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The American Dream In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Winston Peterson Professor Laderman HIST 1305 (001) 3 October 2016 Response Paper No. 1 The “American Dream” is the idea that anybody, from any background, can ultimately achieve their goals through hard work and determination. This popular idea is what made America so appealing to foreigners, and immigrants alike. Which is why so many immigrants moved to America; to achieve their version of the “American Dream”. However, from reading, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, this was not the case. Many immigrants that moved to America wishing to fulfill the “American Dream” of happiness and prosperity in the early 1900s, came to the realization that the “American Dream” was indeed nothing more than an idea, and was not actually put into practice. …show more content…

Not only was Ona raped by her boss, but Ona’s workplace was also secretly a prostitution ring in which many of the workers’ were forced to work for. Sinclair’s description of the events that happened to Jurgis and his family are purposefully made towards others in the working class, as they can directly relate with what Jurgis had to deal with. The objective of Sinclair writing this book isn’t just to make people feel bad about the injustices done to the working class, but it is more so a “Call to arms”, pointing out that something needs to be done about capitalists treating workers so badly. This is the reason why this book became so popular within the working class. It united people under a cause to try and better the conditions for themselves during that time. Sinclair stated the issue with the capitalist movement and how it negatively affects the working class through telling a story of the hardships that Jurgis and his family face while living in America, then offers a solution by promoting the unionization of workers and offers socialist ideas to remedy the effects of, in his mind, the oppressive capitalist government when Jurgis realizes the corrupt system that dwells within his town, Packingtown, and becomes a socialist himself. Within the book, Sinclair gives his thought on what capitalism truly relies on. He notes, “One of the necessary

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