspiring a national infatuation with Socialism), but in a way that tugs at a person's gut instinct and ties the book together under the universal effects of love.

Protagonist of The Jungle, Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus, is Sinclair's case in point. Jurgis' heart...
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