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The American Dream In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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The Jungle was worte in the 1900s by a man named Upton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair's main theme he wanted his readers to see was: the corruption, problems with immigrants, the hollowness of the American Dream, socialism, and so much more in in America . Even Though, this was just a piece of the handful of problems in America and still gave him the great title of a muckraker, which is someone who exposed the bad things in America. During the novel he gave many points, more than any other theme of just how bad America was with treating immigrants.
The American Dream was what immigrants thought that America was all about by either hearing stories or just heard about it. Sadly, for them the American Dream was just a dream, The pavement was not paved in gold, and they thought everyone was a nice. More importantly they thought it meant that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through …show more content…

This happened in the book when Jurgis got a 100 dollar bill and he is asking if the bartender has change for it and he says yes as long as he buys something. He buys a beer but he doesn't get all his change back and threatens the bartender, but the bartender calls the police on him and this happens; “But Jurgis did not move, and the bartender went behind the bar, and, after stowing it away the hundred-dollar bill away in a safe hiding place, came and poured a glass of water over Jurgis. Then, as the latter began to moan feebly. the policeman got him to his feet and dragged him out of the place. The station house was just around the corner, and so in a few minutes Jurgis was in his cell.”(chapter 25 page 243) This quote shows how the policeman did not even trust Jurgis an immigrant over the American who was in the wrong. Showing how hard it was for immigrants to do anything without being blamed, scammed, blacklisted and so much

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Lastly, Jurgis is finally shown as a criminal. This is first shown when he goes to jail for the first time. While in jail he meets a guy by the name of Jack Duane. This is the guy that opens doors for Jurgis to become a criminal. The author shows this by stating (insert quote here).

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216 Words | 1 Pages

The Jungle was written by Upton Sinclair and published in 1906. I chose this book because it’s been mentioned in multiple History classes I’ve taken. I took it upon interest mainly because it is about the brutal and unfair treatment of immigrants in labor and because it exposed the meat industry. (it exposed both). Sinclair strives to expose the danger in capitalism by vividly describing and exposing the ranging and brutal treatment of immigrant laborers who searched to live the American dream but found misfortune instead.

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The American Dream; an ideal that led thousands of immigrants to the United States with optimism to begin a new life. The Jungle is a novel, written by Upton Sinclair, that follows the journey of a young man named Jurgis as he chases after the idea of the American Dream. Jurgis and his family set out determined to create a new life filled with opportunity. However, experience will soon teach them The American Dream led them to a world filled with prejudice and exploitation; rather than opportunity and equality. It was love at first sight for Jurgis Rudkus when he saw Ona Lukoszaite for the first time at a horse sale in Lithuania.

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1525 Words | 7 Pages

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair follows the life of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family living in Chicago. Jurgis finds work at Brown's slaughterhouse and there he endures harsh working conditions as well as his family members. Ultimately he and family suffer many tragedies related to their work environments. While this book is a work of fiction it mirrors real life. The Jungle was published in 1906 during the Gilded Age.

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Upton Sinclair reflects the reality of the people during the late 1800’s in his novel The Jungle. In his novel, Sinclair wants to promote Socialism by showing how people lived in the meatpacking plant and under a corrupt government. The inhuman working conditions, combined with the lack of hygiene and a corrupt government, made trying to make a living a total hardships for the low class and the immigrants. The Jungle takes place in Packingtown, Chicago, where the employees work under horrible conditions.

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997 Words | 4 Pages

The NCL also worked to pass state pure food laws and in 1906 it established a permanent food committee. This committee had played an important role in securing President Theodore Roosevelt’s support for the Federal Food and Drug Act (National Consumers League). Another reason for this is Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, that was published in 1906 and critiques capitalism. In this book, Sinclair wrote that socialism is the solution for the poor Americans working in factories stuck in “wage slavery”. This book also made the public more aware of the unsanitary and unsafe conditions in factories, especially the meat packing factories.

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356 Words | 2 Pages

The American Dream was a belief that all Americans had during the dust bowl. They thought that every US citizen should get the chance as all the others do. The work they did required like 10000 hours of

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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.

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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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802 Words | 4 Pages

Jurgis has Ona Lukoszaite who is his wife (Sinclair, Pg. 27) as like James who has Mae Braddock that he had two kids with working on a third. After a while in Chicago Ona and Jurgis have a baby boy named Antanas Rudkus who they love (Sinclair, Pg. 110) mean while James has a little girl named Rosie who he gives his food to so she is not hungry. As time goes on for Jurgis he starts to lose his family first Ona and his second baby then Antanas drowns and that is his braking point so he ran (Sinclair Pg. 188, 209, 236, 247, & 255).

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In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick differentiating versions and explorations of the American Dream are illustrated through the fictional lives of characters through syntax and imagery, with influences by historical context and the authors background. Horatio and Alger convey alternative realities of the dream, by conveying their character's journey to success, and the outcome they succumb to. The myth of American is exposed within the two in the hope that lives in both.    

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The Bosses squeezed and drained the life of those men. In the book The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair he described the life of a struggling family try to work and stay alive in the filth. The working conditions in the factories were unsafe, unsanitary and people made little. The purpose of this book was for people to become socialist other than capitalist.

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“The Jungle” was one of the most influential books in American History (Millen). It was a book about a family that had come to America seeking their dream only to find a nightmare (Millen). Sinclair's reason for writing the book was to expose the despairing world of the working class which furthered his drive to make it better (Millen). The message of the book was to show that people working in a capitalist society have no chance or hope (Millen). Also, Sinclair's first five novels were published between 1901 and 1906 (Strecker).

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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.

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650 Words | 3 Pages

The American dream is an illusion that is deeply implanted in the minds of the people, it sets a bar for life achievement and offers hope to work hard to achieve their dreams. As for Americans, they are raised in a society to where they are expected to make lots money and to have a healthy family. After all in our society success is largely based off positions of power and financial stability. For example, in The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there were multiple interpretations of the ideal American dream in the 1920s. In the 1920s, due to the growth of materialism, people advertised and fancied the power of money to fulfilling their dreams.

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