The Jungle Critical Analysis
Camila Casanova
U.S. History 1302: S67
Mr. Isaac G. Pietrzak
February 9, 2018
Critical Review: The Jungle
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.
During the time period of the 1900’s, the meat packaging industry in Chicago, as Sinclair mentions in his novel, The Jungle, was a very unsanitary and extremely dangerous workplace that lacked much more than just a few safety precautions. Simple things, such as enforcing hand washing or workers’ rights were unheard of in the working environment. It is clear that Upton Sinclair was trying to expose the worker’s horrendous labor conditions in order to improve their situation, along with the introduction of socialism. Upton Sinclair, in his novel, talks about how a Lithuanian immigrant by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, travel to Chicago trying to make ends meet. However, they soon realize Chicago was not the place for that. They take you on a journey full of dream-crushing brutality and deception of what seems to be the ideal place to work and built a life. They settle near the stockyards and meatpacking district, where Jurgis finds his first job at Brown’s slaughterhouse. Jurgis, thinking the U.S. offered more freedom, finds that the working conditions there are very
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One of his novels, Dragon’s Teeth, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943, but his best-known novel was The Jungle. Upton’s novels, plays, pamphlets, and articles are all reflected on social themes, due to the fact that his main concentration was on social change. Growing up in a family of different backgrounds both economically and morally, he experienced situations that helped him grow as a person and develop his social ideas and themes for his literature, something which made him the trustworthy and likeable author he is remembered as
The Immigrant Family In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
1442 Words | 6 PagesUpton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” tells the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his immigrant family. In his homeland of Lithuania, Jurgis meets his love, Ona. However, he is denied marriage to her Sometime later, Jurgis tries again to seek her hand, but fins out Ona’s father has died and her family is in debt. Along with his father, Antanas, and Ona’s family: Teta Elzbieta, Marija, Jonas, and six children, Jurgis moves to America to start a new life. They arrive in New York, and soon travel to Chicago.
Upton Sinclair The Jungle Propaganda
348 Words | 2 PagesWhen Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle, a book about the terrible environment of the meat-packing factories in Chicago, he hoped to motivate reform in immigrant working conditions and promote socialism. Instead, what shocked readers the most was the sordid surroundings in which their future meals were prepared. Sinclair 's audience saw these conditions as a threat to themselves, and that energized reform in the meat-packing industry. What scared audiences the most was how real this threat was to their lives. As can be witnessed in the results of Sinclair 's crusade, the most effective propaganda is that which rouses the visceral survival instinct.
Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
1463 Words | 6 PagesThe injured immigrants in the factories slowly start to die off including some of jurgis' family members. Those who did not die physically begin to die emotionally. Jurgis begins to see the American dream as nothing but a façade. Jurgis and Ona's family all have to start working just to get by. The dream is lost and desperation has set in.
Jurgis Rudkus In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
710 Words | 3 PagesJurgis gains a new perspective of everything around him and everything that has happened. The main character Jurgis Rudkus is an immigrant coming to America. He searches for a job to provide money for his wife and parents. In the article Schema Criticism by Mark Bracher, he emphasizes that, “Jurgis is the prototypical image of autonomy. He is powerful, exuberant, striking figure who towers above the other workers” (32).
Jurgis Rudkus Character Analysis
680 Words | 3 PagesAnalyzation of Jurgis Rudkus Indeed, characterization in literature is a crucial matter, bringing even more depth and purpose. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair discusses the corruption of the meat-packing industry, specifically focusing on a man with a Lithuanian family. The book discusses the life of Jurgis Rudkus, during which he completely evolves as a man. With characterization Sinclair brought this book to life, and began a revolution in the meat-packing industry.
Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
558 Words | 3 PagesThe Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published in 1906 in New York. In this heart-wrenching novel by Upton Sinclair, a Lithuanian hard-working man, Jurgis Rudkus, goes through various hardships after he emigrated to the United States. The Jungle confronts real issues in the new United States with a unique approach of the cycle of despair from capitalism, and the harm of the grotesque sanitary conditions of the meat-packing industry. In Chapters 18-19, Jurgis Rudkus gets released from jail after serving 30 days for the assault of Ona’s boss, Phil Connor. Connor sexually assaulted and harassed Ona.
Upton Sinclair's Accomplishments
1548 Words | 7 PagesThey begin dancing at their wedding feast which is situated in Packingtown, which is Chicago’s meatpacking district. Reading the novel there are clear indications that things are not all good between this couple. In fact, after arriving in the United States they come to the realization that the streets are not paved with gold literally. They make the decision to seek employment in Chicago’s busy industrial yards, where many cattle are being slaughtered on a daily basis and put into cans and packaged. The family’s living conditions are not great, so they begin looking for a new place to live which is way beyond their current
Rhetorical Analysis Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
159 Words | 1 Pages“With one member trimming beef in a cannery, and another working in a sausage factory, the family had a first-hand knowledge of the great Packingtown swindles” (par.1). This statement from Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, introduces trust from a family because of their own personal knowledge . The Jungle, features an immigrant family trying to survive in 1900’s Chicago meat packing district. In the story, Sinclair’s goal is to expose the miserable life of immigrants who work in factories.
Working Conditions In The Jungle
634 Words | 3 PagesDuring the 1900’s working conditions were undeniably horrible. In Packingtown everyday got more difficult as the days went on. In the meat packing business things were supposed to be done quick. Inside the factories packing, chopping, inspecting and people actions didn’t mix. Not only did the people in the factories suffered, the people outside of the factory also suffered.
Examples Of Struggles In The Jungle
2149 Words | 9 PagesA Time for Struggle and Change Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, depicts the struggles of Lithuanian immigrants as they worked and lived in Chicago’s Packingtown at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The United States experienced an enormous social and political transformation; furthermore, the economy, factories, and transportation industry grew faster than anyone had ever seen. Immigrants and migrants were attracted to city life for its promise of employment and their chance at the American Dream. The poor working class had little to no rights, and they grappled with unfair business practices, unsafe working conditions, racism, Social Darwinism, class segregation, xenophobia, political corruption, strikes, starvation, poor housing,
The Economic Tension In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
1899 Words | 8 PagesUpton Sinclair portrays the economic tension in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his novel “The Jungle”. He used the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, to show the harsh situation that immigrants had to face in the United States, the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions in the meatpacking plants, as well as the tension between the capitalism and socialism in the United States during the early 1900s. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were massive immigrants move into the United States, and most of them were from Europe. The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, like many other immigrants, have the “America Dream” which they believe America is heaven to them, where they can
What Are The Risks Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
2031 Words | 9 PagesThose writers and journalists were called “Muckrakers”, Upton Sinclair was one of them. In order to stay on his position and support the muckrakers, he chose to tell the truth to American public instead of keeping silence. Then, “The Jungle” became his weapon to oppose the trusts and some corrupt officials. Although the content is dangerous and risky, it’s also effective and worth. People responded dramatically to this book, the risk has valuation for Upton Sinclair to take and hook the
The Harsh Reality In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
1013 Words | 5 PagesThe poor working conditions are traumatic for Jurgis, his family, and many others just like them. Throughout the novel, Sinclair describes the working conditions in Packingtown. Going to work every day with such terrible conditions changed Jurgis and his family, and wore them down. It is not only an emotional
How Upton Sinclair Changed American
1476 Words | 6 PagesInnocent Belief Famously known for his novel, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair changed American life in the early 1900s without a doubt through his literature. However, many don’t realize that Sinclair reformed American life in more than one instance, through more than one book. At times, he even reached beyond his realm of literature to discuss other needed adjustments. Besides the serendipitous changes he created for the meat packaging industry, Sinclair’s other actions throughout his life are, subjectively, important to American history, according to Anthony Arthur. In his biography, Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Arthur reveals his bias towards Sinclair, while supplying a relevant nature to his writing across an in-depth review of Sinclair’s
Meatpacking Workers In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
1060 Words | 5 PagesRevealing the harsh treatment of meatpacking workers and showing the reality of the disgusting conditions found in butchery shops to the public, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle became an enduring classic by American readers throughout the early twentieth century the prompted the later creation of the Federal Drug Administration. In the early 1900s, America was explosively transitioning from an agricultural society to a thriving manufacturing-based nation. As production demand in factories grew throughout the country, the work force needed to run those factories also expanded. A new type of demanding and dangerous work became prevalent throughout the nation, as immigrants coming into the “Land of Opportunity” found themselves desperate
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