No one knows exactly the extent of what is fact and what is fiction in The Jungle. Abuse in business and government most certainly existed, for graft was a way of life. In all probability, The Jungle illustrates a world that was not too far removed from the reality of the day; however, the extreme examples of abuse are most likely the result of Sinclair's imagination.
Sinclair needed to include these extreme examples because he had a particular agenda when writing The Jungle. After following the famous meat cutters' strike of 1904, Sinclair wrote an essay challenging the union to do something after it had lost its protest. The editor of Appeal to Reason answered Sinclair's challenge, hiring him to write the exposé. Sinclair visited Chicago and used the real-life situations at the stockyards to discredit the American economic system — capitalism — and to show the working men that the answer to their troubles was socialism. In fact, he dedicated his novel to the working men of America, and many editions of The Jungle still carry that dedication.
