Analysis: Chapters 27–28
Marija’s entrance into prostitution culminates the essential
accusation that Sinclair levels against capitalism: throughout The
Jungle, he charges capitalism with trafficking in human
lives. Human beings are despicably regarded as useful resources—means
to an end rather than individuals—and are used until they are worn
out and then ultimately thrown away. As a prostitute, Marija epitomizes
this trafficking in human bodies, as society’s perception of her worth
lies wholly in her ability to satisfy the basest desires of humankind.
Just as the prostitutes are kept in a form of slavery, Sinclair
often compares wage laborers to slaves, another form of trafficking
in human bodies. Throughout the novel, human lives are bought and
sold, although most wage laborers don’t even realize that they are
part of a vast market of human flesh.
To this point, the meaning of the title The Jungle has
been made painfully clear: the world of the wage laborer is a savage
realm characterized by a Darwinian struggle for survival. Those
who refuse to sacrifice their humanity, integrity, and individuality
do not survive, much less succeed, in this world. New arrivals enter
into this jungle crammed with predators waiting to attack them at
every turn. The structures of capitalism are a jungle of hidden
nooks and crannies, each containing yet another dirty secret. Sinclair’s
novel exposes the various levels of deception within the factories
as well as the day-to-day details of the wage laborer’s life. He
probes the courtroom, prison, and criminal underworld in order to
show the far reach of capitalism’s structures of power.
Having gone to such great lengths to illustrate the evils
of capitalism, Sinclair now offers socialism as the solution to
the problems that the first twenty-seven chapters of the novel have
explored in detail. When Jurgis enters the socialist political meeting
in Chapter 28, he is a defeated man: he has
tried all forms of survival but none has offered the security
and the peace of mind that he seeks. The socialist political meeting,
however, proves anything but a jungle; rather, it is a haven from
the cruel reality of capitalism. The rude awakening at the hands
of an unsympathetic policeman is replaced by the gentle nudge of
one who wants him to better himself by understanding the socialist message.
That this woman addresses him as “comrade” demonstrates her desire
for them to be equal, which shocks Jurgis; that she is beautiful
and well-dressed pits her against all of the wealthy capitalists
who ignore the suffering of the common laborer.
As the speaker catalogues the abuses and suffering of
wage laborers, Jurgis reacts to socialism like a new, devout religious
convert. Unlike the preacher at the religious revival meeting, who
wanted commoners to better themselves according to the existing
system, the socialist speaker wants commoners to motivate for change outside the
system. He understands Jurgis’s experiences and addresses Jurgis’s
needs rather than those of the wealthy. For the first time in America,
Jurgis feels that he is no longer alone; just as he earlier gives
himself to the quasi-religious pursuit of the American Dream, he
is now willing to give himself to this camaraderie.
