Sinclair's Pragmatic Theory

                If I understand pragmatism correctly, it is the relationship between the observations of a continued practice which leads to a theory about these observations.  The aforementioned theory can then be reapplied to predict what would be observed if the future conditions continued.  If this is the case, then The Jungle is a very pragmatic piece of literature. 

                Sinclair uses pragmatism to inform his constructed audience and then leads them towards a theory about the conditions of the meatpacking industry and how that theory affects the future.  Throughout the novel are disgusting descriptions of the meatpacking process and of the horrors found within the system.  Jurgis’s family was no exception to these horrors and the way of life that results from them.  However, they (and generally all the other employees) wanted to better their situation, but couldn’t.  Sinclair constantly gives examples of how uplift is desired, but unattainable.  “If you had had the misfortune to be born into that class, you lived and you died in it, and no galley-slave was ever chained to his oar more tightly than you were chained to your place in the machine” (Sinclair, 94).  Statements like this are common in The Jungle and there are a plethora of circumstances that accompany this statement, which is actually part of Sinclair’s pragmatic theory. 

                To create this theory, Sinclair first uses examples throughout the book about how the circumstances were never getting better.  Some of these circumstances include members of the Jurgis family losing their jobs, getting sick, losing their house, etc.  Though they try to achieve uplift, the system absolutely won’t allow for it.  This inability to better one’s situation, no matter how many times one tries, creates a continued practice upon which Sinclair forms his theory. 

                Sinclair leads his audience to his own conclusion and pragmatic theory:  Since circumstances have shown to be (time and time again) unchangeable, they will continue to be unchanged in the future.  Therefore, all circumstances and practices of the present will inevitably be the same in the future.  This is what Sinclair wants to show his audience through a myriad of horrid examples about the meatpacking industry and the way of life surrounding it.  So, Sinclair leads his audience to this conclusion, and we see it clearly by looking at the information presented in The Jungle through a pragmatic lens.