Commentary on In the The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Essay

Jurgis is happy with his job, though he never thought of the meat and blood side of it until he works on the killing floor. The speed of the workers is very fast, and Jurgis sees how the bosses hire men that can speed up the pace of the other workers and place those men in crucial positions along the killing lines. This process is speeding up the competition and anyone who cannot keep pace loses his job. Jurgis is discouraged to learn that not like him, most men in the factory hate their jobs.

Based on chapter 13 of How To Read Literature Like A Professor I believe The Jungle is a political work centered on the contrasts between capitalism and socialism. Upton Sinclaire uses Jurgis to represent immigrants and the working class, making the character more relatable helps to get the authors point across to the audience. Wether it be politically or otherwise, the story is meant to change us and in turn change society. In the case of The Jungle , Sinclaire uses symbolism and propaganda like antics to express his ideas both through Jurgis and the story itself. This novel being programmatic (pushing a single cause, concern or party position) supports socialist ideas and causes. For example, in The Jungle, Jurgis is constantly oppressed

Upton SInclair’s novel, The Jungle, is a novel based on the “Gilded Age” in american history. It is the life of a working man named Jurgis Rudkus and as the story progresses, it shows the corruption and dishonesty of the people during this time period, as well as their reasoning behind their actions. Also as the novel continued, it showed the author's inspiration for the title of this novel. Throughout the book, Upton Sinclair had scattered metaphors as to why Capitalism is corrupt and why Socialism is better. With subtle hints to social classes and how Jurgis progresses through them through corruption.

The gilded age had produced many industrialists eager to line their pockets. Mass consumerism had given it a hunger from every level of society. (p66) The Factory System made efficient by Fordism was able to chew up not only livestock but people as well. Master artisans’ skill were ignored and their knowledge slaughtered with the animals pushed through the stockyards. The mindless task of simple repeated movements was the reward for groveling to perform at the lowest wage possible. Demands for higher wages were met with termination of employment. (p247) Sinclair illustrated these facets of Progressive life with his character Jurgis. At the beginning of Jurgis’ journey, Jurgis was in excellent health and very strong. Jurgis’ eagerness to work, strength, and lack of English comprehension were the only characteristics in which the shop foreman was interested. The workman’s queue outside of the factory entrance frequently turned into a

making him less human. Even though Jurgis makes money from his work, it is not enough to

. A. Upton Sinclair wrote, “The Jungle”, to expose the appalling working conditions in the meatpacking industry.

Jurgis and his family were faced with many predicaments related to these poor surroundings and circumstances. The family hastily saw that they must enter the competition forced upon them in a social Darwinist fashion. When he first arrived in Packingtown, Jurgis found work quickly in the meat packing industry because of his strong, young stature. As the years went by, however, and he grew plagued with injuries and financial troubles, Jurgis found work to be evermore difficult to obtain and hold. The social system cracked down on the family and offered nowhere for the Rudkus' to turn for help.

The Jungle is a novel that focuses on a family of immigrants who came to America looking for a better life. The novel was written by Upton Sinclair, who went into the Chicago stockyards to investigate what life was like for the people who worked there. The book was originally written with the intent of showing Socialism as a better option than Capitalism for the society. However, the details of the story ended up launching a government investigation of the meat packing plants, and ultimately regulation of food products. It gave an informative view of what life was like in America at the time. Important topics like immigration, working conditions and sanitation issues of the time were all addressed well in the novel.

At the beginning of the book, Jurgis and Ona are married. Jurgis is happy and ready to live the “American dream” but after being forced to work in inhuman, unjust, and brutal environments as Sinclair called them, Jurgis sees capitalism for what it really was, evil. Sinclair portrayed early in Chapters 1 and 2 that the “American dream” is achieved by working hard even though it shows the immigrants in Chicago struggling. In the beginning, Jurgis is confident that he will achieve the American dream. An example of his confidence happened in chapter 2 when Jurgis and Ona took a stroll outside and saw the filth of their neighborhood and also saw Packingtown. He said, “tomorrow I will go there and get a job” (page 30). He was confident that he would make his and Ona’s lives better and achieve the American dream. He believed that what they were going through was temporary. Jurgis learns about capitalism by watching his bosses and the rich get richer and himself and other laborers working very hard in awful circumstances for very low wage. Packingtown is an example of this. The tour in chapter 3 was important for this book, because readers are able to imagine what the workers and animals went through. Jurgis and other laborers know the meat that goes through Packingtown is often rotten or carries diseases. Instead of the business owners taking a loss on that bad meat, they would process and sell it anyway, just to get a profit. Even at

Jurgis was in the poor-working class that he never really get money maybe like $5 a week

Despite many setbacks, Jurgis and the family were filled with unwavering optimism and felt that once they got settled with jobs and a home, everything would be okay. Due to his size, Jurgis was fortunate enough to find a job almost immediately on the killing floor at the meat packing plant. Marija was hired to paint cans after the woman who had the job for many years called in sick and was immediately fired. Due to his age, Antanas initially encountered difficulty during his job search, but eventually found a job at the factory in the pickling room after he promised a third of his pay to the person who found him the job. Things started looking up for the family and they pooled their money and bought a new house. Unfortunately, the family discovered that additional conditions added to the contract made the house payment significantly higher than they originally thought. In order to make up the difference, Ona and Teta Elzbieta’s oldest son, Stanislovas, also found employment.

Jurgis Rudkus is a Lithuanian immigrant who had strong faith in the American dream of better and happier life. When Jurgis injures his ankle working in the unsafe factory, his first thought is that he cannot afford to miss work as his family will not be able to survive without his wages and would die of hunger. Jurgis is disillusioned when he is quickly replaced at the factory as he is not as productive. This reveals the scant regard that capitalists had for the safety of their workers. Further, they would never invest in factory safety as it would affect their profits. Also, they did not value the loyalty and the long hours of labour and they would not think twice before replacing a worker who was unwell or injured as a result of unhealthy

Also, Jurgis is paid five dollars to pick up paychecks for imaginary city workers. Later in the novel, Jurgis becomes involved in the political machine. He finds that he becomes one of the henchmen for the political powers in the packing yards. After he gets put in jail, he is forced to buy is way out, which costs him everything he has.

Another form of exploitation that doesn’t allow Jurgis and his family to achieve their American dream is the long hours of labor they must work in order to maintain the family alive. These unhealthy long hours of labor that they must work brings the family physical and mental pain. When Jurgis starts to work in the meat packing plant he is exited and happy to have a job, soon after he discovers that he is engaged in unfair labor activities as well as unsafe food handling. In chapter 11 Jurgis suffers from a terrible accident at work. The company doctor tells him that he'll be laid up for months with a severe ankle and foot injury. The accident poses a terrible problem for the family. Without Jurgis' wages, they might starve. “It was dreadful that an accident of this sort, that no man can help, should have meant such suffering. The bitterness of it was the

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is the tale of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family. Jurgis and his family move to the United States in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, only to find themselves ill-equipped for the transition in the workplace and in society in general. Jurgis faces countless social injustices, and through a series of such interactions, the theme of the book is revealed: the support of socialism over capitalism as an economic and social structure. Jurgis learns soon after transplanting his family that he alone cannot earn enough to support his entire family, in spite of the intensity of his valiant efforts to work harder. Soon his wife and the rest of his family are working