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Examples Of Struggles In The Jungle

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A 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, …show more content…

During the Progressive Era, most employers were not concerned with workers rights and focused more on profit than human rights or safety. The poor working class, as well as immigrants who had worked in the United States for a while, became infuriated over the unfair treatment and working conditions of which they suffered. Hugh Rockoff explains, “…industrialization had alienated the workingman…” (Rockoff 747). Workers felt unappreciated and that without rising up against their employers, they would be left starving,homeless, or dead. Workers wanted more money, an eight hour workday, safe working conditions, and protection against wage cutting. A couple of reformers during the Progressive Era were Jane Addams and Jacob Riis. Both worked toward helping the immigrants, women, children, and the poor working class. Jane Addams was a reformer who opened a settlement house to help the less fortunate. Addams describes the settlement in her book, Twenty Years a Hull-House, “A settlement is above all a place for enthusiasms, a spot to which those who have a passion for the equalization of human joys and opportunities are early attracted” (184). Addams pushed for sanitation, safe working conditions, womens rights and suffrage, tenement house regulation, child labor laws, eight hour work days, and fair wages. Jacob Riis was a mukracker and photo journalist who chronicled immigrant life in urban cities (Nguyen 6). Riis started as a police reporter/photographer in New York and used his experience to put together, “How the Other Half Lives.” It was a piece exposing the horrible lives of the immigrant working class; furthermore, the book displayed pictures of people sleeping on floor mattresses, dirty children wondering the alleys, no windows in crowded tenement houses, and kids digging through human waste in the city (Nguyen

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War, Labor, and Capitalism Reflection Upton Sinclair wrote a novel in 1906 titled, “The Jungle”. The book focused on the harsh working conditions of immigrants in the United States. Sinclair wasn’t the only person who focused on and exploited companies with horrendous working conditions - Emma Goldman was a young, outspoken feminist who was jailed many times for her speeches calling out the upper class. One of Goldman’s more famous speeches is titles, “Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty” (1908) (Zinn 270).

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142 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout the Progressive Era the government worked to restrict the power of unregulated big business and provide tariff and banking reforms. I believe one of the central debate initiators was when trusts and monopolies became customary, people were usually forced to accept expensive prices and poorer quality product. Laborers were exploited through the smallest salary and dangerous working circumstances, even though employers wanted to prevent the development of labor unions Muckrakers, who were influential journalists, worked to show unjustness and error in American. In 1902, urban political machines were called out by the muckrakers. Lincoln Steffens began strikes against unethical government relationships with large businesses in

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595 Words | 3 Pages

During the progressive era, business and the economy were booming. Because so much attention was focused on the growth of our economy, people forgot about things that are extremely important. This includes the living and working conditions of the workers, because they are the engine of the country. Also the environment . Because we must respect and take care of the land from which our wealth is derived.

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1117 Words | 5 Pages

Just like the Progressives who took up the idea of providing workers with an eight-hour work day because it was something that appealed to the working class and leaned toward industrialization. The progressive movement took into consideration that the working class deserved a safer working environment and better working

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1899 Words | 8 Pages

Upton 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

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1225 Words | 5 Pages

The 1900s was a time period filled with political corruption, social inequality and injustice, discrimination, poor working and living conditions. The progressive movement resulted in response to these issues. Members and advocates of this movement were usually white (some blacks too), middle-class, Christian, college educated women (and men). They sought to achieve social justice through equality and enhance life in America for everyone. To further the nation’s democratic ideals, they hoped to incorporate reforms based on the expectations of the majority public.

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108 Words | 1 Pages

In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair presents a wide range of corruption involving, blacklisting, political scams, and the mishandling of meat. During the early 20th century, immigrants in America were exposed to many forms of corruption. The Jungle is based in Packingtown, Chicago, a very crowded city. Here, lived an excess amount of very poor immigrants. As they were immigrants, they often did not realize they were taken advantage of until it was too late--if ever.

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175 Words | 1 Pages

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair In the Jungle, it is shown that there were many factors that made the lives of immigrants miserable. In the early 1800’s the American life was wanted by many new immigrants. In The Jungle, the life of Lithuanian immigrants was made miserable by alcoholism, poverty, and people in higher authority. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, describes how alcoholism, poverty, and people in positions of authority had a negative impact on the lives of immigrants.

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634 Words | 3 Pages

During 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.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

Jane Addams The Progressive Era, 1890-1920, accomplished great change in the Unites States of America. Many reformers and activits demanded for change in education, food and drug policies, and most importantly the govermenet. The goal for the movement was the purify the nation. One of the main activits during this time was Jane Addams. Jane Addams is often refered to as a social and political pioneer.

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799 Words | 4 Pages

Sinclair’s book The Jungle shows the hard situations that people in the time period unfortunately had. With many families coming into America, people were coming from all over to work in these jobs. The story follows Jergis, an immigrant who gets married and gets a new job at the meat packaging plant in Packingtown. His entire family moves out of a very small apartment and into a bigger and nicer house.

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834 Words | 4 Pages

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair is renowned source of political fiction that pioneered the movement of food safety in the United States. The Jungle was first published in a socialist newspaper in 1905 and then later adapted into a novel in 1906 after popular demand. Sinclair initially wrote the exposé as a way to change the unfortunate circumstances of immigrant laborers, whose working conditions that were believed to be unacceptable for any laborer in the industry. Sinclair leaves short references of his political opinions in the novel in various locations throughout the text “As if political liberty made wage slavery any the more tolerable!” (Sinclair 31).

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842 Words | 4 Pages

The time in which most immigration took place was from 1840 until world war 1 started. Each year over 750000 immigrated to the united states and they helped to expand many new frontiers of labor; however, these workers typically found themselves stuck in long term labor contracts that they could not get out of. Not only that, but some companies preyed upon their habit of living near each other to gather votes for their own political agendas. Some groups of progressives did not support immigration or want to help them very much because of the rampant racism that was still present in the country; luckily, many of the female reformers did not think that this was a thing to be tolerated and did their best to aid them. Many journalists, such as Jacob Riis or Lincoln Steffens, also did research into how these people lived in the slums as well as their treatment; then, they created articles speaking of the many injustices they were facing (PBS).

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1091 Words | 5 Pages

Through the Children’s Bureau they were able to decrease infant mortality and improve the living standards of children in orphanages. The settlement houses improved healthcare and education for immigrants. This is all a result of women’s growing place in society because of the progressive

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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