The Broken American Dream Exposed in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

“The Jungle”, written by Upton Sinclair, Jr is a novel based on the hardships of immigrants in the early twentieth century. The author focuses in on a family that immigrated all the way from Lithuania to Chicago Illinois. They came to the states in hope for an abundance of opportunities, and a promising future but soon came to realize that their images of the American dream were anything but true.

This novel was a big hit because of its subject. The novel was supposed to focus on the harsh conditions and overworked lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago. “However, most readers were more concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary use in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, based on an investigation he did for a socialist newspaper.” (Gilder Lehrman) This then got the people talking about the meat packing industries unhealthy work. In Sinclair’s novel he described “the disease of packinghouse workers, from severed fingers to tuberculosis and blood poisoning.”(Gilder

Many immigrants migrate to America everyday with the hopes to achieve their American dream. For most immigrants the American dream consist of finding a country where effort and morality transcend to success. In “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, a family of hard working optimistic Lithuanians migrate to America with the belief that equality and opportunity dictates that all people should have the same opportunities open to them if they put out efforts. They arrive to the US expecting to find a land of opportunity, freedom, and equality, and acceptance. Instead they find a land where only crime, moral corruption and crookedness enables them to succeed. The hopes and dreams of these individuals are destroyed

Sinclair agreed to "investigate working conditions in Chicago's meatpacking plants," for the Socialist journal, Appeal to Reason, in 1904. The Jungle, published in 1906, is

Socialism – a word that still strikes fear into the hearts of the American people. Written in 1906, The Jungle effectively describes some of the biggest issues of the era; poverty, discrimination, injustice and crime are some of the many problems that plagued the ‘Labor Movement’ years. In the later chapters of Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel The Jungle, Socialism is a hot topic amongst Jurgis and his ‘comrades’. This system of societal organization seemingly provided all the answers to the working class’ concerns by implementing a simple solution: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution.” This ‘solution’, however, is not unique; almost every system of government promises an answer to the most common

It is an obvious safety hazard at the fault of the company, yet, he does not receive compensation. He is forced to beg for his job back. Marija loses her job drawing advertisements at a canning company when she joins a union. Ona’s boss, Phil Connor, harasses her. When Jurgis learns of the assault, he attacks the man and goes to jail. “They put him in a place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink—why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside—why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze?” (Sinclair, 184-185). This quote shockingly illustrates that the prison is actually an environment far preferable to the cruel, filthy world of Packingtown. Sinclair’s famous descriptions of the repugnant meatpacking plants is meant to enhance the plea for better physical conditions. There are endless examples where Sinclair addresses the lack of rights for the working class. He suggests socialism as a possible remedy where the social classes would be even, but stresses the necessity of labor unions to maintain wages, workers’ compensation claims, and a safe and healthy work environment free from exploitation.

Thesis Statement: The achievement of the American Dream, represented by social classes and opportunities available for social advancement, is unrealistic. The American Dream is propaganda for capitalism, rooted into the minds of believers that are used for labor. Capitalism’s fixed social classes leave no room for immigrants or for the hopeful to move up towards material success and wealth.

Labors did not have very good wages and it was problem during the Gilded Age. Labors’ had to live by paternalism, meaning that George Pullman owned them. It seems as if labors never got a profit for the long hours that they worked in the sweatshops. All the money goes straight back to Pullman, because they had to pay for rent and their goods and groceries provided by him. So basically, Pullman didn’t consider them valuable because there was always someone looking for a job. These reasons led to several unionizations like the Knights of Labor where they had to pay their dues to go on strike and fight for them. Anyone from radical to bosses could join this union except bankers and lawyers, which made no sense. They fought for workplace rights but where they did wrong is when they demanded outside workplace rights such as free public schools for their children. This union caused deaths

At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started an investigation as he declared“ I spent seven weeks in Packingtown studying conditions there, and I verified every smallest detail, so that as a picture of social conditions the book is as exact as a government report” (Sinclair, The

They were forced to work longer without pay, work in unsanitary conditions, and more. Much later in the novel, after Jurgis has run away fromm his family, become an alcoholic, and homeless, he accidently stumbles upon a political meeting where he is first introduced to socialism. When he first gets to the meeting, he enters just to sit and rest until someone encourages him to listen to the speech. To his surprise, the speaker is pointing out the terrible conditions that workers face each day. Additionally, he talks about how capitalists grind most workers into capitulation. Jurgis has never heard anyone speak so vividly of the realities he was facing each day, causing him much joy. This was the first time a political party was in favor of the working class rather than the privileged and wealthy. Sinclair does an excellent job of developing the theme of reform from capitalism to socialism. As he speaks to Ostrinski, a Lithuanian speaking socialist, he is informed that just because America is politically free doesn’t mean there is no “wage slavery”. When Jurgis finds a new job, under a socialist boss, Sinclair makes it obvious that this is a much better political party than capitalism since Jurgis is making thirty plus dollars each month. This new wage is nothing compared to the amount he was making before. Throughout the novel capitalism is portrayed as a destructive form of government while Sinclair promotes socialism.

Workers in Packingtown were subject to conditions similar to slavery. Sinclair describes the situation explaining that “they were tied to the great packing machine, and tied to it for life” (Sinclair 94). Most of the workers could not escape the grasps of the Beef Trust, a monopoly on the beef industry that was above even the law. They were forced to work in dangerous and filthy conditions, earning barely any compensation for their work. All of the workers were seen as “cogs in the great packing machine,” replaceable and cheap (Sinclair 74). By objectifying their workers as simply moving parts to a machine, employers could find moral high ground in the poor and inhumane working conditions, and they could replace old and damaged “parts” with new ones without so much as thinking about what they had done for that worker. Sinclair hoped to promote Socialism with these depictions, spending the last few chapters of the book detailing how Socialism could fix all of the problems detailed in the beginning. His ideas of “‘Communism in material production, anarchism in intellectual’” were never realized in the United States (Sinclair 291). He believed that people should be given equal resources and then allowed to have as much intellectual gain as they wanted. The general public did not respond to this argument. They saw the problem in a different perspective, blaming not capitalism but

The metaphor of the human being as a waste product allows Sinclair to tap into the guilt feelings of his audience.  At times, the book reminds one of those late-night TV solicitations for funds for third-world children.  What is interesting is that this is not particularly a good novel to read; the writing is dogmatic and often polemical.  Rather than trying to convince with reason and subtlety, Sinclair is shoving a point of view down the throats of those watching.  Still, this brutal approach is the only way to make an impression on an audience so far removed from the reality depicted in the novel.  Such an approach draws on the Catholic/Jewish/universal guilt that is plied by Sinclair like a preacher through the meat market of industrial life.  Rudkus comes into the novel full of hope and the reader must identify with his hopes and dreams.  Yet these dreams are not exactly fodder for a successful novel, if Rudkus was to find his American Dream.  The dream he finds is as rotten as the sausage that he processes, as is the American Dream in the socialist mindset of Sinclair.

The aftermath of the Industrial Revolution left America’s economy and cities in a prosperous state. Immigrants flocked to the United States in search of the American Dream, and rising cities like Chicago thrived off of the meat packing and steel industries. However, the American Dream for many newcomers wasn’t all that it seemed; corrupt political bosses and machines ruled major city politics, making the working and living conditions of immigrants employed for these corporations unsubstantial. After going undercover in a meat packing plant, muckraker Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906 to expose the repulsive conditions that the lower class worked in. An initial reading of this piece focuses strongly on the ideas of a capitalistic society

How would one feel if they spent their entire lives working towards an unattainable goal? That goal is the American Dream, a term that can be loosely defined as one’s attempt at what they believe is success, whether it be a family, high-paying career, a beautiful home, or all three. The American Dream can be whatever one makes of it. James Baldwin and William Buckley strongly debated this issue with underlying similarities but ultimately Baldwin had a stronger argument. This House Believes in the American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro, was a historic 1965 debate about society’s mistreatment of the African American race throughout history. Baldwin highlighted that white Americans innately believe they are still superior to African Americans and their pursuit of the American Dream holds more weight while Buckley attempted to discredit him. Baldwin drew scrutiny to the social injustices faced by blacks in their daily lives especially in their pursuit of the American Dream and attempted to direct white America’s attention to the issues that desperately need a solution.

The labor union movement over the years has shaped the way individuals work and live for both the nicest and unpleasant. Some would think the unions influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In today’s time, some citizens insist the existence of unions are a must to aid in employee freedom, while others view the labor unions as just another problem in the line of progress. The purpose of labor unions was for employed workers to come together and collectively agree on fundamental workplace objectives. The rise of the union came about after the Civil War- responding to the industrial economy. Surprisingly at the least unions became popular within the 1930-50’s and began to slowly decrease,