Why did Upton Sinclair choose to write his book in a fictional format?
First of all, it is important to remember that Sinclair meant for his work to be a socialist tract that would convert the reader to being a socialist. He sought to do this by exposing the evils of capitalism. By showing the breakdown of a family, he felt that he could show the evils of capitalism, and then introduce the “saving doctrine” of Socialism. By choosing a fictional family, he could make anything and everything go wrong for them. In reality, one must admit that the likelihood that every one of the obstacles that the Rudkus family faced was faced by one true family is very slim. Sinclair could make them as victimized as he wanted if he was not relaying the tale of one family. Also: it should be noted that hundreds of tracts about how good socialism was had already been published. By making it fiction, it was easier reading, he could attract a larger audience, and portray the stark differences between capitalism and socialism that any average Joe could see.
