The Mining Industry In Upton Sinclair's King Coal

As a book told in the fiction context, King Coal by Upton Sinclair describes the gruesome, harsh reality of working in the coal industry in the 1910 from mining issues such as the hopes of getting a job in the industry of coal in the western states of the United States, the harsh mining conditions, and miners being taken advantage of by their bosses. The book discusses two mining in general locations where all the stories are told by Sinclair himself: Rocky Mountain and Pedro (6). The author 's purpose in writing the book is to expose the truths of the mining industry in terms of a narrative to engage and capture the audience 's attention and emotions to truly fathom the time back then and what it means to survive by the means of living on the edge of nothing. …show more content…
The book opens up with the struggles of Hal attempting to get a job and the way he must lie to present himself as suitable for the job of a miner. This is described as Hal learned from a native hobo in Pedro to get a job: "Hal named several mines, concerning which he had learned something from the hoboes. He was going by the name of "Joe Smith," which he judged likely to be found on the payroll of any mine. He had more than a week 's growth of beard to disguise him, and had picked up some profanity as well" (Sinclair 11). The fact that Hal needed the help of hobos to get a minimum wage job shows the true condition of how serious the bosses were about hiring and why they are so stingy with their wages. A wage job should be almost open to anyone nowadays, and the fact that Hal must go through the struggle of managing his money on top of owing a hobo for advice is redundant to the fact is near impossible to live decently on the wage the miners are ripped off of by superiority powers. The author 's call to Hal having to change his name and to lie for a job, reveals the true condition that any job is better than no job at that time, regardless of