2 Works on Early 20th Century Chicago

This study will examine and compare two works, one fictional and the other historical, on early 20th century Chicago when it was heavily populated with immigrant workers and thoroughly dominated by the meatpacking industry. The two books are Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Robert A. Slayton's Back of the Yards: The Making of a Local Democracy. The study will primarily argue that most of the major differences between the two works are the result of the clashing perspectives and motivations of the two authors.

The approach of the historian Slayton differs significantly from the approach of the novelist Sinclair. Slayton, with his reliance on oral history, aims to paint (or to let the people themselves paint), as accurately as possible, a comprehensive picture of the social, economic and political realities of the immigrant life in Chicago in the early 20th century. He claims to have no political, social or economic doctrine or program to promote, and wants instead to be objective as possible and to give credit where credit is due. Slayton finds, for example, that democracy is a durable commodity even in an oppressive environment, and that the immigrant community is capable of generating ways to organize and express its power in dealing with that oppressive environment. However, it might be argued that Slayton has a bias in favor of the "American Dream" and therefore finds "the making of a local democracy" where little more than mere survival is taking place. Perhaps such a b

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s so unfair---some had so much the advantage! Here he was, for instance, vowing upon his knees that he would save Ona from harm, and only a week later she was suffering atrociously, and from the blow of an enemy that he could not possibly have thwarted (Sinclair 74). The reader does not have to read James Barrett's Introduction to Sinclair's book to know that Sinclair has a political agenda, or to know that the author's use of the novel aims at painting a picture of the helpless worker stomped under the bootheel of the ruthless capitalist. The novel allows such extravagant emphasis, and Sinclair takes full advantage of it for his own purposes. Slayton, on the other hand, uses the historical approach, and specifically the methods of oral history. By letting the subjects speak for themselves, Slayton's work carries greater authenticity, as well as greater variety. His conclusions, though biased perhaps in favor of the American system, are at least based on the evidence presented by the immigrants themselves, as opposed to the subjects of Sinclair's novel who have their words and actions imposed on them by the author. Whether one "prefers" the novelistic or historical approach depends on whether one wants to be touched emotionally

Category: Literature - 2