The Symbolism Of Packingtown In The Jungle, By Upton Sinclair

Anything in a novel can be represented as a symbol. Symbols are a representation of an item through an abstract concept. Surprisingly, a Union Stockyard could also be a symbol; The fictional Packingtown reveals many attributes about the real life Packingtown in the course of The Jungle. In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, Sinclair uses Packingtown to symbolize the corrupt government, the working class, and the condition of the United States.

The corruption of the United States government was especially present within Packingtown; Packingtown was a nickname for the Union Stockyard in Chicago. Sinclair describes it as “a study in colors now, this smoke; in the sunset light it was black and brown and gray and purple. All the sordid suggestions

Jurgis and Ona were just two people of the working class in Packingtown. The married couple were looking at their wages and “discovered the wages of Stanislovas would a little more than pay the interest, which left them just about as they had been been before”(pg 72). The working class really had to work for their money and keep themselves from going into bankruptcy; the working class also has to work in order to feed themselves and not starve to death. The conditions that the working class were being placed through was occurring all throughout Packingtown and throughout all of the United States. Packingtown symbolized the working class because the people had to preserve to see another day including Jurgis and his family. A portion of the working class also knew how to work the system. The people of the working class gossiped about how the “packers had secret mains, through which they stole billions of gallons of the city’s water”(pg 94). The people of the working class were also the same individuals who were allegedly taking things that did not rightfully belong to them. Actions like this date back to the Egyptian times with tomb robbers, the reason the people do this is because they wanted to survive. It’s not right, but due to the corruption of government, the working class believed it is necessary. The government officials were also apart of the working class that were allegedly committing this crime as well. But,

Jurgis’ own family were “beaten; they had lost the game, they were swept aside. It was not less tragic because it was so sordid, because it had to do with wages and grocery bills and rents”(pg 136). The economy of the United States was sinking due to the rise of immigration in overpopulated areas and the increase of new tactics in the work industry. The immigrants that were coming over had no prior knowledge of the United States government should have been running; which is why the immigrants were being taken advantage of. The downfall of the poor living conditions in the United States had many affects on the people in the United States; the physical health of the people of the United States was also starting to take its toll. People were becoming more and more sick in areas that were highly populated. Antanas, Jurgis and Ona’s son was even more susceptible to “all the diseases that babies are heir to, in a quick succession, scarlet fever, mumps, and whooping cough in the first year, and now he was down with measles”( pg 138). The poor living conditions in crowded areas also resulted in poor hygiene; the lack poor living conditions also resulted in more people being susceptible to horrible diseases that could result in death. The poor hygiene and living conditions did tremendous harm to the people of the United States. Especially for young