ipl-logo

Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

608 Words3 Pages

Book Review #3: The Jungle The renowned book, The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, reveals many harsh truths that had been hidden during the Gilded Age, and brings light to the conditions of the working class of the time. It is obvious from the beginning that Sinclair’s purpose in writing The Jungle is to address the faults within the relationship between politics, economics, and society, by creating sympathy for the poor, working, and essentially enslaved laborers, which generally consisted of immigrants. Sinclair firmly argues against the ideas of capitalism by tearing down the “American Dream” and revealing the ugly truth behind a façade of myths. He goes on to favor socialist ideas, and expresses extreme disapproval towards the corruption and …show more content…

When Jurgis first arrives to America, he is horrified by the filthy conditions people live in, but continues to be optimistic, ambitious, and caring. Jurgis’ family had come to America because Jonas, Teta’s brother, told them about a man, Jokubas, who had prospered in America. However, when they happened to meet him, they found that he was financially unstable, and struggling, proving the American Dream to be a façade. His family continues on to be exploited by many businessmen, like when they bought a house due to misleading advertisements which contained hidden expenses, and when a politician showed Jurgis how to vote. This, along with how meat packing is done for maximum profit by selling even filthy meat, shows how corrupt capitalism had made America. When living in filth causes Teta’s crippled son to die, and others to become ill, survival becomes the number one priority, driving the once happy family apart and causing desperation. Towards the end, however, after Ona dies and Jurgis’ son, Antanas, also dies of drowning in mud, Jurgis leaves, resorts to alcoholism, and comes across the life of crime, which is more rewarding than an honest life. This proves Sinclair’s point that capitalism causes a desperation that can rob people of virtues and morals, just like how Jurgis started stealing and exploiting other naïve people like him in the beginning, making capitalism a vicious cycle of survival of the

Show More
Related
1176 Words | 5 Pages

WHAT IS “THE JUNGLE”? The Jungle is book written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, published by Jabber & Company in the state of New York. It contains details on the Chicago meatpacking industry, originally written to help bring awareness to the harsh conditions of immigrants workers in these industries. The public, however, too the terrible, unsanitary conditions of these industries, with rats running along the meat, and employees going to the bathroom in the same spot they work with the meat in.

Read More
1165 Words | 5 Pages

Millions of people each day go to the store and purchase meat, produce, and medicine, without worrying if it’s safe, or whether it may be contaminated with things like paint stripper or cocaine. Prior to 1906, there was no organization to monitor whether or not any food or drug contained what it said, let alone if it was safe to be consumed. Even though legislation wouldn’t come for many more years, research into food safety dates all the way back to 1862 when scientist Charles M. Wetherill, who worked for the Department of Agriculture, began testing samples of food for purity. Wetherill’s first project focused on the alcohol content in wine but later led to him and other scientists focusing on problems such as contaminated milk from cows with

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
508 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1021 Words | 5 Pages

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was a novel popularized and published during the Progressive Era with the purpose of exposing the horrific working conditions of the Chicago meat industry. Sinclair exposed the unsanitary practices of the meat industry and the dehumanization of the workers. The harsh realities written in Sinclair’s novel reached the hearts of many Americans furthering the push of many progressive activist’s demands. In the end this created an everlasting lawful change with the help of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

Written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, The Jungle is a novel meant to describe the social and political situation of the time, having as a basis his undercover investigation in a meatpacking plant in Chicago, for the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason. The story, set in the Chicago of the time, describes the life of a group of immigrants that, persuaded by the idea of the American Dream, embarked themselves in the most important journey of their lives. In the city, they would have to overcome the many challenges that an industrial city holds, such as the meatpacking industry, that sells spoiled meat, and oppresses workers, having to work long hours for a minimum wage. The book soon became one of the most influential books of its time. It turned

Read More
632 Words | 3 Pages

The Jungle Paper The Jungle is a novel written by Upton Sinclair. It is about a Lithuanian family that immigrates to America during the early 1900’s. When they arrive in Packingtown, Chicago, they are hopeful and excited for their new life. In reality, life in America was not all that it was advertised to be.

Read More
2031 Words | 9 Pages

Those writers and journalists were called “Muckrakers”, Upton Sinclair was one of them. In order to stay on his position and support the muckrakers, he chose to tell the truth to American public instead of keeping silence. Then, “The Jungle” became his weapon to oppose the trusts and some corrupt officials. Although the content is dangerous and risky, it’s also effective and worth. People responded dramatically to this book, the risk has valuation for Upton Sinclair to take and hook the

Read More
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
1669 Words | 7 Pages

The Jungle Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is a gut wrenching novel at the turn of the century, providing readers’ with a vivid portrait of the American meat-packing industry. Appalling most readers, his novel’s exposure of the meat-packing industry subsequently led to government regulations on the food industry. As we divulge deeper into the novel, we will begin to discuss Sinclair’s original intentions, the ramifications caused by the novel, how the ideas expressed still remain in today’s society, and examples of how other crises have led to the passage of legislation. From these topics, we can hopefully obtain a stronger grasp on one of the most impactful books in American history.

Read More
1107 Words | 5 Pages

After the first reading The Jungle, it was clear that Sinclair was creating a jungle-like atmosphere to help create the chaotic story of Jurgis and his family. Written during the early 1900s, America was experiencing a lot of change. Immigrants were pouring into the cities across the country searching to achieve the American Dream. Although the immigrants were slowly being replaced by newer immigrants, they struggled to fight against each other to make it big in the cities. Sinclair wanted to expose the corruption of the industries and the immigrants attempts to fit into the capitalistic society.

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

His mother and father’s dreams were just fantasies played in the hands of poverty. If his mother and father couldn’t achieve their dreams, Junior himself can’t reach success if destitution is dragging him down. To illustrate this point, “And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people,” (Alexie 11).

Read More
1749 Words | 7 Pages

People in positions of authority were largely inflictors of poverty, because they took advantage of immigrants and their lack of familiarity with their surroundings, as well as paying them far less than was required for a decent lifestyle. Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle depicted each of these issues with great detail and clarity, as well as many other issues that plagued immigrants. The book takes place in the Chicago Packingtown district, the heart of the meatpacking industry. This is a rough line of work to be in, and the lives of those immigrants who kept the industry afloat were often miserable.

Read More
1202 Words | 5 Pages

Camila Casanova U.S. History 1302: S67 Mr. Isaac G. Pietrzak February 9, 2018 Critical Review: The Jungle Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.

Read More

More about Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Related Topics

Open Document