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Evil Of Capitalism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Author name Upton Sinclair, it is a Political fiction book. It described the horrible condition of meat workers. In that era labors got treated really badly, they didn’t had any safe environment to work in. It explained how backwards we were. We had same circumstances going on in many corners of world. This book was most impactful book of American history. This action brought a direct reform on the meat packing industries, and helped labors. This action should need to explain to our nation, we should understand it, and appreciate that things have changed for us. Jungle is not complicated novel, it explained corrupt Capitalism. It defined how poor people being used, how gross, unhealthy food delivered to nation, and worker survived in poisonous environment. The main theme demonstrated in this book is Evil of Capitalism, because the economic and political system in that era was highly effected to those people who lived in U.S. and those who migrated to U.S. from different places for better …show more content…

After all this demonstrated that poor were unable to fight with power. But if they hold tight with hope they could completed their American dream and obtain better life. They needed new political system which deal with fairness, to given them proper rights and save them from Evil of Capitalism. “All the sordid suggestions of the place were gone—in the twilight it was a vision of power. To the two who stood watching while the darkness swallowed it up, it seemed a dream of wonder, with its talc of human energy, of things being done, of employment for thousands upon thousands of men, of opportunity and freedom, of life and love and joy” (Sinclair Par.8). Here Sinclair used figurative language to describe about packing town, and about the dream Jurgis had when he arrived to American for better life. Moreover, Sinclair defined difficulties that women had to face during that

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How did Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” Impact the Meat Factories during the Progressive Age? During the late 1800s and early 1900s a new stage in the United States began, called the Progressive Era. Over the years, America developed into an industrial working country although, like every country the social and economical problems were becoming an issue. Those who were on top were corrupted and vile while those who did the majority of the work took long hours and low pay.

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"And, for this, at the end of the week, he will carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour,” (Sinclair 85) shows that the employees-- typically new immigrants at the plants-- were hardly provided for and were not paid at all that much. They were exploited; working for long hours for this little pay. Jurgis, the main character in The Jungle, struggled throughout part of Sinclair’s novel because of his lack of income from the meat packing plant he worked at, Durham’s. Many people in this time did as well, like Jurgis, having trouble seeking a home, food or clothing fit enough to purchase with the little they were provided with from their

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469 Words | 2 Pages

In chapter 1 starts by mentioning about a documentary called “Harvest of Shame” this did not only open the audience eye on how food is produced and grown in the United States, but also the condition of the worker work in and how hunger is such a big deal. The document had a sequel called “Migrant.” “Migrant” talked about the abuse labor in Florida in the citrus groves. This bad press made those companies want to fix their problem and fix their working conditions. Well that’s what they said but it really took two years to make these changes because they were being threaten to being boycotted for there labor situation.

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They also better to identify with Jurgis and his families’ struggles. Sinclair probably also wanted government officials to read the book because they had the power to take immediate action. It is ironic because government officials did take action, just not in the way that Sinclair originally anticipated. Roosevelt passed the Federal meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug act in response to the book. While this changed America for the better, it did not come in the form of democratic socialism that Sinclair

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616 Words | 3 Pages

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

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601 Words | 3 Pages

The Jungle exposed the way workers were treated in the meatpacking industry. It stated that they were exposed to filthy workplaces, in which the smell would be outrageous. They were forced to work through these smells for non-stop hours. In addition, the smell would come from the meat itself. The smell would bring in rodents, such as rats, into the factories.

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Matthew DeBacker Mr. Shinabarger AS American History 19 October 2015 Corruption in The Jungle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, was a very impactful book during the industrialization age and still impacts people today. It is considered one of the most important books in the Industrialization Age in America. Upton Sinclair was a muckraker and wanted to draw attention the the terrible things that went on in the meatpacking industry. So he highlighted several key themes such as poverty, capitalism, and immigration during that time period

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He states, “The demise of the Rudkus family, she[Louise Carroll Wade] argues, is far-fetched , given the statistically improbable series of disasters that befall it within a few years’ time” (3). Wade, a social historian, uses reasoning to support her idea that all these events that happen to the Rudkus family are highly unlikely. This makes the reader skeptical about the reality of this book and have sympathy for the Rudkus family. Phelps uses Wade’s point to further express the reasoning behind the Rudkus family’s misfortunes, “we consider Jurgis a literary personification of the whole immigrant working class” (3). This relates to the previous quote saying how all these horrible and unfortunate events happen only to the Rudkus family because they represent all the working class families and the difficulties they faced.

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However, readers at the time were not very concerned about the petty immigrants living on the lower rung of society. Rather, they cared about what affected them most: the condition of the meat they were eating-- and had been eating-- for years, that were produced by some of the very factories mentioned in Sinclair’s novel. For the majority of The Jungle’s readers, the fact that poor immigrants were being exploited was not bothersome. Instead, the fact that the food that readers had been eating for years contained the power to kill them seemed shocking, pushing the nation into a worried frenzy. Readers were disgusted by the facts they were reading, catalyzing the creation of administrations like the FDA.

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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

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1097 Words | 5 Pages

The Jungle, speaks of a fictional family who have immigrated to Chicago, the protagonist later ends up working in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair speaks of the way meats are packed and processed, large companies corrupt ideologies, along with the dire conditions that their workers undergo daily. He wrote of the sickening events, depicting them in detail “men fell into the vats; and when

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634 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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213 Words | 1 Pages

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is an expose of immigrant labor. Sinclair wanted to spark outrage at the practice of selling diseased meat to the public and to arouse sympathy for laborers who worked in the unsanitary conditions of the warehouses. Throughout the novel Sinclair portraits different scenarios in which capitalism is seen as destructive and unjust. The scenarios vary from child labor for personal gain to the willingness of selling diseased meat to the unsuspecting public. I believe The Jungle’s main theme is the evil of capitalism and how the only antidote it has is Socialism.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair illustrates that “Neither the squeals of hogs nor tears of visitors made any difference to [the workers]; one by one they hooked up the hogs, and one by one with a swift stroke they slit their throats” exemplifying the desensitization of workers in the meat-packing industry (Sinclair, 35). This desensitization was the result of years of tedious work that removed all hope from the workers and left them isolated. However, it is not only the nature of the work that affected them, but those who had more power than them. The advance of the industrial revolution resulted in businessmen and bosses gaining power simultaneously while workers were becoming circumscribed by their work.

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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.

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