Upton Sinclair reflects the reality of the people during the late 1800’s in his novel The Jungle. In his novel, Sinclair wants to promote Socialism by showing how people lived in the meatpacking plant and under a corrupt government. The inhuman working conditions, combined with the lack of hygiene and a corrupt government, made trying to make a living a total hardships for the low class and the immigrants.
The Jungle takes place in Packingtown, Chicago, where the employees work under horrible conditions. In the meatpacking plants workers have to perform dangerous tasks and problems as the absence of heat in the winter or conditioning air in summer, make the situation worst. ‘’Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing beds of
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The Jungle presents a corrupted government that abuses its power in other to get personal satisfaction and accomplished interests. A good example is how the government pays the immigrants for their votes promising a better lifestyle (251). Also, people lived under unfair accusations and sentences to jail. ’’Poor Jurgis could not know that the owner of the saloon paid five dollars each week to the policeman alone for Sunday privileges and general favors nor that the pugilist bartender was one of the most trusted henchmen of the Democratic.’’ (245). It is shown how the economic status gives different power to people. Corruption in the late 1800’s was about the big guy against the small guy; the people who had money had all the power above the immigrants and the lower class.
Sinclair used these different arguments to persuade people to turn into socialism, showing the dark side of the government at the time of the Gilded Age. The bad working conditions, the absence of sanitation and the corruption made difficult for people to succeed in life, taking away their rights and opportunities making a real hardship for the working class to make a
How The Jungle Shows Problems with Socialism in the 18-1900´s Upton Sinclair was a muckraker so it shouldn’t come to a shock when it is said that Upton wrote The Jungle as a way to identify different problems with society during his time period. Some of these problems that were included in The Jungle are political corruption, socialism is bad, life was hard for immigrants. With the turn of events that happened in The Jungle, it could easily persuade people to believe that there was lots of corruption during the early 1900´s time period. This essay is written to persuade you that the main problems is corruption. Many major events in the book revolved around corruption.
All the elements and conflicts presented in the book leads to the theme of socialism. Upton Sinclair is a supporter of the socialist move. To the point of writing this work is to elicit sympathy for the working class and build support for socialism. Everything within the book is criticizing capitalism; the only remedy for the evils of capitalism is socialism (Sinclair). In capitalism, the upper-class keep getting richer by exploiting the lower working class, leaving a wide gap between the wealthy and the impoverished.
Capitalism bred corruption in both police department, government and the voting process, and bred ethnic tensions that had a major effect on class relations during that period. The unions and socialist movements that came out during this time period showed to the world how problematic capitalism is, and blossomed in the 20th century as a savior of the working class. Upton Sinclair conveyed to the world the problems of capitalism in a progressive reform impulse way, and was extremely successful in showing to the world how problematic capitalism was. Capitalism bred horrible working conditions, and the
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” advocates for socialism by depicting the story of a young immigrant who is manipulated and cheated time and time again by sadist business men in a capitalist society. Throughout the novel, the idea that socialism is a more Biblically sound economic system is asserted through evidence of Jesus’ teachings in which He condemns the wealthy for their attachment to the world. However, capitalism implements more Biblical ideas than socialism does because of the rewards that come from hard work and the means of production being privately owned, which are both ideas taught throughout Jesus’ teachings. Shortly after Jurgis is introduced to the idea of socialism, he finds Lucas, an evangelist, who argues that socialism is
In early 1900, specifically, 1906, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written. This novel told the story of a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in a filthy Chicago meatpacking plant. It exposed the meatpacking industry by stating their vile practices not only towards their meat but their workers as well. This was a result of the combination of many immigrants in the United States to pursue a better life, and the fact that many big industries were looking for ways to maximize their profit.
Corporate greedy and corrupt politicians were specific problems and injustices that were present in American life during the late 1800s and early 1900s however these were addressed during the progressive era with laws and regulations. Throughout the gilded era corrupt politicians and corporate greedy allowed the upper class and businessmen to take advantage of the working class. This means that a majority of the population were hurt during the gilded age whereas a small percentage benefitted. As seen in document 1, living conditions were crowded, dirty, and unsafe.
The Bosses squeezed and drained the life of those men. In the book The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair he described the life of a struggling family try to work and stay alive in the filth. The working conditions in the factories were unsafe, unsanitary and people made little. The purpose of this book was for people to become socialist other than capitalist.
Families that are poor or have a low income are more likely to commit crimes for the purpose of their own needs to survive. “It is a fact that neighborhoods where the poor are concentrated are more prone to high crime rates, and poor residents are the most common victims of crimes” (1). The best explanation for this is that poorer people have the same needs as a regular middle-class citizen. The poor citizens need certain things to help him or her live a healthy life, such as healthcare, food stamps, and more employment options. One may argue that healthcare is too expensive and that food stamps have been taken away from many people.
A Time for Struggle and Change Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, depicts the struggles of Lithuanian immigrants as they worked and lived in Chicago’s Packingtown at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The United States experienced an enormous social and political transformation; furthermore, the economy, factories, and transportation industry grew faster than anyone had ever seen. Immigrants and migrants were attracted to city life for its promise of employment and their chance at the American Dream. The poor working class had little to no rights, and they grappled with unfair business practices, unsafe working conditions, racism, Social Darwinism, class segregation, xenophobia, political corruption, strikes, starvation, poor housing,
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
In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Jurgis and his family attempt to survive in a malicious society. In this jungle of a town, rotten meat is being packaged in order to save money. Throughout the novel, the immigrants are faced with greedy capitalists who take advantage of the family’s ignorance and naivety in order to make money. The symbols of corruption, a jungle-like setting, and the tension between family and a work-based lifestyle transparently contribute to the unifying theme of anti-capitalism. In other words, this book is not art; this book is propaganda.
Sinclair explains how capitalism turned people greedy and to use each other for their own benefits. For example, “Here was Durham's, for instance, owned by a man who was trying to make as much money out of it as he could, and did not care in the least how he did it; and underneath him, ranged in ranks and grades like an army, were managers and superintendents and foremen, each one driving the man next below him and trying to squeeze out of him as much work as possible.” Sinclair says nothing good about capitalism and continues to be against it by showing examples of how capitalists were not only corrupt but unsympathetic to American values of family, morals, democracy, and community. This sets up an open window for socialism. Sinclair truly believed that Socialism was something that could prevent the continuation of capitalism and wrote this book to promote it.
The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair was an expose on the life of those who lived in Packingtown, Chicago. Packingtown was where most of the people who was looking for work lived, it was a very crowded city. Job openings were scarce and most of the jobs were very unsafe. Most of the people in this part of town were poor, so they did not really have much doubts of food,. The Jungle exposed the horrific work conditions, the poor food quality, and the deceitfulness of the business owners.
Thus, Sinclair’s purpose of writing The Jungle failed to bring readers to advocate for the rights of workers trapped in the low wages, unsafe working conditions, and long hours of meatpacking factories, but rather, succeeded in opening the country’s eyes to the meatpacking practices that went on behind closed doors and the establishment administrations to protect the public from these unscrupulous
During the time period of the 1900’s, the meat packaging industry in Chicago, as Sinclair mentions in his novel, The Jungle, was a very unsanitary and extremely dangerous workplace that lacked much more than just a few safety precautions. Simple things, such as enforcing hand washing or workers’ rights were unheard of in the working environment. It is clear that Upton Sinclair was trying to expose the worker’s horrendous labor conditions in order to improve their situation, along with the introduction of socialism. Upton Sinclair, in his novel, talks about how a Lithuanian immigrant by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, travel to Chicago trying to make ends meet. However, they soon realize Chicago was not the place for that.