The Jungle
Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland September 20th, 1878 ( https://www.biography.com ). Upton was an only child to an alcoholic salesman ( Upton Beall Sinclair) and a very strong-willed stay -at home mother( Priscilla harden Sinclair) The Sinclair family lived in poverty and by the age of 10, Upton’s father decided to move the family to New York. At this young age Sinclair started reading famous works of Shakespeare and more and started to get a step into push into his future career ( https://www.biography.com ). Sinclair first started writing and selling stories at the age of 14 at New York City College. At the age of 20, Sinclair determinedly chose to become a writer and no one was going to stop him. Upton Sinclair was motivated to write the story “The Jungle” by his political motivations (https://www.biography.com ). The story “The Jungle” is well known and considered to be his most successful story, as a child Sinclair made judgements and opinions of the wealthy and that grew into his socialism thoughts. In 1903 his work sent Upton to Chicago to investigate reported mistreatment of employees at the meatpacking facilities ( https://www.ssa.gov ).After spending weeks undercover as a meatpacking worker, Upton gathered enough evidence to write his manuscript that later became “The Jungle”. Upton’s main motivation of writing the manuscript was to describe the cruelty of workers, but he used his creativity to describe the cruelty of animals that he
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).”
Upton Sinclair was born in a small row house in Maryland, in 1878. When Sinclair was 10 years old, his father moved the family from Baltimore to New York. By this time, Sinclair had already begun to develop and interest and followed the works of Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley. When he turned 14, he attended the local college of New York and took several classes on English and Writing Skills to improve and create one of his own novels. At age 20 he finished his studies and decided to become a serious novelist and start writing his own book. During the same time is when he met his wife known as, Meta Fuller. Their relationship wasn’t very strong and this lead to Sinclair writing his first novel known as, Springtime and Harvest. In 1903,
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.
Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California, who pioneered the kind of journalism known as "muckraking." His best-known novel was "The Jungle" which was an expose of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry. "The Jungle" was influential in obtaining passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
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, written by Upton Sinclair Jr., talks about the trials and the desperation of a young family. During the story, a young couple falls into an abyss of debt immediately after getting married. While they were on a tour of Packingtown, they took in the terrible and disturbing sights and smells of the animals that were crowded at the slaughterhouse. In the later part of the book, Antana dies which causes Jurgis to fall deeply into despair. Although I did not think I could relate to this book at first, I was wrong and did in fact, find a few relatable occurrences while reading. Such as the loss of a loved one. I have lost many close friends and family over the years to unexpected tragedies.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a graphic and affecting account of the meat processing and butchering production in the 1900’s. The Jungle is a knowledgable analysis on the social, political, and economic affairs of the food industry and the quickly expanding capitalist society of the 20th century. Sinclair uses a impoverished immigrant family looking for a finer life to highlight the social and economic imbalances of work in the food system caused by capitalism. Even over a century later, The Jungle stays relevant as a reminder to customers and policymakers about the complex food system and the likelihood for exploitation of animals and workers. The collection of food manufacturing formed over a century ago built the bases of the present-day
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.
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.
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
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.
After reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair my understanding of what immigrants went through was tuned. I’ve always known immigrants were treated poorly, but I didn’t know the extent. Originally many immigrants moved to America to take advantage of opportunities that were not offered in their country. Most immigrants looked forward to starting a new beginning and getting a job. High hopes of a fresh new start were crumbled on arrival. Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite moved to America in search of work to pay off their debt and to start their new life as a married couple. I believe their decision to move to America is exactly what broke their family down. There were no free handouts given to immigrants. They weren’t given any help of any kind
Upton Sinclair was a boy who was exposed to two worlds. Upton was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 26th,1878. He came from a southern family (“Upton Sinclair is born”, n.d.). He was the only child of an alcoholic, Liquor salesman and a prudish mother (“Upton Sinclair biography, n.d.). He was being raised on near poverty conditions, but through his mother’s wealthy family Upton saw the both the privileges of the upper class and downside to poverty (“Upton Sinclair biography”, n.d.).
During the progressive era, 1900-1920, Chicago had a growing population due to the vast number of European immigrants settling there. By the 1900s, nearly 750,000 people, almost half of Chicago’s population was having to live in the central park. Trying to produce enough food to keep the city feed was grueling. It was about meeting the demand. When The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published in 1906, which revealed the stomach turning ways of the meat packing companies, it caused the people to become enraged. In The Jungle, he uses disturbing visual imagery to describe the filthy conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago during the progressive era, in order to get the public’s attention, henceforth gathering the public along his side to fight for better health codes.
A wealthy nation is not a prosperous nation, as a nation can be prosperous without being wealthy. Wealth can be defined as capital or vice versa as having properties or resources and turning it into money. A country that is wealthy can have both rich and poor people living in it. There is an upper class, middle class and lower class, which individuals are associated to. We all know that individuals in the upper class have more resources, materials, properties and more money than the middle and lower class. The position that Upton Sinclair takes is that a wealthy nation isn’t a prosperous nation as many immigrants worked in horrible conditions and lived in miserable areas in her book “The Jungle”. I claim that a wealthy nation isn’t a prosperous nation because people have to look at the quality of human life and factors such as education, health care, inequality, basic needs, social goods and literacy are key aspects in determining if a wealthy nation is a prosperous nation. The first body paragraph of my essay will be focusing on Gross Domestic Product and how it is not the best way to determine if a country is wealthy or not. Also it will be addressing the issues of Qatar which is the richest nation and has the highest per capita. The second body paragraph will illustrate the drive for capital by Heilbroner and how it can produce wealth or misery. Upton Sinclair book “The Jungle” is a good example as it shows how Jurgis left Lithuania to go to America to become a wealthy