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Sihyun Kim
Dr. J. Elizabeth Clark
English 101.2651
29 October 2005
Sinclair’s and Spurlock’s Critiques of Capitalism
In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, life in America is
portrayed as one that is deeply rooted in social problems. It is portrayed as an economic
Darwinian struggle for survival where the big businesses of America, in the form of the
meatpacking industry in The Jungle and McDonald’s in Super Size Me, cunningly exploit the
vulnerability of those at the bottom of the struggle (those with least economic means to survive).
Nevertheless, Sinclair and Spurlock offer radically different solutions to counter these social
problems that have been brought about by the incredibly unbalanced relationship. Sinclair,
seeing that no hope for ending the capitalist exploitation of the working-class exists, suggests a
total abandonment of the economic system for a new one. Spurlock, on the other hand, places
some of the blame of social degradation (the increasing rate of obesity in America) on the
consumers themselves, and, therefore, suggests ways through which the average consumer can
learn to adjust to the existing economic system.
In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair uses Jurgis and his family in his portrayal of the typical
men and women who have immigrated to the U.S. in search of a better way of life. Lured by the
ideals of the American Dream, Jurgis and his family have traveled thousands of miles to come to
the U.S.. They wish to participate in a system where all men, no matter how poor they may
initially be, can achieve economic success. When Jurgis and his family first settle in a boarding
house owned by Mrs. Jukniene, the first thing Jurgis says to her is, "[T]o-morrow I will get a job,
and perhaps Jonas will get one also; and then we can get a place of our own," (31). The fact that
Jurgis talks about the acquisition of jobs in such a matter-of-fact voice shows just how unfamiliar
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he is with the true nature of the American Dream. Jobs, as Jurgis will learn much later on in the
novel, are extremely hard to attain and (upon acquisition) maintain. It is Jurgis's faith in the
American Dream that places him in such a disadvantage in America. He, like many other
immigrant men and women who have come to the U.S., has little sense of rationality, and,
therefore, is gravely unprepared to defend himself against those who seek to prey upon such
naïveté.
Indeed, it is because of Jurgis’s irrational faith in the American Dream that the big
businesses of Packingtown find him easy prey. When Jurgis gets a job on his first day out in the
Stockyards, he and his family immediately consider buying a house. During his search for a
home, Jurgis is lured by an advertisement featuring a "house, brilliantly painted, new, and
dazzling. The roof of it was of a purple hue, and trimmed with gold; the house itself was silvery,
and the doors and windows red," (49). The house is a total embodiment of every man's dream. It
is portrayed as a palace brimming with the latest amenities. Yet, Jurgis does realize that buying
such a house is far beyond the capabilities of the average working-class men and women. On the
contrary, Jurgis feels that everybody is entitled to such a house. "Jurgis was at a loss to
understand why, with wages as they were, so many of the people of this district should live the
way they did," (50). Jurgis does not yet realize that it was mere luck that helped him attain a job
at his first try. His irrational faith in the American Dream blinds him from the fact that
employment is extremely insecure in Packingtown. Jurgis, unfortunately, does not understand
that his rash decision to buy a house will bind his entire family to a contract that can ultimately
trap them in an inundation of payments and debts. It is because of this naïveté that big
businessmen like the real estate agent can mercilessly exploit Jurgis for their own benefit.
The predicaments in which Jurgis and his family repeatedly find themselves are not
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isolated ones. In fact, according to Sinclair, the subjugation of these hard-working immigrant
men and women is a natural part of American life. When Jurgis takes his first tour of
Packingtown, he witnesses firsthand how the livestock are slaughtered:
It was pork-making by machinery, pork-making by applied mathematics. And yet
somehow the most matter-of-fact person could not help thinking of the hogs; they
were so innocent, they came so very trustingly… They had done nothing to deserve
it… Each one of these hogs was a separate creature. Some were white hogs, some
were black; some were brown, some were spotted; some were old, some were young,
some were long and lean, some were monstrous. And each of them had an individuality
of his own, a will of his own, a hope and a heart's desire; each was full of self-confidence,
of self-importance, and a sense of dignity, (39-40).
Sinclair is making a clear connection between the lives of pigs and the lives of men. The pigs
come trustingly into the slaughterhouses, where they learn—when it is too late—that they will be
killed for human consumption. Likewise, the immigrant men and women are lured into the
United States by the promise of the American Dream. They are unknowingly placed in the hands
of the corrupt businessmen who take complete advantage of them until every drop of vitality
leaves them. When Jurgis, a representative of these men and women, tries desperately to find
another job after spending months in bed due to his ankle injury, Sinclair observes that "he
[Jurgis] was no longer the finest-looking man in the throng, and the bosses no longer made for
him; he was thin and haggard, and his clothes were seedy, and he looked miserable. And there
were hundreds who looked and felt just like him," (135). Jurgis was manipulated by the meant-
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packing industry and was ultimately thrown out when his youthful energy left him. Now he is
just like the many hopeless men and women who have nothing to do but observe newer and
younger people replacing them at their workplace, and, consequently, repeating the destructive
cycle of corporate predation. In other words, Jurgis is not the only one to be exploited by the big
businesses of America. This social problem affects people on a massive scale.
Like Sinclair, Morgan Spurlock, in his movie Super Size Me, also portrays life in
America as one that is filled with social problems. Spurlock depicts the people at the bottom of
the economic struggle, this time in the form of McDonald’s consumers, as beings who are ill
prepared to defend themselves from those who seek to exploit them for their own benefit. The
source of their disadvantage, according to Spurlock, is their lack of basic education. In fact,
Spurlock argues that the problem has become so severe that the federal government is actively
intervening in school affairs. For instance, President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” Act would
hold states accountable for having students who have not met minimal education requirements.
To personally witness how serious the lack of education is in America, Spurlock visited a 9th
grade health class in Beckley, West Virginia, to ask the students, “Who can tell me what a
calorie is?” As he expected, nobody was able to provide an acceptable answer. In fact, one
student, unable to respond, asked Spurlock, “Is it the fat that goes through… your… umm…?”
Shockingly, young Americans are increasingly leaving school without having successfully
completed basic high school education. It is almost tragic to see these teenagers unable to answer
a basic question like that of “What is a calorie?” It is this growing ignorance among Americans
that places them at such a disadvantage as consumers in the economic world. Like the immigrant
men and women in The Jungle who ardently embrace naïve idealisms, the average consumers in
Super Size Me are quite unprepared to defend themselves against those who seek to prey upon
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such lack of education.
It is because of the consumers’ lack of basic education that the food industries find them
easy to exploit. When Spurlock visited a McDonald’s in Texas, the cashier asked him if he
wishes to buy the super-size value meal. Spurlock, after having accepted the offer, asked, “Say
you ask five people. How many of these five do it?” In response, the cashier stated, “I guess I’ll
get about all of them.” At a first glance, the offer made by the cashier seems quite innocuous. For
less than a dollar, the consumers have the option of doubling the portions of their French fries
and soda. However, a McDonald’s Super-Size order of French fries has 630 calories and 29
grams of fat (the standard medium-size order has 350 calories and 16 grams of fat),1 while a
Super-Size order of soda has roughly 410 calories (medium-size order of soda has about 210
calories).2 In other words, these consumers unknowingly add 480 calories to their diet every time
they agree to Super-Size their value meal. Because the consumers lack basic education
(specifically that of health and nutrition), they fail to realize the dangers that their poor dietary
choices have on their physical health. It is this lack of basic education and the resulting readiness
to consume whatever is available that makes the consumers so vulnerable to the vicious tactics of
the food industries.
Indeed, the food industries are quite merciless in their corporate predation of their
consumers. According to Marion Nestle, the chair of Nutrition and Food Studies in NYU whom
Spurlock has interviewed, “Think about the ways that food is marketed: T-shirts, coupons, toys
for children, give-aways at fast food places, place mats. I mean, think about all of the different
ways in which food marketing is ubiquitous. The most heavily advertised foods are consumed
the most.” Food advertisements have become so ubiquitous that they have essentially become
part of our culture. Nowhere is the food companies’ infiltration of everyday American culture
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more obvious than it is in children. When Spurlock visited a class of 1st grade students at
Worcester, Massachusetts, he showed kids series of pictures of famous figures. Most kids did not
recognize George Washington nor Jesus Christ. Yet, every one of them recognized Ronald
McDonald. McDonald’s has become such an integral part of American mainstream life that by
the time kids are in grade school, most of them are thoroughly familiar with McDonald’s. By
showing how the children, the building blocks of any human society, are fully conditioned by the
food industries’ aggressive promotions of their products, Spurlock makes the grave observation
that the social problem of eating unhealthy food is affecting the American public in a massive
scale. By making fast foods a fundamental aspect of American society, the food industries make
profits at the expense of their consumers’ health—most will not think twice before consuming a
Super-Size big Mac value meal with a large vanilla shake.
Despite having observed these rampant social problems in American society, neither
Sinclair nor Spurlock discount salvation for the immigrant men and women in The Jungle and
the consumers of McDonald’s in Super Size Me as a distinct possibility. Both men offer possible
ways to help counter the social problems plaguing life in America. However, their solutions are
radically different from each other. Sinclair, for example, views that the salvation cannot be
delivered under the existing economic system. According to Sinclair, life in America has
degraded tremendously to the point that even the legal system is plagued with corruption. When
Jurgis is brought to trial after having assaulted Mr. Connors, the man who has sexually assaulted
his wife Ona, Justice Patrick Callahan makes no effort to hear his testimony. In fact, Callahan
states, "Yes, I know… I hear it often enough. The fellow seems to have handled you pretty
roughly. Thirty days and cost. Next case," (185). Callahan's sheer indifference towards the case
illustrates the grim nature of the legal system in America. The law is just as corrupt as the big
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businessmen who prey upon the immigrant men and women. Its officials, bribed by those with
money and power, turn their back away from the problems that are destroying the lives of the
working-class. Because the only system that can bring justice to the corruption in Packingtown is
corrupt as well, no reform can possibly bring salvation to the hardworking immigrant men and
women as long as the current economic system continues to exist. The solution to America’s
social problems, therefore, cannot be sought within the existing social order; it must be sought
outside of it.
As a result, Sinclair proposes that capitalism should be abandoned altogether in favor for
a new world order—socialism. When Jurgis walks into a political meeting after having spent the
entire day searching for a job in vain, he encounters a Socialist speaker who makes the following
speech:
…My words will come like a sudden flash of lightning to one who travels in darkness—
revealing the way before him, the perils and the obstacles—solving all problems, making
all difficulties clear!… Workingmen… open your eyes and look about you!… There are a
thousand—ten thousand, maybe—who… do nothing to earn what they receive… Their
life is a contest among themselves for supremacy in ostentation and recklessness, [and] in
the wasting of the labor and the lives of their fellow-creatures… And you, workingmen,
workingmen!… Is there a man here… so hardened and debased that he dare rise up
before me and say that he believes it can continue forever; that the product of the labor of
society… will always belong to idlers and parasites…? …[A] dream of resistance haunts
[you], hope battling with fear; until suddenly [you] stir, and a fetter snaps—and a thrill
shoots through [you]… and in a flash the dream becomes an act! You start, [you] lift
[yourself]; and the bands are shattered, the burdens roll off… (333-337)
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The socialist speaker makes an argument that socialism is the solution to all the social problems
brought about by capitalism. He zealously argues that the vicious corporate predation made
possible under the existing capitalist system can finally be brought to its end by socialism. In
addition, the speaker passionately pleads for his audience to abandon their fears and join his
crusade against the corrupt capitalists. Apparently, Sinclair himself has been greatly affected by
these words as well. The last few chapters of The Jungle abandon the narrative altogether to
serve as pure propaganda in favor for socialism. When Jurgis converts to socialism, he
immediately becomes one of its most devoted proponents. “So Jurgis acquired the reading habit.
He would carry in his pocket a tract or a pamphlet which some one had loaned him, and
whenever he had an idle moment during the day he would plod through a paragraph, and then
think about it while he worked,” (357-358). After having devoted great time and energy to
develop his character, Sinclair completely abandons Jurgis by the end of the novel. Upon the
introduction of socialism, Jurgis and his long history of tragedies seem to be forgotten. He is no
longer the hardworking Lithuanian immigrant who lovingly toiled over his family. Jurgis is now
a mere tool through which Sinclair advocates for socialism and its ideals. In other words,
Sinclair’s beliefs that socialism is the solution to every problem plaguing life in America are so
strong that he has ultimately invested the first twenty-seven chapters of his novel not to discuss
the tragic life of Jurgis and his family, but to establish a firm platform for his main argument for
socialism.
In sharp contrast to Sinclair, Spurlock believes that the solution to the problems wrecking
American economic life is not to eliminate them, but to adapt to them. In the opening of Super
Size Me, Spurlock makes the statement, “Where do the corporate responsibilities end and our
personal responsibilities begin?” The truth is, while the food corporations do an excellent job
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making their products available, the consumers themselves are the ones who have ultimate
control over the foods they eat. Unlike the working-class immigrant men and women in The
Jungle, the consumers in Super Size Me share a bulk of the responsibility for the increasing rate
of obesity in American society.
Therefore, because the consumers bear some of the responsibility for the degradation of
American society, Spurlock does not advocate for the abandonment of the existing economic
system. Because the consumers themselves have helped create the problem, they can also help
reverse it. All it takes, Spurlock argues, is initiatives. When Spurlock visited public schools
throughout the United States, he found, as he expected, a total lack of reforms in food education.
In fact, most schools provided their students fast foods during lunch break, and made snack
vending machines readily available throughout the hallways. Nevertheless, some public schools,
like Appleton Central Alternative High School, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, deviated from this
norm. The school’s kitchen personnel actively served the students cooked foods abundant with
nutrients. The students were quite receptive to the change in their diet, and, consequently, the
dean of school immediately observed dramatic improvements in the students’ ability to focus and
contribute constructively during class. If Appleton Central, a school that is infamous for its
troubled students, can help its students with truancy and behavioral problems change their eating
habits, for what reasons are the consumers of fast foods unable to change their diet into that of
healthier foods? The truth is that many healthy alternatives exist that are just as cheap as fast
foods are, and, therefore, there is reason for the consumers to find themselves forced to consume
fast foods on a regular basis. To control America’s increasing rate in obesity, Spurlock asserts
that the consumers must assume responsibility for their own health. Only through proper health
education can the consumers be aware of all the options available for consumption. It is through
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education alone that the consumers can learn to adapt to the predatory tactics of the food
industry.
Life in America is grimly portrayed by both Sinclair and Spurlock as a dog-eat-dog world
where those with money and power viciously subjugate those with little means for a secure
livelihood. The people at the top of this economic Darwinian struggle for survival, in the form of
big businesses and corporations, are portrayed by both men as corrupt individuals who exploit
those less fortunate through unfair tactics. Nevertheless, this injustice is portrayed by neither
Sinclair nor Spurlock as irrevocable. Both men offer possible solutions to counter the seemingly
rampant social problems troubling the lives of many in America. Yet, because their methods are
so radically different, we, as the readers, are left with a very hard decision to make. Do we adjust
to this menacing world brought about by these businessmen, or do we overturn it? These are the
many questions that we, as critical readers, must address.
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Work Cited
Iannelli, Vincent. “Portion Sizes and the Obesity Epidemic.” [http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/obes
ity/a/portion_sizes.htm]. 2004.
McDonald’s. “McDonald's USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Menu Items.” [http://www.McDon
alds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html], October 2005.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: The Modern Library, 2002.
Spurlock, Morgan. Super Size Me. Produced by Hart Sharp Video Llc. 96 min. 2004. DVD.
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Endnotes
Vincent Iannelli, “Portion Sizes and the Obesity Epidemic,” 2004
<http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/obes ity/a/portion_sizes.htm>
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McDonald’s, “McDonald's USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Menu Items,” October 2005
<http://www.McDonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html>
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