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Symbolism In The Jungle

729 Words3 Pages

Watch your every Step

Lost; in the city of Chicago Jurgis and his family hope to live better lives, but are in fact victims of the capitalistic community. This is the entertaining plot of the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Jurgis and his family set out from Lithuania to start new lives in America. They start off not too bad; they buy a house and end up having some extra money at the end of the month. As time passes while they live their daily lives, more and more happens that makes life harder and harder. Eventually they are crushed by the routine society creates for them and their lives break apart. Upton Sinclair uses a lot of symbols in this novel, like the slaughterhouses and even the title, to represent things in our daily life. This story …show more content…

Symbols play a huge role in making this story the allegory it is. One of these symbols is in the title itself: The Jungle. The real Jungle is a very dangerous place; you have to be careful and watch your every step. It is not different in the stockyards of Packingtown; the workers had to suffer work under extreme conditions, like the temperature in the different seasons and an extremely dangerous workplace. Once in a while people suffered form cuts, blood poisoning, and even death. These cuts were more than just a simple, small cut. As the book says, “Then your hand slips upon the blade, and there is a fearful gash…Twice now; within the last three years, Mikolas has been lying at home with blood poisoning—once for three

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

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