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Life In The Lower Class Analysis

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Life in the Lower Class In the novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair uses various literary devices to portray the naturalism movement in the view of a Lithuanian immigrant living in America. Sinclair uses symbolism to portray the house that Jurgis and Ona desire to live in as the beginning of their American dream, he also uses foreshadow as he mentions the innocent hogs being slaughtered at the factory which foreshadows Jurgis and his families future as these innocent people begin to face hardships leading to their end. The negative diction in which Sinclair uses in this novel portrays a poignant and despicable lifestyle in Chicago. Jurgis and Ona were newly weds who came to America shortly after their marriage in Lithuania. Upon arrival to the states Jurgis and his wife lived in a boarding house for a while as Jurgis went in search of a job. Jurgis manages to obtain a job at the slaughterhouse and after making some decent income Jurgis and his family decide to move out and buy a house. Jurgis stumbles upon a real estate advertisement showing a four room house worth $1500. Jurgis and his wife were intrigued by the quality of the house that was shown on the advertisement and believed that this was the beginning to their American Dream. Jurgis began …show more content…

The ad of the house in the paper symbolizes the American Dream but the house in reality symbolizes deceit as Jurgis finds out that the ad is untruthful and misleading. The helpless hogs on the conveyor belt foreshadow Jurgis’s powerless future since he is unable to overcome life in the lower class due to various hardships. Sinclair’s use of word choice helps portray the ugliness of human existence for allowing the distribution of poorly sanitized meat, and the struggles of living in society’s lower class in

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