There Will Be Blood: How Upton Sinclair's Oil! Inspired the Acclaimed Film

Comparing Joe and Bunny Ross to Daniel Plainview and H.W.

Once "Blood" jumps to 1927, it seems H.W. has been assimilated into the oil industry while seemingly keeping a conscientious attitude. His father sinks into alcoholism and near-madness from unscrupulous business deals and having nowhere else to go to assuage his near-constant desire to topple a competitor. H.W. also gets married and is shown wanting to become independent by breaking away from the partnership he formed with his father in the oil business. The result doesn't come out well. We still assume, though, that H.W. will go on to become an oil businessman with some scruples--despite never really knowing.

Beyond that, it's interesting to see the trajectories of Plainview and Joe Ross. Joe ends up being a bit of a contradiction for emotions as many successful men in history--who seem unscrupulous at the surface--have at least a shred of decency under their thick skins that makes us bestow some sympathy through the prism of a fictional drama. Even with Plainview, we garner some sympathy when we realize that getting on the runaway train of big business seems to be an automatic byway to corruption. Of course, Plainview has no sense of spirituality to counter all that. He admits all of that to the rotten core with one equally-conflicted character who keeps the same first name in both "Oil!" and "Blood"...

Eli Watkins vs. Eli Sunday...

Eli Watkins in "Oil!" turns up periodically in the story--but actually becomes a famous preacher akin to Eli Sunday in "Blood" who becomes a well-known faith healer at his self-created church. Watkins has the twin brother, Paul, just like Eli Sunday does. Nonetheless, Paul Watkins runs away from his Christian family when young and ends up destitute on the streets for years where he encounters Bunny Ross at one point.

Both Eli's are contradictions for what they stand for--with Eli Watkins having a secret affair with a young woman (as he two-facedly preaches against such actions during his widely-heard sermons) and Eli Sunday using people (particularly Plainview in one haunting situation) to get what he wants to get money for his church.

Both characters are possibly the equal of one another (the only character that doesn't change that much from the book)--except Eli Sunday is the one who has a fate that comes out of nowhere at the end of "Blood" when meeting with Plainview. This particular action gives us the haunting notion that those who were already powerful in big business decades ago, who lived for competitiveness and believed they deserved anything, could end up doing a particular action that would crumble their entire world...
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Read the novel "Oil!" first before seeing the darker "Blood" to get an even more sweeping vision of a neglected part of American history...