The Jungle - Continued.

The passage quoted below from The Jungle is remarkable for a number of reasons.

It depicts the mood of an era with brutal and unforgiving emphasis. The deplorable moral situation of that day was set forth with unfailing conviction: humanity was festering and stewing and wallowing in its own corruption. One can not possibly convey the point in a stronger manner. We are reminded of the hopelessly chaotic situation where the last remining individual values and common decencies are uprooted by the system as a matter of inevitability. Essentially this passage portrays the moral choas among the lower classes (or working classes) which is an inevitable consequence of the conditions in which the society functions. But more importantly it distingushes that with the moral transgression of the higher classes which is the driving force and indeed the fuel of every other form of moral choas. One realizes then that, in principle, this wild-beast tangle is present even today.

This passage, and indeed this novel, is great for reaching the summit of literary clarity.