Exposing Capitalism in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle Essay

1. The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was a cause for some forms of Progressive-Era legislation, such as the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Jungle depicted a terrible scene of how animals were slaughtered mercilessly. According to the excerpt, "The shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing — for once started upon that journey, the hog never came back; at the top of the wheel he was shunted off upon a trolley, and went sailing down the room.

Christopher Phelps’ Introduction states, “As a metaphor, ‘jungle’ denoted the ferocity of dog-eat-dog competition, the barbarity of exploitative work, the wilderness of urban life, the savagery of poverty, the crudity of political corruption, and the primitiveness of the doctrine of survival of the fittest, which led people to the slaughter as surely as cattle.”(1), this is the foundation to Sinclair’s arguments that capitalism promotes competition between the working-class for mere survival all the while destroying human rights

“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” A quote by Upton Sinclair from his best known novel The Jungle. Sinclair, a social crusader from California, was an activist writer whose work often uncovered the social injustices occurring during his time. At the age of 14 Sinclair proved to be a force to recon with when he started attending City College of New York. After graduating Sinclair began grad work at Columbia University supporting himself by writing dime novels. In 1904 Sinclair was sent to Chicago by the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason to write an exposé. It’s intentions were to sympathise with the appalling treatment of the immigrants working in the meatpacking industry. After spending weeks undercover researching, Sinclair wrote a manuscript that would become The Jungle. In 1906 The Jungle became his sixth and most successful novel. The novel exploited the quality and impurities in processed meats and in results

Although it was a shocking and revolutionary exposure to the hazardous environment of the meat-packing plants of Chicago in 1906, The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, proves to still be relevant in modern day due strains of bacterial diseases contaminating meat and produce, and causing illness to the public. In its time, the content of The Jungle was supposed to illustrate the demeaning means of which labor was carried out in a new world of industrialization. Sinclair had a goal of exposing the horrid lifestyle impeded on a certain immigrant worker (and many more in the same situations), and ended up causing a revolutionary change in the working conditions of meat-packing factories in cities all across the United States. President Theodore

In his work, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair depicts the brutal story of a migrant Lithuanian family and their new life in America. The novel brings to life the harsh reality that Jurgis Rudkus and his family faced everyday in the Chicago Stockyards, known as Packingtown. Their preconceived dreams of America were slowly crushed by their daily struggle to make a life for themselves and to simply survive. As the story is unfolded, it becomes clear how the family and others were trapped in a greedy and unforgiving system. They poured themselves into working under the most horrendous conditions only to make a few pennies an hour and fall victims to the evil schemes of business owners and city officials. Eventually the story turns to what I believe

During the turn of the 19th century, the second industrial revolution was taking place in America, which shifted society from agricultural to industrial. Innovations and new technology were the driving vehicle for burgeoning businesses in the city. With this shift, populations swelled in large cities such as New York, Chicago, and Pittsburg by job seeking immigrants from countries including Ireland, Germany, and Lithuania who were attracted to the United States wanting to be a part of a so called “American dream” and economic opportunity. These immigrants longed for a chance to start over again and wanted nothing more than an opportunity to make a better life for themselves, and the generations

     Many immigrants are moving to the United States in the early 1900’s with the hopes of living the “American Dream.” However, that glittering American lifestyle is merely a distant ideal for the immigrants living in Packingtown, the Lithuanian meatpacking district of Chicago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays life through the eyes of a poor workingman struggling to survive in this cruel environment, where the desire for profit among the capitalist meatpacking bosses and the criminals makes the lives of the working class a nearly unendurable struggle for survival.

They say, "A book is a device to ignite the imagination" and when I first saw your "Suggestions to Get You Started Reading" list, I knew The Jungle was going to be that spark. Reading The Jungle had been on my to-do list ever since I successfully completed the most vigorous course Schalick High School has to offer: AP US History. From what I learned, Sinclair was a muckraker who sought to reform society from social ills through his exposes. Consequently, The Jungle became a catalyst for cleaner, safer food production. Nonetheless, after completing Sinclair's novel, it was evident that Sinclair's purpose was not to criticize the condition of the meat in the slaughterhouses. Instead, The Jungle was written to condemn, what Sinclair thought to be, two social ills of

Upton Sinclair is known as a muckraker. In his writings, he often wanted to expose injustices he saw. The Jungle was written by Sinclair to open people’s eyes to the hardships working immigrants faced. His intention was to get the government to help the working class, not to uncover the truth about what was going into their meat. The public outcry about the meat packing industry and food standards caused President Roosevelt to investigate the industry and implement the Food

In the early 1900’s America begin to transform rapidly. Many immigrants started moving to the United States in the early 1900’s with the hopes of living the “American Dream.” However, that glittering and gleaming American lifestyle is merely a distant ideal for the immigrants living in Packingtown, the meatpacking district of Chicago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays life through the eyes of a poor workingman struggling to survive in this cruel, tumultuous environment, where the desire for profit among the capitalist meatpacking bosses and the criminals makes the lives of the working class a nearly unendurable struggle for survival. The novel The Jungle is a hybrid of history, literature, and propaganda. Sinclair, a muckraking

Corruption, lies, adultery, politics, and death are all topics addressed in Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle. The book reveals the atrocities that occurred during the early 1900’s in Chicago’s cruel and disgusting meatpacking district. The Jungle chronicles the struggle of a Lithuanian family that came to America with dreams of making their riches and passing it on to their descendants. Analysis of the novel reveals a recurring theme of how desperation makes people do horrible things such as being coerced into sexual acts, working in dangerous conditions, and selling themselves for money. Peer review by Slate’s Karen Olsen critics the novel’s shortcomings and praises its high points. The tale of a poor, hopeful Lithuanian family

The Jungle is Upton Sinclair’s novel that narrates the tragedy of Jurgis Rudkus and his family, Lithuanian immigrants who travel to America to work in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. It is a grim story of suffering and hardship. This family undergoes considerable difficulties that vary from the appalling and unsafe working conditions, to poverty and starvation, in addition to merciless businessmen who extort their money as well as dishonest politicians who generate laws that permit the existence of such scandal. Furthermore, the narrative traces Jurgis’ transformation when he meets the new political and economic system of socialism. The novel also uncovers, in one of its parts, the sickening and disgusting methods of the meat processing

To begin with, the main idea of this book was to expose all the harmful effects that capitalism had in the lower class specially the immigrants. Every event, especially in the first twenty-seven chapters of the book, is chosen deliberately to portray a particular failure of capitalism, which is, in Sinclair’s view, inhuman, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent. As an example, Around the turn of the twentieth century, a couple Ona Lukoszaite and Jurgis Rudkus and their families, Lithuanian immigrants arrived in Chicago, came to a new country with the hope to improve

The main points of Sinclair’s work even from this small section of the whole writing is very heavy hitting along with at the time of publication probably was seen as controversial, it was a new type of writing a story that unfortunately this story was not made up, Sinclair used his experiences living in the workers ghettos of Packington, studying the people, and meatpacking industry (pg. 72). Sinclair argues that the companies and their factories are ruining the workers’ way of life, physically and mentally, leading to the idea of capitalism and companies becoming so obsessed with how fast can a product be made then the quality of the product and well-being for the employee (pg.72).

Sinclair’s novel follows the Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family, including his wife, Ona, who is barely 14 at the start of the novel. They all struggle against wage slavery, difficult working conditions, and the overall brutality of America in Packington, Chicago, somewhere in the early 1900s. The main character and protagonist, Jurgis faces many grueling hardships, including being sent to jail numerous times, being injured in his job, being involved in the meatpacking industry, laid off, resorting to begging, dealing with Ona’s rape, being involved in swindles, various illnesses