Allegory And Symbolism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle

The success or failure of an author is usually determined by their ability to connect to their audience. One prominent author during the late 19th and early 20th century was Upton Sinclair who wrote on of the most successful books of it's time; The Jungle. It is placed in Chicago during the late 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. The story follows Jurgis Rudkus and his family who are Lithuanian immigrants who come to America to work in Chicago. There they face enormous difficulties: harsh and dangerous working conditions, poverty and starvation, unjust businessmen who take their money, and corrupt politicians who create laws that allow all of this to happen. In The Jungle, Sinclair uses his characters, plot and literary

Sinclair successfully uses metaphors and symbolism to give the reader an image in their mind. One instance is during the winter when the family is struggling to survive and maintain their jobs at the same time. Because they could not afford a heater, Jurgis and his family would huddle on the bed but still “the cold which came upon them was a living thing, a demon-presence in the room...They could feel the cold as it crept in through the cracks, reaching out for them with its icy, death-dealing fingers, and they would crouch and cower and try to hide from it, all in vain” (102). By depicting the winter as creeping in through the cracks of the house, Sinclair conveys the cold as an unavoidable being. Each of the metaphoric description of Jurgis and Ona’s winter nights portray the cold weather as an entity, rather than a simple phenomenon within nature. The metaphors allow Sinclair to more dramatically describe the damaging causes of poverty that literally

Although their are originally 12 main characters in the book, many of them die and Sinclair doesn't take the time to talk about other characters besides Jurgis. This doesn't allow a reader to bond with the characters in the book and really care about them. This indifference causes the reader to dismiss the main goal of the book because they weren't able to care about anyone and the terrible things that happened to them in it. Later in the book after Jurgis has lost his job due to injury and Ona has not been coming home or coming home late. Jurgis investigates and finds out that her boss Connor has been threatening and raping her. Jurgis then storms over to his office and attacks him. “In a flash he had bent down and sunk his teeth into the other man's cheek; and when they tore him away he was dripping with blood ,and little ribbons or skin we hanging out of his mouth” (159). After Jurgis loses his temper he attacks Connor; a very important businessman, and goes to jail. In jail he is unable to support his family and the younger members of his family soon perish. Overcome with grief after hearing this, Jurgis sets himself hard into his work. But when he sees Connor again he goes into a maniacal rage, taking his other cheek and going back to jail. He is so ashamed that after he gets out, he doesn't go back to his family, and even more