Upton Sinclair was famous for his muckraking journalism and socialist agenda. The characters of my book ‘Longing for Home’ spend some time working in the meatpacking industry in Chicago. I used Upton Sinclair’s book ‘The Jungle’ as a resource. The book really highlighted the plight of the workers who were virtual slaves to the meatpacking companies. The children in the Jungle have short and difficult lives, as did many children in the early 1900s. They did piece work at home, factory work, farm work, sold newspapers, and in this picture are picking the dump.
Lewis Hine [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The Jungle caused an outcry, though not for the treatment of the workers. The problem was the revelation of the horrible sanitation in the meatpacking industry.
I was upset by the treatment of the workers and the horrible conditions of their lives. However, I found the choices that the main character, Jurgis, makes every innocent Bohunk mistake he could make while trying to navigate Chicago. Upton Sinclair makes a rather communistic socialism into the nirvana for Jugis. The book was an obvious platform for a socialist agenda rather than a story about characters.
In my book, Longing for Home, the subjugation of the workers is the context of the character’s struggles, but not the focus. In addition Jurgis, in the Jungle, never has a positive turn. I know that there were plenty of people who never got out of the slums and were worn to death by the work. My characters are more resilient than Jurgis and his family. That is the story I wanted to tell. I hope it is the story you want to read.
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