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Review Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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The Jungle is a story that revolves around the protagonist Jurgis Rudkus and his family, the Lithuanian immigrant who came to America to lead a better life and worked at meatpacking plants of early 20th century Chicago. The story showcases the hardship that they underwent due to the harsh and bad working condition, poverty, starvation and being cheated by unjust people agents, eventually losing all their money. The Jungle provides us ways to look at the unfettered capitalism that prevailed in the early 20th century. This book also exposes the corruption, inequality, unjustness, sickness and slavery that existed in the society. Jurgis started off firmly believing on his American dream of having a better life where he would work hard and earn lots of money. He took up work in a meatpacking plant where he had to sweep blood and body parts of slaughtered cattle. The job was unsafe and the conditions were bitter but he continued working a he was happy to get a job so fast. In the packinghouses the condition were deplorable, every part of the animal was used to make profit. Even spoiled meat was marked as good and sold out to public. The workers did not …show more content…

Ona and Teta also took jobs in order to meet ends of the family. Ona was also forced into sexual relations by her factory boss in return of the job for which she was employed. When Jurgis came to know about it, he goes to his wife’s factory and thrashed that man. After an unfair trial Jurgis was thrown into jail and was not able to work which pushed the family into a greater economic depression. This shows that how easy it was for the higher class of the society to commit a crime and still get out of it easily whereas the poor sections of the society suffers the most. The higher classes of the society held strong connection which makes mockery of law and order, thus spreading unjustness in the

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188 Words | 1 Pages

The Jungle is a novel about the journey of Jurgis and his family after immigrating from Lithuanian to Packingtown, Chicago. Jurgis finds a job working in the meat-packing industry, and the family finds a house to buy. Although Jurgis did not want Ona or the children going to work, times get hard and the whole family ends up getting a job. While at work, Jurgis injures his ankle; this causes him to be out of work for a few months. To keep the family from losing their jobs, Ona sleeps with her boss, Conner.

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1023 Words | 5 Pages

In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Jurgis Rudkus assaulted his wife, Ona and her boss Phil Conner because Conner raped Ona. Due to this assault, he was put in jail for thirty days and was forced, “to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze,” (Sinclair 167). With Jurgis in jail, the family lost its largest source of income. The family couldn’t afford the house and were evicted immediately. Job

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315 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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778 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

When Jurgis first came to america they thought it would be better than where they use lived but it was way worse. The last metaphor is when Marija had enough money to actually be able to put it in the bank. Later she found out the bank had ran out of money so she thought she would lose it all so she and the other people of packingtown went and withdrew all of her money. Marija was so worried she was going to lose all of her money that she sewed it into her jacket pockets, only for her to get stuck in the mud. This shows that marija valued her money more than her own life.

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616 Words | 3 Pages

“The same endless vista of ugly and dirty little wooden buildings. Here and there would be a bridge crossing a filthy creek.” This was Upton Sinclair’s description of the city of Chicago in the early 20th century in his book The Jungle, and it was not flattering. The things that went on inside the city was even uglier, and it was done by one corporate, capitalism. Capitalism became a major problem in America as it bred horrible working and living conditions for the working class, and there was many reasons for why this happened (i.e. greed).

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149 Words | 1 Pages

The book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a good nonfictional read for those who don’t know much about immigration and discrimination. Sinclair uses the characters Jurgis and Ona that move to a the center of Chicago 's meat packing industry to demonstrate the cruel treatment that was given to immigrants from American’s. The theme of The Jungle is to show the evil of capitalism in the world at that time. Jurgis’s family was treated unfairly under the law for being immigrants. Sinclair tries to portray all the ugly sides to capitalism in this book by showing how it is effecting Jurgis’s family.

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921 Words | 4 Pages

As industrial strength grew and technology advanced, labor in America changed. Machines replaced many of workers’ old duties and some skilled laborers who had been previously valued became easily replaced. Immigrants who were willing to work under poorer conditions flooded into the United States, big businesses grew, and political machines whose interests were not that of the people occupied the government. Laborers worked ten hour shifts, six-day workweeks, and started work as children. In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, he describes the painful and vigorous work in the meat-packing industry, saying, “The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them...

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1645 Words | 7 Pages

Have you ever imagined living through life without a steady job, no money, or no food? Both of the characters in these stories endured all of those things. Jurgis and James had many different experiences and many similar experiences throughout their lifetimes. Upton Sinclair wrote a book, The Jungle, describing a young, late teen’s man named Jurgis Rudkus and his family. His family and he moved to America in the early 1900’s looking for a better life.

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In the novel, “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, Jurgis Rudkus plays an important role. Jurgis goes on a journey with his wife to a new country looking for a job and ends up losing more than he ever thought he could lose. The character, Jurgis Rudkus, is a strong willed man who faces many difficult situations on his journey to find a job and to reunite with his in laws.

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832 Words | 4 Pages

Jurgis Rudkus, the main character in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, has a very rough journey when he moves to America from Lithuania. He faces many hardships and they're difficult for anyone to endure. Throughout the novel Jurgis is put through the justice/prison system multiple times, and each time he experienced something new, whether it be the unjust treatment he received, the food he was served, or even the condition of his cell and daily life there. The novel portrayed the justice system as an unfair one. They treat immigrants and the poor unfairly.

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1899 Words | 8 Pages

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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1766 Words | 8 Pages

Due to this, the children might be exposed to many different serious health problems. Several lawsuits have been in place because of this situation. The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, is about Jurgis Rudkus and his family, who are immigrants that move to Chicago from Lithuania in search of a better life. Once they get to America, they realize that life here was not all that it was cracked up to be. They get mistreated, and their daily lives become very challenging.

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508 Words | 3 Pages

The Jungle is a story that teaches people about the history of the meatpacking industry and how poor the working conditions were. The story follows Jurgis Rudkus and his newlywed wife Ona Lukoszaite; moreso Jurgis’s story and how his life turns out in America. Neither Jurgis nor Ona originated in America. Jurgis seems to go through problem after problem in the story, and that is the theme of the story. The story teaches great history on how the United State’s industries used to be.

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1445 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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