The Jungle By Upton Sinclair: Summary

Ona and Teta also took jobs in order to meet ends of the family. Ona was also forced into sexual relations by her factory boss in return of the job for which she was employed. When Jurgis came to know about it, he goes to his wife’s factory and thrashed that man. After an unfair trial Jurgis was thrown into jail and was not able to work which pushed the family into a greater economic depression. This shows that how easy it was for the higher class of the society to commit a crime and still get out of it easily whereas the poor sections of the society suffers the most.

As time goes on for Jurgis he starts to lose his family first Ona and his second baby then Antanas drowns and that is his braking point so he ran (Sinclair Pg. 188, 209, 236, 247, & 255). On the other hand James kind of loses his family but he gains them back by begging for money; he then gets a match against Joe Louis. After he won against Joe Louis he gets to go against Max Baer winning and bought a new house with his winnings for his family. Jurgis and James loved their family but had to lose them for a while before things started to get better; they know that with ups and downs their family will always be

Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle in 1906 during the time of progressivism to portray the horrors of the labor conditions and non existing sanitary conditions of the meat packing industry. Jurgis and his family, immigrants from Lithuania, came to America expecting a prosperous life. The family dreamed of coming to America for a better life full of success and opportunity but as they began working in the stockyards they were exposed to the terrible quality of life experienced by the factory workers. The Jungle tells the story of a family of immigrants coming to America to gain freedom and portrays the dehumanization of the stockyards through the political corruption, inhumane child labor practices, and the horrific working conditions. Jurgis

After he gets injured again, he becomes a beggar on the streets of Chicago. 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

Written as an indirect attack at the labor industry, the real driving force behind the popularity of the novel was that many readers could not fathom the truth behind the meat industry. Which means, rather than seeing change in labor rights, many people instead fixated on his vivid descriptions of meat packing in the text. Sinclair embodied such descriptions of rotten meat, toxic chemicals, dirt, sawdust and even rat droppings, that consumers across the nation could not believe was actually being sold in stores and butcher shops. The story initially begins with a Lithuanian couple who have moved to Chicago in search for a better life. Following the wedding of the two, the main character in the novel, Jurgis, pursues a job at the stockyards of Chicago.

Jurgis’s dad, Dede Antanas, succumbs to the cold and his damp, dangerous working conditions and dies while working in the pickling rooms at a meat factory. The time for the wedding mentioned in the beginning has arrived, and the outcome leaves the poor family with more than one hundred dollars in debt. Afraid of the consequences of not being able to pay it off, more of the family works harder than ever, including Ona in a ham sewing factory, and eventually the young boys of the family as newsboys. Despite this rising debt, Marija’s factory closes and Jurgis is cut back on his hours. Outraged at this unfairness, Jurgis, as well as the rest of the eligible family members, join the Union and start to participate passionately.

Walter wants to help himself and his family while Beneatha wants to help other people. Beneatha’s dream is also more realistic while Walters is a farfetched dream. Walter wants to help himself and his family to make their lives better. Walter is tired of living in a small apartment with his mother and sister where it is not big enough for his son to have a bed to sleep in. Walter wants to make his life better for his son to know there is more in life than the small amount they have.

In retaliation to the unjust conditions for migrant farmers in California, Jim Casy organizes a strike against unfair wages. He also even willingly goes to jail in order to serve as a sacrificial symbol towards his cause. Towards the end of the film, Tom Joad decides that it is in his best interest to leave the family behind and pursue fighting injustices against migrant farmers in any way he can. Another way this conflict is resolved is at the end of the film when Ma Joad says: “We’re the people that live” (Grapes of Wrath). She describes that their ability to persevere through hard times is empowering and makes them a stronger people.

Jurgis decides to join a rebellion to protest the mistreatment of immigrants. Jurgis becomes very involved in his rebellion after he is fired and has a lot of free time. Sinclair writes, “These midnight hours were fateful to Jurgis; in them was the beginning of his rebellion, of his outlawing and his unbelief” to the things that have happened to him since he arrived in America (167).Jurgis gets himself into prison by trying to stand up for himself and his wife when matters are taken out of

Once he figured out that the fair was right next to his building, he turns his place into a “hotel” for people from the fair to stay in. Holmes kills a lot of people during the time of the fair and eventually people start to find out. He eventually leaves Chicago and hides until he is arrested for one of the crimes he did in Philadelphia. A detective investigates Holmes past, and finds out about all the people he had killed. I think Erik Larson set out to show the powerful legacy of both men in the book, Burnham and Holmes.