Critique of Corruption

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, is set in the meatpacking district of Chicago.  The story follows Jurgis Rudkos and his family on their quest for “the American Dream”.  After several job failures and numerous family catastrophes, Jurgis exchanges his honest, hard-working personality for a lifestyle of crime. He quickly becomes involved with a vote-buying scheme to land certain political figures in office. Regarding the plot, Sinclair writes, "All of these agencies of corruption were banded together, and leagued in blood brotherhood with the politician and the police; more often than not they were one and the same person,--the police captain would own the brothel he pretended to raid, and the politician would open his headquarters in his saloon” (Sinclair 303). Because Jurigs and his family were immigrants, they had faith in America and that it would bring them happiness.  They thought that capitalism would make them successful; this was not the case.  Irony “turns standard meanings and expectations upside down. It often involves saying one thing and meaning another” (Killingsworth 131). In this particular situation, Jurgis believes in capitalism and the potential happiness it could bring him. However, it is ironic because, in reality, his expectation of the government form was essentially the opposite of what was promised or foreseen.  In order to survive, he was forced into the dishonesty of politics. Sinclair is able to clearly present the levels of corruption in the government through his use of irony; this allows for the audience to see the true happenings of the political parties at the time.