The American Dream and the Issues of Class in Upton Sinclair´s The Jungle

Abstract

This master thesis is concerned with the analysis of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906) with respect to the interpretation of its themes according to the tenets of Marxist literary criticism. The theoretical part of this thesis is dedicated to the description of the developments of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era and their influence on American society of the early 20th century. Furthermore, it describes the context of the novel's publication and introduces the concepts of Marxist analysis with emphasis on establishing the needed research questions for the analytical part of the thesis. The analytical part of this thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the depiction of the American dream as well as to the interpretation of the issues of class.