Theme of The Jungle Essay

One of the immigrants from Lithuania in the story, Jurgis Rudkus, is a strong unswerving (future) husband who came from a family of peasants. Like many families who moved to America, one main goal for Jurgis was to earn wealth for his family, which he soon realized was a far, far away dream. Shortly after his move with his fiancé, he’ll come to learn

For many who lived through it, the late 1900s, especially the 1980s, was a very tough time for Americans and immigrants alike. While America had to focus on repairing its country from the Vietnam War, a population surge, and the AIDS epidemic, immigrants were suffering from the xenophobic laws passed by American congress. The Haitian people, for instance, were running to America to get away from government tyranny and a severe economic depression, only to be turned away on a technicality. Even if they made it to America, they faced discrimination and poverty. It was a lose-lose situation for the Haitians. Upton Sinclair seemed to have a similar view of the Lithuanian immigrants of the 1800s. Upton Sinclair is the author of The Jungle, a book that follows a family of Lithuanian immigrants as they travel to and try to make their way in America. Sinclair used the book to speak out about the issues of America through the eyes of immigrants, including the economic system and the corruption within the government. The question this paper is required to answer is if Upton Sinclair adequately portrayed the immigrant experience. There are many reasons why one might say he didn’t, such as the fact that what he portrayed appears to be a worst case scenario and the fact that he, a white man, would not understand the turmoils of immigrant life. However, this paper is going to explain why others believe Upton Sinclair adequately portrayed the immigrant experience through The Jungle.

Upon arriving in America, Jurgis is swindled and could have given up on his dream but because of his determination to thrive he reaches, Chicago, the place where he was told he could earn a fortune. In the Jungle, Jurgis and his new family encounter

The novel, “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair can be interpreted differently by modern impoverished American immigrants/minorities and the modern American rich class. “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair is a fictional novel and was published in 1906. It was based on the lives of the individuals he observed in Chicago around that time. He discovered that the lower-working class there was doing horrific work for not enough pay to get themselves, let alone their families, by. He emphasizes on the flaws of the “American Dream” and writes in the support of the Socialist party of the time. The book is about Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant trying to find work in Chicago, Illinois

Those people who were very lucky to get the jobs in mills, factories and mainly inside the industry of meat packing. Jurgis was the most dissatisfied person, experiencing the terrible circumstances which workers met. Along with these terrible circumstances, they joined job for small amount of salaries with hard and very lengthy timings, and in the environment where safety of employer had no value. Initially, here was no any migrants to move to, thus several suffered enormously. Afterward he would study of worker unions and different other unions to help the employees, but unfortunately the initially times of his Americanized life were packed, with joblessness and throughout a demoralizing; painful and depressing “new begin” (Conlin, 2009, 444-449).

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair is about Lithuanian immigrants moving to the United States seeking the American Dream. When they arrive, the family is faced with many hardships. Jurgis Rudkus’ family lives in an overcrowded city called Packingtown, in poverty. The Jungle tells readers about the struggles of being an immigrant in poverty and the horrors of the meat packing industry in the early 20th century. Sinclair’s goal was to make people aware of how hard immigrants had to work in terrible conditions. The public, though, was more concerned with the issues in the meat packing industry. Many people were now speaking out about food quality and working conditions.

Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, is based over the guilds ages in history . The novel has many fifteenth themes . The story started off with two immigrants just married . Move to the United States the live the American dreamland have a better life . They go through a hard time such as not getting treated fairly ,being lied to, put in jail , losing loved ones , going through poverty, government issues and many more.

He was in charge of cleaning the remains of slaughtered cattle. The family is manipulated into renting a house that was supposed to be for sale for way more than they bargained. Ona and Jurgis family is slowly falling into a hard space. They start to get sick from the unhealthy living conditions in the town, but being sick is not in their budget. Ona gives birth later falling sick, Jurgis springs his ankle, which forces him to be off work, and their youngest child dies from consuming some of the bad meat produced by a local

Upton Sinclair in his novel The Jungle made it clear that the family consisting of Jurgis, Ona, Teta Elzbieta, Marija, and others, were chasing after an almost nonexistent “American dream” in hope for happiness and money in their lives. Instead of a land of acceptance and opportunity, they find a place of prejudice and exploitation; instead of a country where hard work and morality lead to success, they find a place where only moral corruption, crime, and graft enable one to succeed materially (The Jungle: Themes, Motifs & Symbols). The hypocrisy of the American dream hit the family will full force and drove them into the ground.

In society books, movies, and folklore are filled with stories of the underdog who beats one-in-a-million odds. As a result millions of immigrants see these heroes as the epitome of the American Dream. Adversely, these stories led to a romanticism of the United States and cause immigrants such as Jurgis and his family to have high hopes of their new lives. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle shines light on the corruption of the American Dream and follows the story of Jurgis and his family. Their ultimate demise shows how their initial belief in the illusion proves a false reality because the family faces the ultimate struggle. Through the imagery of the working conditions

Jurgis realizes that once he crossed the borders nothing changed. Through a series of unfortunate events, Jurgis gets jailed. This led Jurgis to write a novel blasting the harsh work spaces of meat packaging factories. Jurgis was an immigrant from Lithuania that got tired of the hierarchal system of government in his country. In effort to escape this strong arm style government, Jurgis and his family decided to move to Chicago, Illinois.

One of the most noteworthy moments in The Jungle, was when Jurgis was placed in jail after trying to seek justice for the abuse of his wife, when he happened to overheard a conversation between the inmates. It was at this exact moment where Jurgis decided that a life of crime was the best and only

Jurgis Rudkus, a burly young man from Lithuania, immigrants to America with his wife and extended family in hopes of a better future. Jurgis, hard-working and optimistic, quickly secures a job as a factory hand in the meatpacking district of Chicago, known as Packingtown. Initially, Jurgis knows little of the corruption and oppression which exist within Packingtown but soon experiences it first hand as poverty, hunger and loss weigh heavily on his family. Following the death of his wife and son, Jurgis leaves his remaining family and becomes involved in crime and political scandal. Eventually, Jurgis reconnects with his family and discovers socialism, a political ideology which rekindles his hopes for a future of equality and opportunity

In the book, Out of Many, 8th ed. written by John Faragher shows what America was like in the 19th century, such as the unions and factory work. First of all, the organizations such as the meatpacking industries, or the fertilizer department, failed to properly mark hazardous areas, compensate for working hours, or treat their workers fairly. They also worked the workers for ten to twelve hour days, so the workers created unions to get an eight-hour work day. The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, is a fictional story about a couple who are Lithuanian immigrants that travel to America to find a better future, and get married. However, they end up finding that the American dream isn’t very realistic. The unions and

The conditions of work are inhuman, and the workers are treated equally bad. Jurgis’s father is only able to get a job after bribing the boss of the pickling room in a meatpacking plant. The conditions are horrible and in the end kill the old man. Winter brings fresh cruelties. Walking to work in the snow is difficult, the factories are unheated, and for Jurgis the killing beds are fraught with danger due to poor visibility. Marija, however, is soon plunged into gloom when she loses her well-paid job when the canning factory closes down. Marija’s factory re-opens, but she soon loses her job for demanding her rights when she is shorted on her pay. Ona, who is pregnant, is facing trouble at work from her forelady. She realizes that her boss runs a prostitution racket and forcibly uses the girls working at the factory. Ona gives birth to a baby boy, Antanas, names after Jurgis’s father, who has passed away. Weakened by the delivery and forced to return to work within seven days, Ona never recovers her health. Jurgis then sprains an ankle at work, but it turns out to be a pulled tendon and keeps him from work for almost 3 months. During his time of recovery he sees that his family might not make it. He is finally able to work again and gets a job at a horribly unhealthy fertilizer plant. He copes with this job by giving into drinking to help him forget about his problems. Winter comes again and everyone must work