"The Second-Story Man" is a one-act play written by Upton Sinclair that presents a Marxist perspective on the issue of poverty and crime. The play follows the story of Jim Faraday, a young burglar who is caught in the act by the married couple he is robbing. Faraday explains that he has been driven to a life of crime by poverty and tells his...More
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer and political activist who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar.
Many of his novels can be read as historical works. Writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of the industrialized United States from both the working man's and the industrialist's points of view. Novels such as King...More
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer and political activist who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar.
Many of his novels can be read as historical works. Writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of the industrialized United States from both the working man's and the industrialist's points of view. Novels such as King Coal (1917), The Coal War (published posthumously), Oil! (1927), and The Flivver King (1937) describe the working conditions of the coal, oil, and auto industries at the time.
Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party. He was also the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California during the Great Depression, running under the banner of the End Poverty in California campaign, but was defeated in the 1934 elections.
Book Summary
"The Second-Story Man" is a one-act play written by Upton Sinclair that presents a Marxist perspective on the issue of poverty and crime. The play follows the story of Jim Faraday, a young burglar who is caught in the act by the married couple he is robbing. Faraday explains that he has been driven to a life of crime by poverty and tells his story, which revolves around the labor versus capitalist theme that appears in many of Sinclair's other works. While the play has a contrived set-up, it effectively highlights how our system condones some theft and not others, creating a problematic dichotomy in which morality and immorality are defined by legality and illegality respectively.
Upton Sinclair
