Chicago becoming a useful backdrop to Upton Sinclair’s story which is basically about a Lithuanian immigrant family struggling to adapt to their new lives in the United States (Chicago) which was a city full of hope to the family. Marija, Jonas, Ona, Jurgis, Antanas, Elizabeth, and her six children decide to go to Chicago and become wealthy. Jurgis began labor in Brown's Killing Fields and Durham's fertilizer mill. Then, with the death of Ona, he is basically left with nothing but tough obstacles. Without work, and after weeks of trials and tribulations, he becomes a tramp, then a harvester failing he seasonal crops. Jurgis becomes homeless, leaving him with no other option, but to wander in Chicago. Jurgis, Ona, Antanas, Marija, …show more content…
Inequity was a major role throughout the unpleasant days most people of Chicago had to associate with. The whole city of Chicago faced a huge quantity of the despondent years they had to deal with due to the fact of people not caring for the workers. Those that didn’t have to go through this disastrous time, were disheartened, disinherited and finally disconnected from life without respite or any hope of deliverance from these prisons created by those who were able to control with their money. In about 1906, Upton Sinclair published the “The Jungle,” which was written during the unpleasant days of Chicago Illinois. “The Jungle” which was written by Upton Sinclair is a story in which explains how Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, and friends who were from a forest called Lithuania, but migrated to Chicago Illinois in search of happiness. The book displays the conditions of the corrupt economy of the meat-packing industry, aside from telling what Jurgis went through. The book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair was reached by President Theodore Roosevelt, which helped advocate congress to pass the “Food and Drug Act of
They soon meet a friend of Jonas, who assists them and helps them find a place to stay. They tour Packingtown, a place where sanitation is horrible and the government blatantly ignores its conditions and practices. On his journey from work one day, Jurgis notices an ad for a house and takes it home. Marija and Teta Elzbieta soon visit the real estate agent to buy the home. They agree to pay $300 down and an additional $12
Jurgis, which translated means George, was a young farmer in the fields of Lithuania. It was his superior strength that allowed him to survive in the Railroad Gang, one of the places he worked so he could buy a voyage to America. After the family arrived in Chicago, Jurgis found work in a meat packing plant, where he wittnessed the horrors of food processing. Ona, or Hannah, was only fourteen years old when she navigated with her stepmother, Jurgis, and Marija to America in search of a better life. A short time after arriving, she and Jurgis were married, and had a little boy, Antanas.
Every crisis Jurgis’s family encountered was primarily caused by money which the factory owner, the real estate, the doctor, and even the bartender fed on by taking advantage of the poor people. In the freezing winter, Jurgis himself lose his strength and became a wounded animal physically and mentally. Indeed, many times in the novel, Sinclair symbolized a human with a wounded animal, “…plunging like a wounded buffalo, puffing and snorting in rage” (75), “…helpless as a wounded animal, target of unseen enemies” (92), “…like a wounded animal in the forest; …forced to compete with his enemies upon the unequal term” (157). The same fate went with every other member of the family, especially Ona, she was always described as fragile as hunted prey as such she usually found herself in a position she struggles to help her family. However, she was full of love and support for her husband; it was not exaggerated to say she was the mental healing for Jurgis and a treasure that he swore to protect.
The 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.
Immigrants faced harsh living and working conditions, racial strife, poverty, as well as social class issues. Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle explores many of these hardships immigrants had to face through the lives of Lithuanian Immigrants. Throughout his novel, Sinclair focuses on poverty and thoughts of what America was supposed to be like to portray hardships immigrants faced when coming to America.
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,
There are many other traps around America that deceive the immigrants because their weakness of not knowing English and the desire of getting a great life in America which lead them unpreparedly get fooled by the businessmen. These traps prevented the immigrants from leaving America, because of the significant amount of debt that they have to pay each month, which forced them to keep working and become the slave of this capitalistic society in America. Unfortunately, even they work very hard, in most of the time they will not get anything in return, such that Jurgis’s family cannot even keep the house at the of the book and many of family members’ health destroyed by the harsh working conditions in the
The Meatpacking Industry was one of the most prominent and powerful industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was responsible for processing and distributing large amounts of meat to consumers across the United States. The industry was plagued with numerous problems, including poor working conditions, exploitation of workers, and unsanitary practices. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published his novel, "The Jungle," which exposed the brutal realities of the meatpacking industry.
In 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 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.
The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair was an expose on the life of those who lived in Packingtown, Chicago. Packingtown was where most of the people who was looking for work lived, it was a very crowded city. Job openings were scarce and most of the jobs were very unsafe. Most of the people in this part of town were poor, so they did not really have much doubts of food,. The Jungle exposed the horrific work conditions, the poor food quality, and the deceitfulness of the business owners.
The Jungle is a story that revolves around the protagonist Jurgis Rudkus and his family, the Lithuanian immigrant who came to America to lead a better life and worked at meatpacking plants of early 20th century Chicago. The story showcases the hardship that they underwent due to the harsh and bad working condition, poverty, starvation and being cheated by unjust people agents, eventually losing all their money. The Jungle provides us ways to look at the unfettered capitalism that prevailed in the early 20th century. This book also exposes the corruption, inequality, unjustness, sickness and slavery that existed in the society.
Jurgis was very enthusiastic and eager about how things worked in Chicago compared to Lithuania. He never imagined "one hog dressed by several hundred men"(43) considering that Lithuania usually had just one man and one hog. He explained almost every detail to his family about how things worked in the meat package. Although later on in the
After the first reading The Jungle, it was clear that Sinclair was creating a jungle-like atmosphere to help create the chaotic story of Jurgis and his family. Written during the early 1900s, America was experiencing a lot of change. Immigrants were pouring into the cities across the country searching to achieve the American Dream. Although the immigrants were slowly being replaced by newer immigrants, they struggled to fight against each other to make it big in the cities. Sinclair wanted to expose the corruption of the industries and the immigrants attempts to fit into the capitalistic society.
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