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Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Book Review #3: The Jungle The renowned book, The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, reveals many harsh truths that had been hidden during the Gilded Age, and brings light to the conditions of the working class of the time. It is obvious from the beginning that Sinclair’s purpose in writing The Jungle is to address the faults within the relationship between politics, economics, and society, by creating sympathy for the poor, working, and essentially enslaved laborers, which generally consisted of immigrants. Sinclair firmly argues against the ideas of capitalism by tearing down the “American Dream” and revealing the ugly truth behind a façade of myths. He goes on to favor socialist ideas, and expresses extreme disapproval towards the corruption and …show more content…

When Jurgis first arrives to America, he is horrified by the filthy conditions people live in, but continues to be optimistic, ambitious, and caring. Jurgis’ family had come to America because Jonas, Teta’s brother, told them about a man, Jokubas, who had prospered in America. However, when they happened to meet him, they found that he was financially unstable, and struggling, proving the American Dream to be a façade. His family continues on to be exploited by many businessmen, like when they bought a house due to misleading advertisements which contained hidden expenses, and when a politician showed Jurgis how to vote. This, along with how meat packing is done for maximum profit by selling even filthy meat, shows how corrupt capitalism had made America. When living in filth causes Teta’s crippled son to die, and others to become ill, survival becomes the number one priority, driving the once happy family apart and causing desperation. Towards the end, however, after Ona dies and Jurgis’ son, Antanas, also dies of drowning in mud, Jurgis leaves, resorts to alcoholism, and comes across the life of crime, which is more rewarding than an honest life. This proves Sinclair’s point that capitalism causes a desperation that can rob people of virtues and morals, just like how Jurgis started stealing and exploiting other naïve people like him in the beginning, making capitalism a vicious cycle of survival of the

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Eventually, after being taken advantage of many times - even losing a hundred dollar bill to a bartender - Jurgis finds himself in a socialist rally. He likes the idea, and gets a job at a socialist hotel, where the novel ends optimistically as he urges more people to convert to socialism. Sinclair’s purpose is to illustrate the theme of the plight of the immigrant workers, and all of the plot relates back to this struggle. Every event adds to Jurgis’s misery, and Sinclair reveals that socialism is the only hope to get out of the intensely unfair and harsh capitalist

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Workers had to spend the whole day, sacrificing their vitality, working in dangerous places, just to gain a minimum wage and being later demoted to eat the spoiled meat they produce. The author took advantage of the harsh climatic conditions of Chicago to accentuate the extreme working conditions of immigrants. Although noticeable, Jurgis belated to understand that “there was no justice, there was no right, anywhere in it--it was only force, it was tyranny, the will and the power, reckless and unrestrained!”(Sinclair

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Furious with grief, Jurgis takes the rest of the family’s money and goes to drink his sorrows away. Living with the purpose of supporting his sole son, Jurgis works harder than ever to support his family, even though it means only visiting on the weekends. One tragic weekend, Jurgis returns home to discover that his son has died by drowning in the streets of mud. With nothing keeping him in the broken city, Jurgis heads out to the plains, doing odd jobs for meals and stealing or picking fruit when he is turned down. Jurgis refuses to work for any man for a committed time, and soon begins to feel the stresses of city life fade away.

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