ipl-logo

Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

643 Words3 Pages

After the 1906 publication of Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, American citizens were shocked and confused. An instant hit, the book made Sinclair an immediate celebrity. His most famous quote was pertaining to the impact that The Jungle had on society, he states, “I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” The groundbreaking novel unearthed the lives of poor immigrants living and working in the Chicago stockyards. The story's main character, Jurgis Rudkus, is a Lithuanian immigrant who came to America with the dream of living a happy and content life with his family. This does not happen and, like most immigrants, Jurgis experienced countless tragedies. Upton Sinclair obtained an accurate portrayal of these …show more content…

In 1900’s Chicago the problems that this caused were massive. The Jungle reveals that many public officers were venal and bribing was rampant. This resulted in horrible working conditions and no legal justice for immigrants and other workers.Sinclair describes the effects that capitalism can have on immigrants through the Rudkus family. When he first arrives Jurgis does not understand why his co-workers are angry or why unions are necessary. He states that he enjoys the work and its high speed pace, it is written that, “He was quite dismayed when he first began to find it out- that most of the men hated their work.” In the beginning this work, to Jurgis, was not oppressive or unjust, it was tolerable. This is because he was exactly what the system was looking for; he did not realize that as soon as Packingtown had its effects on him, he was useless. With no laws in place to protect the employees, because all the factories were individually owned, employees were treated like trash and, without them knowing, capitalism was their biggest enemy. Most workers might have been upset at their bosses, but they did not realize that their maltreatment came from a much higher

Show More
Related

Role Of Upton Sinclair's Living And Dying In Packingtown

1346 Words | 6 Pages

Seth Ruiz Tracy Brady HIST151 October 19, 2015 Paper 1 Upton Sinclair’s Living and Dying in Packingtown, Chicago is a reading of a portion of his novel, The Jungle. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair writes about a man named Jurgis Rudkus who is an immigrant from Lithuania looking for a job in Packingtown. After the death of one of his wife’s sons, Kristoforas, Jurgis applied to work for a fertilizer plant which was considered the lowest of the low places to work. He got the job and soon came to realize how terrible it was to work at the fertilizer plant. Upton Sinclair wrote about what the plant was like in Jurgis’s and the townspeople’s mind, “All this while he was seeking for work, there was a dark shadow hanging over Jurgis; as if a savage

Read More

Analysis Of The Jungle Excerpt By Upton Sinclair

1119 Words | 5 Pages

The Jungle Excerpt was written by the American journalist and author, Upton Sinclair, in 1906. His family had lost almost everything that they had— including their wealth and their land— due to the Civil War. As a child, Sinclair moved around a lot because his father was unsuccessful in his career as liquor salesman. His love for reading began when he was around the age of five, but he did not receive a formal education until the age of ten. He graduated from Columbia University with a major in law, but his passion was always writing.

Read More

Jurgis Rudkus In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

710 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Upton Sinclair

430 Words | 2 Pages

Other than the people who lived there, life in the city slums was unknown to most of America. Upton Sinclair author of the novel “The Jungle” had an intention to explore what life was really like in the cities. He takes a typical immigrant family and tells what their life is like. The man and the woman get married, live in a tiny tenement, and have dirty low paying jobs in the meatpacking plant. But the real surprise comes when Sinclair talks about the meatpacking plants.

Read More

20th Century Immigrants In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1326 Words | 6 Pages

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is an American novel classic. This book provides a lens into the life of 20th century immigrants working in poor conditions throughout industrialization. Sinclair set out to expose the harsh conditions that these poor immigrants had to live in. By doing so, he wanted to show that not only was the meatpacking industry vile, but also wanted to show that capitalism doesn’t work.

Read More

Meatpacking Workers In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1060 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

The Role Of Immigrants In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1330 Words | 6 Pages

The 1906 novel The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair rendered the sickening work condition of immigrants in the industrialized city of Chicago. The early twentieth century was the time when Europeans were migrating to the United States many of the immigrants lived in an overcrowded urban area, and immigrants worked for low and unfair wages for American factories and businesses. At the time the city of Chicago had one of the worst poor living conditions in the United States. The Lithuanians faced the American businesses who ruthlessly manipulated them, experiencing the horrendous working conditions, and the harsh exploitation of the labor of women, men and children. Immigration.

Read More

The Economic Tension In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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

Read More

Inequity In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

634 Words | 3 Pages

Inequity was a major role throughout the unpleasant days most people of Chicago had to associate with. The whole city of Chicago faced a huge quantity of the despondent years they had to deal with due to the fact of people not caring for the workers. Those that didn’t have to go through this disastrous time, were disheartened, disinherited and finally disconnected from life without respite or any hope of deliverance from these prisons created by those who were able to control with their money. In about 1906, Upton Sinclair published the “The Jungle,” which was written during the unpleasant days of Chicago Illinois. “The Jungle” which was written by Upton Sinclair is a story in which explains how Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, and friends who were from a forest called Lithuania, but migrated to Chicago Illinois in search of happiness.

Read More

The Industrialization Process In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1067 Words | 5 Pages

Rough Draft Since the publication of The Jungle back in 1906, it remains a very impacting novel in American history. While it may not have any ghouls or goblins, The Jungle is miles past a horror story. In what is arguably Sinclair’s best work, he vividly depicts the terrors of life in the meatpacking industry, and the barbarous working conditions that come along with it. This novel illustrates the different ways the industrialization process destroys the lives of workers by bombarding them both physically and emotionally with: deplorable working conditions, harsh weather, and government corruption. Through the view of Sinclair’s fictional character Jurgis, he uncovers all of the lies and corruption that was masqueraded by capitalism, and he

Read More

Theme Of Socialism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1357 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, there is an underlying theme of hatred towards the capitalistic system. Capitalism Is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners, rather than by the state. This is a more self-serving system, and often people are left to fend for themselves. Sinclair’s socialist views are easily noticeable with his depiction of big businesses and the upper class as being evil.

Read More

The American Dream In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1045 Words | 5 Pages

The 19th century was the era of the Gilded Age, where the economy was booming, bringing great changes that affected the lives of workers and entrepreneurs. During this period, there was a large influx of immigrants that were coming to America to look for job opportunities. The migration of immigrants proved useful as a source for cheap labor, allowing an even higher rise in the U.S. economy. While American industrialization may have benefited the upper class of the American society, the effects were opposite to the workers of the lower classes. This problem was especially worse for immigrant workers as their belief in the so-called American dream has been worn down due to the misery they had to endure.

Read More

The Jungle: The Plight Of Immigrant Workers

1777 Words | 8 Pages

On top of this, workers were dehumanized and treated as machines with the sole purpose of doing work. This was exacerbated by the fact that humans are quick to discriminate by outer appearance—new immigrants had darker skin and did not speak English. There were no laws to protect these workers. Evidently, immigrant workers are most likely to face mistreatment when there is a high supply of workers, a strong nationalist attitude, and inadequate legal protection. Even today, exploitative workers take advantage of weak laws.

Read More

Examples Of Struggles In The Jungle

2149 Words | 9 Pages

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,

Read More

The Jungle Critical Analysis

1202 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Related Topics

Open Document