Analysis Of Henry James ' Short Story ' The Beast Of The Jungle '

Henry James presents American literature in The Beast of the Jungle altogether from a different perspective. In other words, the narrative forces the reader to read in between the lines in order to find out how light and darkness contributes to the story. James’s unique and vivid themes of seasonal and light/dark imagery also allows the reader to come up with many different possibilities of what the meaning of the story could be. The theme of light versus dark is prevalent throughout the story. Light is described as knowledge, wisdom and promise and darkness is described as confusion, depression and uncertainty. The Beast of the Jungle suggests two main reasons for the use of light and dark imagery: to create uncertainty on the reader to pinpoint who or what the beast is and to refer to Marcher’s belief that at some point in his life he would experience a traumatic event that would change his life.

“I aimed for the public’s hearts, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” This quote was in response to the reaction of Upton Sinclair’s ground breaking exposé, “The Jungle”. On February 26, 1906 Sinclair shocked the Nation by exposing the horrors of slaughter houses and meat packing plants. Thousands of people have died from food-borne illnesses. E-coli, along with other diseases resulting from filthy food processing was revealed as the murderer. As shocking as it might have been back then, it is even more alarming to find out that conditions have not improved in the last one hundred nine years. Food-borne illnesses are still an extremely common occurrence. People should not have to worry about whether their purchased food, food that was “approved” by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is safe to eat. Consumers shouldn’t have to worry about tainted or dirty meat. Cleaner meat packing facilities and stricter meat regulation on the part of the USDA should be a standard. Eating a burger should not have to be a life or death situation.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is about a Lithuanian family living in Chicago in the 1900’s. They had faith in the American dream, hoping to start a new and successful life. Unfortunately they were deprived of they hopes and dreams. They were placed in the middle of a society where only the strongest and richest survived. The rich keep getting richer and the poor get even poorer. Jurgis and his family went to extreme lengths just in hopes of finding a job, they were forced to travel in heavy rain, strong winds, and thick snow, even when they were sick, in fear of losing their jobs. The Jungle pointed out many flaws in society such as filthy meat and sickening work conditions.

The jungle delved deep in the plight of the immigrants while shedding light on the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing industry and revealing the oppressive corrupt capitalist system. It exposed may truisms to the American public about the working class conditions at work, home and in religious settings. Although all the ingredients were used to expose a capitalist society in the end what resulted was something less than what Upton Sinclair expected. His book had law making and historical importance, but only to 8 or so pages that detailed the most gruesome aspects of working in the meat packing plant.

Gastroenteritis, Typhoid Fever, and E. coli… all conditions that can result from eating mishandled food. Before modern research, nobody knew that these aliments could result from consuming food that was handled by someone in a factory which had poor sanitation. The environments of these factories are specifically depicted in Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle. We now live under the impression that the FDA and other governmental companies are strictly regulating what happens to the food we consume - that we are fully protected from any harmful diseases we could catch from something that gives us life; however, this is just another false promise the leaders of this country tell us in order to secure our dependence upon them.

It’s a Monday in early July and I am involved in what every fifteen-year-old kid wants to be doing with their summer: summer school. My teacher walks in with a slightly tanner skin, a coffee, and he has his sunglasses still on. He ambles to the front of the class and sets a few books down. After taking a few moments to collect himself, he looks up from the books and says, “Okay, class, today you are going to have the choice of what you want to do. You can read your summer reading book or pick from one of these.” I did not have the assigned book at that time, so I got up to see the selections that my teacher laid out. None of the novels caught my eye, even after reading the back cover. I decided to just take a random book and make it look like I was reading, not that my teacher—who looked like he was sleeping—was going to care. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was the lucky book of the day, but I never would have thought that I was the lucky one for having chosen it that day.

“The Jungle” is a novel by a renowned author by the name of Upton Sinclair. He is an American author who had an interest in addressing the improper conduct of the political and business class. He was born on September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland. As an author, he was able to publish several novels addressing important issues in the society. His novels include “The Springtime and Harvest,” which was his first novel in 1901 and “The Jungle” among many others. Through his work and dedication, he was also acknowledged as an activist who was ready to address and highlight any social injustice that infringed human rights (“The Jungle”).

“Look for the bare necessities the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife...” (The Bare Necessities, Bill Murray and Neel Sethi)

“The Jungle” is a novel by a renowned author by the name of Upton Sinclair. He is an American author who had an interest in addressing the improper conduct of the political and business class. He was born on September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland. As an author, he was able to publish several novels addressing important issues in the society. His novels include “The Springtime and Harvest,” which was his first novel in 1901 and “The Jungle” among many others. Through his work and dedication, he was also acknowledged as an activist who was ready to address and highlight any social injustice that infringed human rights (“The Jungle”).

Theodore has a happy family; that consist his parent Mr and Mrs Sinclair and his young sister, Theodora. They have everything and share quality time together. This family has a calm personality that does not get upset easily. One day, Mr and Mrs Sinclair found out that their son failed in his exam, but he did not tell them. Mr Sinclair is very disappointed and scolds his son until he hit him accidentally. His wife was shocked because she never saw her husband in that anger. Theodore runs to his room and locked himself. He was so scared with his dad.

When one examines the history of his or her life, regret is often the resulting emotional state. Commonly, people feel life is not being lived to the fullest. Liberation from regret is an arduous goal. A person cannot question how life can be improved without questioning the definition of an unlived life. Although superficial ideations may be individually unique, the core definition of an unlived life remains consistent. Through classic American literature, examples of the core definition are presented. “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James, “The Revolt of Mother” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, and “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner are exceptional symbols of life lessons. The short stories of James, Freeman, and Faulkner each identify a unique

The Jungle Book is a movie based on the story of a young boy named Mowgli who was found in the Jungle by a panther named Bagheera. Bagheera found the boy the day his father lost his life to a tiger named Shere Khan but before the tiger ended the man’s life he was burned by the Red Flower, man's’ creation known as fire. Bagheera had taken Mowgli to the animals he knew would raise the young boy like their own and that was the wolves. Akeila was their Alpha and Raksha was the only mother Mowgli knew. They raised the young boy to be a fine “wolf” he learned the morals of the wolves and one of the biggest was “The Law of the Jungle” he also learned to hunt with them. Although Mowgli was raised to be a “wolf” no one could ever take away his true identity which was being a man. Mowgli went to his first water truce at Peace Rock which meant all the animals in the jungle were not allowed to hunt or kill anyone and everyone had to get along but as soon as Shere Khan showed up that all went out the door, he threatened the wolves saying “how many lives is a man cub really worth” meaning man was forbidden in the jungle. Shere Khan began to hunt Mowgli because he wanted him dead so Bagheera made a decision to take him to the man village and Mowgli will leave behind the only home and family he ever knew but before arriving to the man village he goes through a series of events. He meets a brown bear named Baloo who saved him from the jaws of Kaa a very large snake, he is kidnapped

In the Seeonee Hills of India was a warm, beautiful place, where a man named Mowgli lived. He was abandoned by his mother in the jungle when he was a baby, and spent all of his childhood growing up with the animals. As an adult, he lives in the village with the rest of the “hunting people”. In the jungle can never quite felt like he belonged amongst the people of his village. He believed something was missing in his life. Though on this day, Mowgli felt extra odd and out of place there in the village.

After reading The Jungle as well as other texts for this class I agree somewhat that the United States has a history of corporations taking advantage of the working class individual. In The Jungle, there are countless examples of the effects that this type of work had on a person. Characters from the book, like Jurgis, worked long and hard hours for very low wages and under very bad working conditions. Many times, he lost his job from the companies closing for the winter and not needing the workers anymore. The book painted corporations out to be interested just in money with no regard whatsoever to the working class individual. It was seen that workers often times became sick while working or had accidents. For example, when Jurgis acquired

At the same time, we cannot become so absorbed in the future that we neglect the here and now. As author Henry James illustrates though his characters John Marcher and May in his novella The Beast in the Jungle, emphasizing the future too strongly causes us to miss essential details in our lives that exist only in the present. Marcher envisions an extraordinary future event that will magnificently shape his life. Ultimately, his obsessive focus