Symbolism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle In the literary work, The Jungle, the author, Upton Sinclair makes a commentary on the deceitful and dark truth of the American dream. This was achieved by using the canned meat that was produced in Packingtown as a symbol to represent the dream that all the immigrants had about their new lives in America. As the story progresses, the reader, along with the protagonist, Jurgis will discover that the American dream lies cloaked behind a shroud of beautiful lies that masks the vile truths that are the American dream and the canned “beef” processed by the corrupt meat business in Packingtown. Throughout the novel, the contaminated canned meat in Packingtown could be seen as a symbol of the contaminated ideas of the American dream.

A place where anything was possible, and anyone could obtain vast amounts of wealth. These sentiments were even shown by Jurgis, “If one could only manage to get the price of passage, he could count his troubles at an end” (25). But, after he had arrived in the country and had partaken in the “dream” he had heard of, he saw trough what hid behind the romanticized outer veil of the American dream. He witnessed the lies the dream had told about the living conditions, the working conditions, and politicians in the supposed utopia that was America. All of which were just as repugnant and fake as the “De-vyled ham”

The workers were often subjected to sweltering heat in the summer and frigid conditions in the winter. But, that was not it, at the time there were no laws in place that required businesses to ensure their employees' safety, and this regularly lead to many injuries and fatalities in the workplace on a daily basis. There was not a single work place that did not have injured or mutilated employees, and this was due to the unsafe working conditions of the factories, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one… There were men who worked in the cooking rooms… in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.” (109). However the dangerous working conditions were not the only reason for the nightmare like conditions of the work place. Another factor was the constant speeding up that the workers were subjected to. The workers felt that the factory managers were “… speeding them up and grinding them into pieces…” (76), which was not far from the disturbing truth. For, the inhabitants of Packingtown did not live this American dream too long with the severe conditions that were imposed upon