Upton Sinclair‘s book The Jungle changed the way Americans looked at the food industry. As a result of his book, Americans no longer trusted that the food industry had the best interests of consumers in mind when they prepared or handled food. The terrible conditions in the meat industry led to demands for reform.
The main theme of The Jungle is the evil of capitalism. Every event, especially in the first twenty-seven chapters of the book, is chosen deliberately to portray a particular failure of capitalism, which is, in Sinclair’s view, inhuman, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent.
A truly revelatory novel.