Book Summary: The Jungle, By Upton Sinclair
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair truly exemplifies the difficulties immigrant’s families run into when pursuing the “American Dream.” The Jungle can be evaluated as a primary source as it uses direct evidence in Chicago in PackingTown district. PackingTown District is known to be Chicago’s biggest meatpacking industry. Written during the Progressive Era it revealed the many dangerous and horrible conditions that are in the meatpacking industry. It uses vivid description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat, which ultimately shocked the public. The things that occurred during the Progressive Era should never be overlooked. These big businesses such as the meatpacking companies, U.S Steel and Oil company all
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They even neglecting the conditions their workers were in. All these big companies cared about was eliminated competition, setting high prices, and treated workers as salves. With the help of workers striking and journalist especially Upton Sinclair book the Jungle was able enact new federal food safety laws. The Jungle shows how immigrants are deceived by the image of America of a better life. The book is written from narrator perspective over the lives of Jurgis and his family a rather large family of his wife and himself packed in Chicago desperately trying to survive the harsh condition that they are in. Jurgis and his family are put in the center of this district which began to corrupt each and everyone of them little by little Over and over again Jurgis runs into conflict and could never find rest and assurance of peace. No matter how hard he fights to help his family and himself achieve the American …show more content…
If you have work you have to be there no matter the circumstance. In The Jungle it mentions that after the wedding that “Promptly at seven o'clock this same Monday morning they will every one of them have to be in their places. If one of them be a minute late, he will be docked an hour's pay, and if he be many minutes late, he will be apt to find his brass check turned to the wall, which will send him out to join the hungry mob.” Everyone including Ona who got married could not take a day off for her wedding even without pay. It was almost impossible to find employment for the elderly, Jurgis finds out that its pointless to go look for a job for his old man Dede. It was also hard for Marija to get a job because she was a woman ‘she had marched about Packingtown all day, entering every door where there were signs of activity. Out of some she had been ordered with curses; but Marija was not afraid of man or devil, and asked every one she saw—visitors and strangers, or work-people” Unlike others Marija determination was able to land her a job of painting food cans, not many are this lucky. One the worst thing that could happen to an individual seeking employment is getting blacklisted. Jurgis got denied over and over just because he was blacklisted for accepting a union offer cause of the unfair
Uptown Sinclair's The Jungle
1445 Words | 6 PagesUptown Sinclair’s book The Jungle was originally written to expose the working conditions within the meat packing industry. Sinclair shocked millions as he bore what it was really like behind the scenes. Employees worked with contaminated and rotting meat, which was not a health violation at the time. This eventually led to new food and federal safety laws. Most of the labor force was an immigrant, who moved to the United States with hopes of the “American Dream.”
The Meat Industry In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle During The Progressive Era
1021 Words | 5 PagesUpton Sinclair’s The Jungle was a novel popularized and published during the Progressive Era with the purpose of exposing the horrific working conditions of the Chicago meat industry. Sinclair exposed the unsanitary practices of the meat industry and the dehumanization of the workers. The harsh realities written in Sinclair’s novel reached the hearts of many Americans furthering the push of many progressive activist’s demands. In the end this created an everlasting lawful change with the help of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Industrialization Age
914 Words | 4 PagesMatthew DeBacker Mr. Shinabarger AS American History 19 October 2015 Corruption in The Jungle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, was a very impactful book during the industrialization age and still impacts people today. It is considered one of the most important books in the Industrialization Age in America. Upton Sinclair was a muckraker and wanted to draw attention the the terrible things that went on in the meatpacking industry. So he highlighted several key themes such as poverty, capitalism, and immigration during that time period
Social Reform In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
1097 Words | 5 PagesThe Jungle, speaks of a fictional family who have immigrated to Chicago, the protagonist later ends up working in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair speaks of the way meats are packed and processed, large companies corrupt ideologies, along with the dire conditions that their workers undergo daily. He wrote of the sickening events, depicting them in detail “men fell into the vats; and when
The Meatpacking Industry In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
976 Words | 4 PagesThe Jungle is a novel that is famous for its depiction of the inhumane conditions in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair’s use of graphic descriptions of the working and living conditions of the workers in the industry, particularly the immigrants, was a significant factor in the book’s popularity. For example, Sinclair wrote, “They worked
Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
1741 Words | 7 PagesUpton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to portray the lives of wage workers in industrialized areas of the United States. His goal in publishing this story was to promote the Socialist movement, but many readers were most concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary production practices in the meatpacking industry. The novel depicts working class poverty, – or “wage slavery” – the absence of social programs, harsh and unpleasant living and working conditions, and the hopelessness that wage workers experienced. He compares these components with the presence of deeply rooted corruption in people with power. During the Gilded Age, corruption was the biggest obstacle preventing workers from achieving prosperity, as well as the most
Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
149 Words | 1 PagesThe book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a good nonfictional read for those who don’t know much about immigration and discrimination. Sinclair uses the characters Jurgis and Ona that move to a the center of Chicago 's meat packing industry to demonstrate the cruel treatment that was given to immigrants from American’s. The theme of The Jungle is to show the evil of capitalism in the world at that time. Jurgis’s family was treated unfairly under the law for being immigrants. Sinclair tries to portray all the ugly sides to capitalism in this book by showing how it is effecting Jurgis’s family.
Analysis Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
782 Words | 4 PagesSinclair contrasts Lithuania, where the characters were healthier and happier to where they are now, downtrodden and desperate in the slums of Chicago. The setting that Sinclair chose was vital in creating that massive uproar in society. The Jungle served to show the ills of Gilded Age capitalism, in the early 1900’s, and also showed how bad living conditions were for the poor people who worked in these industries were. Most of the novel is set in the early 1900’s Chicago district called “Packingtown” where a lot of the United States’ meat packing industry was located, as well as the people who worked in the industry.
Working Conditions In The Jungle
634 Words | 3 PagesThe Bosses squeezed and drained the life of those men. In the book The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair he described the life of a struggling family try to work and stay alive in the filth. The working conditions in the factories were unsafe, unsanitary and people made little. The purpose of this book was for people to become socialist other than capitalist.
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
Socialism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
778 Words | 4 PagesIn Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Jurgis and his family attempt to survive in a malicious society. In this jungle of a town, rotten meat is being packaged in order to save money. Throughout the novel, the immigrants are faced with greedy capitalists who take advantage of the family’s ignorance and naivety in order to make money. The symbols of corruption, a jungle-like setting, and the tension between family and a work-based lifestyle transparently contribute to the unifying theme of anti-capitalism. In other words, this book is not art; this book is propaganda.
The Jungle: The Corruption Of American Meatpacking Industry
216 Words | 1 PagesThe Jungle was written by Upton Sinclair and published in 1906. I chose this book because it’s been mentioned in multiple History classes I’ve taken. I took it upon interest mainly because it is about the brutal and unfair treatment of immigrants in labor and because it exposed the meat industry. (it exposed both). Sinclair strives to expose the danger in capitalism by vividly describing and exposing the ranging and brutal treatment of immigrant laborers who searched to live the American dream but found misfortune instead.
Meatpacking Workers In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
1060 Words | 5 PagesThus, Sinclair’s purpose of writing The Jungle failed to bring readers to advocate for the rights of workers trapped in the low wages, unsafe working conditions, and long hours of meatpacking factories, but rather, succeeded in opening the country’s eyes to the meatpacking practices that went on behind closed doors and the establishment administrations to protect the public from these unscrupulous
Review Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
1370 Words | 6 PagesJurgis started off firmly believing on his American dream of having a better life where he would work hard and earn lots of money. He took up work in a meatpacking plant where he had to sweep blood and body parts of slaughtered cattle. The job was unsafe and the conditions were bitter but he continued working a he was happy to get a job so fast. In the packinghouses the condition were deplorable, every part of the animal was used to make profit. Even spoiled meat was marked as good and sold out to public.
Life Of Immigrants In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
424 Words | 2 PagesHe became completely disconnected with his family and was even involved in some criminal activity. At the ending of the novel, Jurgis becomes revived after entering into a socialist party. The party believed that factories and companies should belong to the people that actually
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