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The Struggle Of Immigrants In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

630 Words3 Pages

This tragic story about the struggle of immigrants in Chicago both conflict and accommodates the popular notion of the “American Dream.” This book begins as an outstanding example of following the “American Dream.” Jurgis Rudkus and his soon-to-be-wife Ona, came to the United States of America from Lithuania, in search of better jobs, a better place to live, and an overall better impact on their entire lives. Jurgis’ famous words are also an impeccable example of the American Dream as he states, “Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money – I will work harder.” (61) These words, which continue to resonate throughout the book, are the very epidemy of the American Dream: Everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, as long as people …show more content…

This is largely because it showed the middle class the travesty that was happening down in the meat packaging plants. Poor housing, immense poverty, horrible conditions, dangerous work environments, and unsanitary packing plants caused the middle class to be disgusted by all of the real-life events that was transpiring. However, the middle class was mostly concerned with what chemicals, feces, and poisons might be in their food (1). This caused the middle class to become outraged and frightened, which furthered the popularity of Sinclair’s book among people of that time, causing it to still be read even …show more content…

Sinclair, while attempting to show the benefits of socialism, simply shows all of the limits of progressivism. It suggests that the government cannot control or fix all of the social issues that exist within a country. The horrible conditions and actions in the meat packing industry that went unnoticed proves that. However, once this was brought to President Roosevelt’s attention, he directed the Department of Agriculture to investigate Chicago meatpacking (12). This led to the meatpacking industry being closely regulated, leading to a few Federal laws. Even though progressivism did much good in the United States, there were still many places left

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