In the book the Jungle many hardships and obstacles are shown through the life of Jurgis and many others that surround him. Both mentally and physically draining challenges were present for immigrant workers in the gilded age. Not only for men but for women and children as well. Since families of immigrants needed all hands-on deck. The environment they lived in was in many ways harsh as well. Living in neighborhoods that can literally injure or murder a small child. In this paper I will go through how immigrants went through their daily life and how they adapted or not. I will first go over the living conditions that an immigrant worker would have to deal with. Most immigrants that worked at the Union Stockyards lived in places that were …show more content…
Man, woman or child. Even children could make a "living" working at the Union Stockyards. Being able to operate in hard to reach places that older men couldn’t. Moving their small hands and bodies into machines they may still be in operation. Sometimes costing them a limb or even worse their life. Even though women were not allowed to work in the Stockyards, owners and overseers found other uses for them in Packingtown. An example shown by Jurgis' wife Ona. Who sold her own body as a prostitute. Since even though they could do other forms of labor it was difficult to secure that job as a permanent position. Since some families struggled to make payment to payment work such as prostitution was a last resort for some. Driving families mad such as Jurgis's and nearly tearing them apart. Most knew women were left with the choice of selling their body or allow their family to starve. Even then the husbands can't retaliate against the men who pay for their wives. Since most likely they are a part of the machine. For families in the Stockyards im sure the plan for most was to have the men be the dominant breadwinner and provide for the family, but for most im sure that’s not was transpired. Every member of every family was a vital part of whether they could continue to live. The family would more likely be the bread winner. With everyone working …show more content…
For workers who wished to forget about the misery of their life, alcohol was a good way to lessen that memory. Giving a bit of a boost for the market of the alcohol business as well. Since when most workers got off their day at the Stockyards they would head straight to their local pub. Trying to block out what their life has instore for them for most likely the rest of their life. Leaving immigrants little time for other luxuries such as going to a library or spending leisure time with the family. Meaning that they don't have the time to gain other hobbies or skills that can help them out of the working class and into the middle class. Unionizing at this time also did little to help immigrant workers. If you were injured on the job or had to miss work, you would most likely let go, and there was nothing the unions could do. They also could not argue work hours and wages. Leaving them to work all day with little
At this time in history, there were “two million children under the age of sixteen” working to provide for their families, and some kids beginning labor at the tender ages of “six and seven years (in the cotton
Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" is a novel that depicts the lives of Lithuanian immigrants working in the meatpacking industry in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. The jungle refers to the harsh and unforgiving environment of the meatpacking district, where workers are subjected to dangerous working conditions, unsanitary living quarters, and exploitation by powerful meatpacking companies. The book opens with Jurgis Rudkus, a strong and proud Lithuanian immigrant, arriving in Chicago with his family. They quickly find work in the meatpacking district, but soon discover that the reality of their new life is far harsher than they had imagined.
Upton Sinclair displays his dexterous writing ability in one of his most widely familiar books “The Jungle”. Throughout this unique masterpiece Sinclair broadcast multiple conditions which one today would not know to judge from its content as a horror or jest. He goes about this by storytelling the life of an immigrant family. These conditions vary from poor living setups to the stomach turning health violations undertook by the meat industry. Overall imposing his theory that the heavily sold illusion of the american dream wasn’t at all what it was made out to be.
Workers suffered when they began to live in mill villages because the privacy of the families was little to none. Mill owners would often intrude in the private lives of the families to monitor their daily lives. Owners gaining control over their workers was used solely to keep them in the area of work and intimidate them from making any mistakes because they would be fired for almost anything that was deemed unsatisfactory. This caused many workers to be cautious of their actions. In chapter three, the infamous mill owner was William Greenleaf, a stingy man, who never gave his workers their rightfully deserved wages.
Some would withdraw labour as a sign of discontentment whereas others would deliberately commit offenses in order to be sent back to the factory for reassignment. Many considered it to be the lesser of the two evils. With women constantly circulating through the factory, households that had unfavourable working conditions and difficult attitudes from masters and mistresses were quickly identified by the convict women and avoided as much as they could. However when the factory was changed into a convict invalid and lunatic asylum, it left women without husbands or masters defenceless with nowhere to go. These convict women now had to find a way to survive, some turned to prostitution and stealing and were seen by society as “more uncivilized than the savage, more degraded that the slaves, less true to all natural and womanly instincts…guilty of lying, theft, unchastity, drunkenness,
One of the bigger issues surrounding this age was the awful factory working conditions. Nobody listened to what the workers had to say during that time. “The employer desires to reduce wages and lengthen the hours of labor, while the desire of employees is to obtain shorter hours of labor and better wages, and better surroundings.” (Document C) This selection of document C shows that the employers wanted their employees to get paid even
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair written in 1906, tells of inhumane conditions that immigrants faced when coming to industrialized cities of the United States. The book begins with the wedding of Ona Lukoszaite and Jurgis Rudkus to help show the reader how even during these times such as this, immigrants are still mistreated. Their wedding causes them to realize that they have one hundred and more in debt. Jurgis, who believes greatly in the American dream, tells his wife that he will find a job quickly and get them out of their debt. He, as well as other members of his family members go out to find work to get them out of their debts, but whenever they find a job something always seems to go wrong, forcing them to lose their jobs.
Dr. Stow expresses that “as a class, they [the laborers] are dwarfed physically.” Stow clarifies his statement by explaining that these physical and psychological ailments have come as a result of the lack of fresh air and intense heat of the mills of which the laborers work in. The failure of politicians to pass legislation to improve the welfare of workers unfortunately led to several other instances of abuse similar to the kinds expressed in the report. Subsequently, laborers began to unionize in order to advocate for more humane working conditions. These unions supported things such as an 8-hour work day, child labor protections, and higher wages.
During these times of greed and self-serving from union leaders, many of the union workers themselves just wanted fair wages, fair hours, and the ability to have health insurance for their families, however for the union leaders this wasn't enough so they pushed for more and more until business found alternative ways to achieve the same goals. This left union workers standing in a strike line that they did not always believe in fighting for a cause that no longer resembled their original complaint and finally looking for another job as the union leaders talked them right out of a job. The workers that managed to get back to work seemed to live in a constant state of fear that the work they were doing would one day be able to be manufactured overseas for minimal money. This could leave them without a way to earn a decent wage, afford every day necessitates for their family and ultimately lose all that they had worked for and sacrificed for through the
In Riis’s book, the immigrants were under paid and were forced to work longer hours, and children were forced drop out of school to work along the side adults. Cultural conditions were hard when it come to women and immigrants. Women had lower salaries
These workers faced dangers everyday and received little pay. At the same time, many other people also had more money and leisure time. Henry George’s book, Progress and Poverty, talks about this divide. “ It was as though an immense wedge were being forced, not underneath society, but through society. Those who are above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are crushed down” (Document 3).
Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tension in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his novel “The Jungle”. He used the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, to show the harsh situation that immigrants had to face in the United States, the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions in the meatpacking plants, as well as the tension between the capitalism and socialism in the United States during the early 1900s. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were massive immigrants move into the United States, and most of them were from Europe. The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, like many other immigrants, have the “America Dream” which they believe America is heaven to them, where they can
The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was created with the purpose of exposing the unsanitary practices of the meat industry but also depicting the culture of the working class. Before laws were enacted protecting workers, mistreatment from employers and companies was a huge issue all over the United States. The Jungle helps put the past into perspective, and through its readings, one can come to the conclusion that life back then, thanks to working conditions, culture, and corruption, was less than enjoyable. First and foremost, the setting and characters in The Jungle reflect the immigration status of the United States during the time. Located in Chicago during the late 19th century, the audience is introduced to a Lithuanian wedding where
The life of an industrial worker was very hard. Workers had to work long shifts and get paid very little. Some worked ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, and made less than one dollar per hour. Along with long hours and little pay, there was no regulation for breaks, safety, or age. Due to this, one in eleven workers died on the job.
Child labor was a great problem in the Industrial Revolution. Factory owners usually hired women and children rather than men. They said that men expected higher wages, and they suspected that they were more likely to rebel against the company. Women and children were forced to work from six in the morning to seven at night, and this was when they were not so busy. They were forced to arrive on time and they couldn’t fall behind with their work because if they did they were whipped and punished.