Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Uncle

¶ … Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. Specifically it will discuss how Steinbeck's work compares to the others in terms of technical merit and societal impetus. All of these books discuss serious social issues that were important at the time. Slavery, poverty, and food safety were the topics these authors chose, and they resonated with the American people.

"The Jungle" talked about the horrific working conditions in the meat packing plants of Chicago, and it showed people there was no safety or food safety in place in these plants. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" showed the ills of slavery and how African-Americans were treated in this country before the Civil War, and "The Grapes of Wrath" showed a family displaced by the Dust Bowl facing extreme poverty and prejudice as they tried to make a new start in California. These were all major social issues at the times the books were written, so they gained a wide audience of readers, and were all bestsellers of their day.

Steinbeck's work could be called the best of the three technically. He was a very talented writer, and his prose is poetic and compelling at the same time. For example, he writes, "And in the south he saw the golden oranges hanging on the trees, the little golden oranges on the dark green trees; and guards with shotguns patrolling the lines so a man might not pick an orange for a thin child, oranges to be dumped if the price was low" (Steinbeck 234). There is something extremely beautiful and dangerous in his writing, as if he is showing the anger and hopelessness just below the surface that is waiting to burst from the Joads, and he manages to illustrate this better than the other authors do.

To be fair, both the other books were written at an earlier time, when language and writing was a bit more formal and "old-fashioned." Steinbeck's novel was written in a much different style, much more modern, and so it is easier for modern readers to relate to it. Each of the novels places the characters in poor situations, so they all compare to each other in this regard. The reader becomes sympathetic to them because of their plight, and they want them to win. Unfortunately, because of society at the time, for most of the characters, that is not possible. Steinbeck's account of the Joads leaves them in a terrible situation by the end of the book, yet they somehow remain hopeful. Steinbeck is looking at the American people as a whole, and how, when the times are the worst, they still hang on to hope.