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Upton Sinclair's The Jungle influenced millions of its reader's opinions towards the capitalistic system and the social injustices associated therein. Published in 1906, it embodied the progressive sentiments of the day, pointing out the huge disparity between the haves, portrayed as corrupt and merciless throughout the novel, and the have-nots who suffer at their hand and details the horrendous conditions faced by urban turn of the century immigrant families.
Along with other 'mudraking' works of the era like Lincoln Steffen's Shame of the Cities, Upton Sinclair's Jungle had profound implications for the upper class, especially the women, often inspired to lead reform efforts. It led them to question their beliefs in the world's laissez-faire economic attitude, and doubt that, if anything, Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' was doing more than giving millions of poor urban immigrants the finger. The underlying implication of the book becomes clear towards the end; workers are wage-slaves living deluded under the false sense of security money provides - Jurgis responds to the multitude of hardships he faces with: "I will work harder." Socialism is the only real answer to the problem of wealth disparity, and the only hope for many to actually live the American Dream they were promised.
The novel's socialist stance no doubt contributed to the rise and widespread acceptance of unions - the depiction of what can only be considered an 'American Nightmare' provided many with a clear understanding of what would continue to occur if organized resistance and collective bargaining would not be allowed to push for shorter workdays, safer workplaces, and a minimum wage.
The novel is just one of the era's many which called for alternate political or economic systems and described the particularly un-Horatio Alger-esque life that so many lived. What The Jungle is infamous for is its expose on the meat industry in America. The novel's detailed, graphic, and perhaps most disturbingly, true accounts of the conditions in the meatpacking industry horrified and disgusted all of its readers and single-handedly provoked the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
At the turn of the century, the meat industry was run as a mass-production operation staffed by unskilled immigrants; whom, like the quality of the final product, the executives cared little for. Sinclair's examples of men losing digits, limbs, and their lives, not only on the job, but in the job horrified readers. The characters in the book who employed children and simply bleached and re-ground rotten meat largely paralleled their real-life counterparts, who shared the same negligence and greed in the operation of meatpacking plants in cities like Chicago and New York.
The massive public response to the book was not entirely expected by Sinclair. Even though on a literary level the book is sub-par at places, on a political and social level the book had massive repercussions. The last four chapters insisting on a socialist route was largely ignored over the buzz of controversy about the meatpacking expose - the distinguishing feature of what would've otherwise been a literarily unexceptional book, sure to be forgotten.