Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written to expose the brutality faced by the workers in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair wanted to show people what was really going on in the factory because few people were informed about these companies work conditions. He wanted to show the public that meat was “ diseased, rotten, and contaminated” (Willie).” This revelation shocked the, public which later led to the creation of the federal laws on food and safety. Sinclair strongly shows the failure of capitalism in the meatpacking industry which he viewed as inhumane, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent (Willie).”

There are various examples of different political issues throughout The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. One political issue is that political officials don’t have any worries especially when it comes to maintaining a stable job while the working class people are at risk of losing their job at any moment. In the passage Sinclair writes “Before the carcass was admitted here, however, it had to pass a government inspector, who sat in the doorway and felt of the glands in the neck for tuberculosis. This government inspector did not have the manner of a man who was worked to death; he was apparently not haunted by a fear that the hog might get by him before he had finished his testing.

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.

For centuries immigrants have left their homes and have journeyed to the United States in pursuit to live out the “American Dream”, an idea that the U.S. will provide people with a better life. However, this “better life” was not just given upon arrival, immigrants were not told the horrid experiences, and backbreaking hour, they would face in search for a better life. There is no better representation of this than Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, this book is a very accurate representation of the life of the vast majority of people within the United States. During the time when this book was written there were few jobs, and the jobs that were obtainable were mostly factory jobs with horrible conditions that entailed excruciating hours. Aside from the dangerous conditions, the pay was next to nothing making it near impossible to afford food and shelter, let alone providing for a family. Immigrants quickly found out that the “American Dream” was not the glorified vision that they thought, rather more like the song “Welcome to the Jungle” by “Guns N Roses”. After examining the lyrics, you can tell the similarities Axl Rose and the rest of Guns N Roses were facing as they tried to make it in the music industry. “In the jungle, welcome to jungle, watch it bring you to your knees, I wanna watch you bleed,” once you get to the U.S. you’ll get ripped down to almost nothing and suffer from the horrible conditions that you are faced with. The Jungle takes all of the issues immigrants

Several years before and after the turn the turn of the twentieth century, America experienced a large influx of European immigration. These new citizens had come in search of the American dream of success, bolstered by promise of good fortune. Instead they found themselves beaten into failure by American industry. Upton Sinclair wanted to expose the cruelty and heartlessness endured by these ordinary workers. He chose to represent the industrial world through the meatpacking industry, where the rewards of progress were enjoyed only by the privileged, who exploited the powerless masses of workers. The Jungle is a novel and a work of investigative journalism; its primary purpose was to inform the general public about the dehumanization

In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.

            It is ironic that Sinclair uses the stories of people being abused by the system as the focus of his propagandistic writing.  Throughout the novel it is obvious that Rudkus will be destroyed, and that his family's traditional values will be negated by a system that does not care.  It is the slow and planned

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 of the place were gone-in the twilight it was a vision of power. To the two who stood watching while the darkness swallowed it up”(page 29). The sky is being described as engulfing the building with an array of dark colors. Jurgis thinks the colors are great, but Sinclair is showing how dark the city is. The people believe they see the kindness, but was the government hiding an abundance of things from the public. The corrupt government is hiding their dark actions within the less darker colors. The corrupt government was also functioning within the workplace itself. Jurgis suffered as a result, including when “Jurgis was ordered to remain and do some special work that normally the injured man had done”(page 62). Jurgis was forced to do

Thesis Statement: Upton Sinclair was a muckraker who wrote, “The Jungle”, which exposed the problems of the meatpacking industry.

In 1904 Upton Sinclair went undercover in the Chicago stockyards. He immersed himself in the meatpacking culture and studied the inner workings of one of the world’s largest industries. Through about seven weeks of posing as a worker, he had gathered enough material for his greatest work and a catalyst for change in the 20th century. Sinclair compiled his experiences to create his classic novel The Jungle. The book follows a family of Lithuanian immigrants and their pursuit of the American Dream. Because this novel is a forerunner in the field of investigative journalism, the scenes and events are based off of real life observations and research. The experiences may not be exact stories from people but the circumstances were realistic. Through

In 1906’s The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, we are introduced to a family from Lithuania lead by

Throughout the novel it is evident that factory owners care more about their profits, than the health of their workers. Jurgis would often work long shifts for little pay. In the story the Sinclair states, “And for this, at the end of the week, he would carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour—just about his proper share of the total earnings of the million and three-quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States" (85). This quote proves that Jurgis was laboring long hours, every single day, to make no more than a child. Due to this Jurgis struggles to provide for his family and purchase necessities to live a healthy lifestyle. Eventually his lack of success leads him to drinking and corrupt activities. The corrupt practices of the factory owners are evidenced by child labor, sale of contaminated meat, and abuse of female workers. While capitalist gain financial earnings, the corruption that takes place destroys the heart and soul of workers throughout the stockyards, until all hope is lost.

In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.

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.

The Jungle is a novel written in 1906 by Upton Sinclair. It is about a man named Jurgis Rudkus and his wife Ona Lukoszaite who have recently immigrated from Lithuania to chicago. They decided to move to a part called Packingtown were at the time most immigrants moved their. Packingtown is a ruthless, dangerous place. They are known for the meat packing in that town. They decide to have their wedding at a saloon somewhere in Packingtown. They then realize they are in debt to the saloon owner and must find a job. However, getting a job in this town is very hard. However, with Jurgis's energetic and persistent personality he finds a job in no time. His wife Ona eventually finds herself a job as well. They buy a house and pay off the saloonkeeper with some help of Ona’s step-mom Teta Elzbieta. The house they bought is horrible it is in shambles and way overpriced. So they decide to have all of Totas kids move in to help with the higher cost of living. The youngest of the kids got a job as well his name is Stanislovas. The family then realizes how hard the work is their. It requires break-backing labor, and even death sometimes. Corruption and unsafe working area’s lie around every corner of businesses in Packingtown. They soon experience this first hand when Jurgis’s father die’s on the job. Then winter came and that is the worst time of the year. As described in the book at Jurgis job the meat is packed whether it is cold or