How The Other Half Lives, And Upton Sinclair 's Book, The Jungle, By Jacob Riis

Only a couple of decades ago, hard work and determination guided people to obtain a piece of the opportunity America is all about. Lately there is a surge in having our fifteen minutes of fame and work less, buy more. There are Americans who feel that materialism is the way to obtain true American happiness. TV ads bombard the population with information on what is truly needed to be the best. All media outlets convey how to be more like the famous. Commercials inform on how this star uses this phone and this athlete buys this car. In trying to assimilate to others, some continue to spend even though they cannot afford it. In “Framing Class, Vicarious Living,

In the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair there are many ways that different literary elements are used to explore a political or social issue. One main issue has to do with the meat packing industry and how the workers are treated. In the novel, the main character had moved to America to find work and live the American Dream but his time in America was anything but a dream. Upton Sinclair uses many literary elements in his work to show imagery, metaphors/ similes and personification all why relating to the social issue of the packing industry.

Most famous people inspire authors to write books written about their achievements, however Upton Sinclair Junior did it backwards. Some of his ninety novels including an autobiography, and in particular The Jungle, changed America forever by using fictitious stories to depict the present issues at that time. Upton Sinclair was an author and activist in the early to mid 1900’s who was passionate about issues involving women 's rights, working conditions, and the unemployed. He wrote over ninety books in his lifetime, as well as countless articles and other works of journalism. As Sinclair grew up, he was exposed to both a lifestyle of poverty and wealth that shaped his world as well as his political views as a socialist, or someone who advocates the vesting of the control of the means of production and distribution, of capital or land in the community as a whole. Upton Sinclair was a controversial author who took a stand in history by vastly impacting the food industry, becoming politically active, and forecasting solutions to social problems.

This is seen in the meatpacking industry where the conditions were horrific. Sinclair exposes the truth of Capitalism in America as hypocritical and deceitful. Furthermore, these changes in American society influenced the work of Upton Sinclair and particularly in “The Jungle”. Sinclair examines several societal changes during the turn of the century where his literature reflects the changes of a newly emerging

Written at the turn of the 20th century, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle took place in an era of unprecedented advancement in civilization where the American economy had risen to become one of the wealthiest on the planet. However, Sinclair asserts that the rise of capitalist America resulted in the virulent corruption and competition that plighted society into an untamed “jungle.” Shown by the corruption of the Chicago meatpacking industry, Sinclair highlights the repulsive filth of human greed that was created as a byproduct of the economic boom. The effects of industrialism and the rise of untamed capitalism is what raped the superfluity of workers, like Jurgis Rudkus, of the opportunity to uncover prosperity in America. Not only does The Jungle capture the brutality and acceleration of corrupt capitalism and ruthless Darwinism during the Progressive Era, it also prompts resistance and displacement of the existing political system in favor of a socialist revolution. Through the novel, Sinclair demonstrates how the deterioration of the American Dream was exacerbated by the capitalist greed and corruption that eventually drove Jurgis and his family into mental degeneration and despair.

According to Karl Marx, a famous German philosopher, came up with the theory that the higher class, known as the bourgeoisie, enslaved and exploit the working class, known as proletariat. This theory relates to the two novels A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Legend by Marie Lu. There are many similarities that take place between these dystopian novels and it is evident that everything is predetermined and controlled by the state, causing conflict and chaos. This is demonstrated by the caste system, abuse of drugs and power within the government.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a vivid account of life for the working class in the early 1900s. Jurgis Rudkus and his family travel to the United States in search of the American dream and an escape from the rigid social structure of Lithuania. Instead, they find a myriad of new difficulties. Sinclair attributes their problems to the downfalls of capitalism in the United States. While America’s system was idealistic for Jurgis and his family at first, the mood of the story quickly transforms to assert that capitalism is evil. This theme drives the author’s message and relay of major issues throughout the entirety of the novel. The idea of capitalism and social Darwinism is to

The Jungle is book that takes the reader in a period in time where the “American Dream” was the only thing worth believing in the daily job struggles of immigrants in America during the early twentieth century. What is the American Dream? It is said that any man or woman willing to work hard in this country and work an honest day is capable living and could support his family and have an equal opportunity to success. Although The Jungle was taken account more on how the meat production was disgusting and unhealthy for production and consumption. However many missed the real message of this book in which Sinclair wants to engage the reader in particular scenario of the failure of capitalism. According to Sinclair, socialism is the only way out of the failure of capitalism. It is the way that all problems can be solved and works for the benefit of everyone where capitalism works against the people. The slow destruction of Jurgis’s family at the hands of a cruel and unfair economic and social system demonstrates the effect of capitalism on the working class. As the immigrants, who believe an idealistic faith in the American Dream of hard work leading to material success, are slowly used up, tortured, and destroyed.

In the book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair advocates for the overall elimination of oppression and exploitation of workers and immigrants and the use of socialism as a solution. The book depicts, and illustrates, the events and outcome of Jurgis and his family from Lithuania coming to the America’s in hopes of a better life, from the ideology of “The American Dream”. Jurgis believes that hard work will pay off no matter the size of the problem, however him and his family realize that the America’s posses corruption, harmful working conditions, and oppression of the worker and immigrants. Sinclair uses examples to express the hardships and cruelty that lower class workers faced to allow the reader to perceive whether or not there is a need for change in the system. Frederick Douglass uses the same form of writing to bring light to the harsh and unjust experiences he endured in order to persuade and communicate why there is a need to accomplish what he is advocating for.

When hearing the phrase, “The Gilded Age,” many would think of positive words to describe the time period. In some ways, that may be true. Diversity, jobs, and even the great invention of light bulbs, were all products of this era that helped make America the country that it is today. To a majority of the immigrants that had just come to the United States at the time, however, America appeared to be a country of chaos and desperation. The necessities that people could not imagine living without today, such as fresh air and sanitary houses, were often a luxury to these immigrants. Jacob Riis, the author of How the Other Half Lives, visited several areas in New York to observe the appalling living conditions that various immigrants were stuck in. After making these observations, Riis ultimately criticizes the greedy landlords but also places considerable amount of blame on the immigrants for their misfortune as well.

“In twentieth-century America the history of poverty begins with most working people living on the edge of destitution, periodically short of food, fuel, clothing, and shelter” (Poverty in 20th Century America). Poverty possesses the ability to completely degrade a person, as well as a family, but it can also make that person and family stronger. In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, a family of immigrants has to live in severe poverty in Packingtown, a suburb of Chicago. The poverty degrades the family numerous times, and even brings them close to death. Originally the family has each other to fall back on, but eventually members of the family must face numerous struggles on their own, including “hoboing it” and becoming a prostitute. The

From 1865 to 1910, the Industrial Age was an interesting time of great economic growth and prosperity for the United States as a whole, however the American citizens who worked to push this positive chain of success paved the way and paid the cost for that very occurrence. In The Jungle, a family from Lithuania travels to the United States in order to gain a better living than what they had in their home country. During their time of adjustment to life within the United States, some members of the Rudkus and Lukoszaite family especially Jurgis Rudkus, experienced extreme hardship while attempting to develop their lives into a better state for the sake of their family’s wellbeing. Upton Sinclair opens a small window into the lives of hopeful and hardworking immigrants to reveal how America’s Industrialization Age hindered many from true freedom. This was due to a lack of care for employees and their wellbeing in the workplace, poor sanitary conditions that led to unhealthy living conditions for workers, and political corruption which was held over certain citizens in order to allow corruption to thrive, making workers remain powerless.

A comparative literary study of the effect of mental illness on the central characters is the semi-autobiographical novels The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. Comparing two women trying to deal with mental illness and are trying to cope with the mental pressures they put on themselves and by other people. Although the differences between these two novels are The Bell Jar shows Esther’s life before she descends into mental illness whereas Susanna’s story is about her time in a mental institution and experiencing other patients who are in similar situations.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are both novels that deal with the theme of dystopia. Both novels depict societies in which mind control is used to create social stability. There are also individuals who rebel against this loss of freedom and identity. However, these individuals lose their fight for freedom because of unsuccessful escape methods, acts of violence and effective conditioning.

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.