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What Is Upton Sinclair's Use Of Figurative Language In The Jungle

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America is considered to be a melting pot, which is that several different cultures meld together to create a climate that can only be known as American. Whether one walks down loud, bustling Michigan Avenue or takes a stroll down a winding country lane, both climates scream Americana, however different they may be. Literature is no exception. Although much of American literature contains similar motifs, this genre embodies diversity at its finest. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a prime example, describing the brutality of the American Dream from the point of view of those who understand its impact the greatest; the common immigrant. The story narrates the struggles of young Jurgis Rudkus and his family, who hope to go from rags to riches …show more content…

Nonetheless, Sinclair uses a large amount of symbolism to get his point across. The gruesome slaughter of the animals reflects on the struggles of the family and is reminiscent of how their superiors treat them. The canned meat symbolizes the corruption of capitalism and its attraction to immigrants. The cans look shiny and appetizing from the outside, but hold disgusting meat on the inside, which is similar to the expectations and reality of the family’s living situation. It is also similar to the animals on the inside of the can. They were once strong creatures with a purpose, now a stinking pile of flesh due to the disadvantages of industry, like weak little Ona or doped up Marija. In fact, the title of the novel is a symbol, comparing the brutish competition of capitalism to a Darwinian jungle. The diction of the story leaves little room for doubt or confusion of the plot, which enhances the reading experience. However, the wordiness does make the passages harder to understand when they are first read. When the diction fails, the symbolism fills in for it. The symbols were not obvious but also not …show more content…

However, the way Sinclair supported his arguments was a bit juvenile—he did not even acknowledge the other side of the argument—that capitalism works. In the late 1800s, Isaac Lewis Steinberg, (also known as I.L.) a young Lithuanian immigrant traveled down from Chicago, making a living on peddling until he reached Spring Valley, Illinois. There he settled down, raised a family and opened a dry-goods store. One hundred twenty-five years and four generations later, his store is still in business, now known as Steinberg’s Furniture. I.L. came from the same situation Jurgis and his family did and his prosperity still lasts for generations. This is not to say that the struggles of the urban poor are not real, for they were and still are. It is frustrating that they are being used. They are always pitied, but never helped. Sinclair uses them to campaign against capitalism. When their grief and squalor are exposed, people are terrified. But what do they change? They change the food laws. They do not help the poor, or change laws to let them climb out of poverty—people make sure their meat is alright. Sinclair may have destroyed the sanctity of the American Dream for the sake of socialism, but that is not what makes this experience unique; what makes this unique is the realization that people use the American dream for their own benefit, instead of the benefit of all

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159 Words | 1 Pages

“With one member trimming beef in a cannery, and another working in a sausage factory, the family had a first-hand knowledge of the great Packingtown swindles” (par.1). This statement from Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, introduces trust from a family because of their own personal knowledge . The Jungle, features an immigrant family trying to survive in 1900’s Chicago meat packing district. In the story, Sinclair’s goal is to expose the miserable life of immigrants who work in factories.

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863 Words | 4 Pages

They also better to identify with Jurgis and his families’ struggles. Sinclair probably also wanted government officials to read the book because they had the power to take immediate action. It is ironic because government officials did take action, just not in the way that Sinclair originally anticipated. Roosevelt passed the Federal meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug act in response to the book. While this changed America for the better, it did not come in the form of democratic socialism that Sinclair

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558 Words | 3 Pages

However, Sinclair was and unlikely savior. He had roots in socialist agenda, which unapologetically opposed capitalism and lobbied for full government takeover. In addition, Sinclair had alienated himself from elitist circles by authoring over 40 books which muckraked industry and institutions such as Hollywood, the press, and religion. Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, described the in detail the horrors of the meat packing industry and led to government regulation of the industry. Sinclair realized that America was in desperate need for immediate reform and could not await social victory over capitalism.

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The strongest analogy used to describe this is when comparing the description of the hogs coming through the slaughterhouse to the immigrants coming into America during the time of the novel. In the novel this event is described as, “brought about ten thousand head of cattle every day,” showing how many immigrants, represented by cattle, these factories would receive looking for work. Then there is the description of how the immigrants are used to there limits then disposed of after they have either been injured or just lost their job, this is shown when said, “They use everything about the hog except the squeal,” this represent how much of the immigrants use of before eventually firing them or losing their job. (27) With the description of how the businesses use the hogs as well as how indispensable the cattle are and that comparison with the immigrants shows how the immigrants are literal animals in the eyes of the

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904 Words | 4 Pages

During the era of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the book soared in popularity— for numerous reasons. While Sinclair’s original intent was to expose the poor working conditions of the working class citizens, it spread further than that in its readers' hearts. His book went on to expose the food industry, and how horrid the things were that were put in the meat to be consumed by unsuspecting individuals. This discovery led to a movement of people demanding better food conditions and health standards worldwide.

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512 Words | 3 Pages

It shows that they are uncivilized and have to live like wild animals. With phrases such as “buried their stool like cats” and “crouched like owls,” it compares the animal-like characteristics of their actions. They had to work long hours and didn’t

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1060 Words | 5 Pages

However, readers at the time were not very concerned about the petty immigrants living on the lower rung of society. Rather, they cared about what affected them most: the condition of the meat they were eating-- and had been eating-- for years, that were produced by some of the very factories mentioned in Sinclair’s novel. For the majority of The Jungle’s readers, the fact that poor immigrants were being exploited was not bothersome. Instead, the fact that the food that readers had been eating for years contained the power to kill them seemed shocking, pushing the nation into a worried frenzy. Readers were disgusted by the facts they were reading, catalyzing the creation of administrations like the FDA.

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2031 Words | 9 Pages

The Jungle is a novel about blood and sweat, the struggle to the fate, that’s the first highlight of content, and the second highlight is about food safety. When the author wrote the manufacture process for meat production that Jurgis saw in the meat picking industries, the horrible scene shocked every audience. In order to emphasize these points, he takes two critical

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Sinclair uses “the shackles,” (Sinclair 243) that have been holding him back to symbolize the poverty, the cruel meat-packing industry, and the hardships for an immigrant in Chicago. All these things that have happened impact his life and do not allow him to live his life in Packingtown the way he expected to when first arriving. Sinclair even uses symbolism with the title of the book itself. The story’s title The Jungle symbolizes the wild nature of capitalism. Packingtown, the place that Jurgis has moved into contrasts to a jungle in the sense that the rich are superior to the poor.

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An argument can be made that the title its self is a symbol. In a jungle, there is a constant struggle for survival as the stronger animals prey upon the weaker in a ruthless, unremorseful manner, in which only the strongest survive and the weak are left to die be eaten. There are many instances in the novel in which Sinclair uses similes or metaphors to describe his characters as jungle animals. He states that Ona has the “eye of a hunted animal,” (174) and exclaims that Jurgis pants “like a wounded bull” (187). He refers to Conner as a “great beast,” (187) and tells his readers that Jurgis “fought like a tiger” (187).

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599 Words | 3 Pages

Upton Sinclair published a novel describing how unsanitary the meat packing houses in Chicago were. His publication resulted in the enactment of legislations that established more stern inspections of meat processing and packing houses. However, The Jungle resulted into a different consequence from what Upton intended. This is because Upton aimed that the book would shed light on the difficulty of workers in meat industry but ended up back firing. In this regard, the public ignored the need to improve workers’ welfare as described in the book but instead became more sensitively aware of the awful unsanitary conditions in the meat industry.

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175 Words | 1 Pages

In Sinclair's most graphic example of business abuse — the sweeping of poison, rats, and rat dung into the food vat — he is most likely employing a form of hyperbole, an extended exaggeration to make a point. Admittedly, abuses within the system existed, many conditions were unsanitary, and workers were apathetic; but Sinclair once again employs literary license to gain support for his characters and his political ideology. As is the standard of naturalistic fiction, the stock characters in The Jungle are driven to drink or prostitution. In an industrialized society, no other options exist.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

Many chapters point out capitalism, Sinclair paints a picture of brutal, inhumane, and violent natures. As the family holds tight to their view of the "American Dream," as the days go on their grip on that view loosens. In chapter 3, page 30, "If you were a sociable person, he was quite willing to enter into conversation with you, and to explain to you the deadly nature of the ptomaines which are found in tubercular pork; and while he was talking with you you could hardly be so ungrateful as to notice that a dozen carcasses were passing him untouched. " The people were willing to sell tainted meat without a care. Capitalism in the book is portrayed to be evil, he shows the ugly effects of capitalism on the

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1433 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Another American titan that is born in this time era of the lost generation is Ernest Hemingway. Like Fitzgerald, Hemingway portrays such works as Hills Like White Elephants as a relationship between American culture and those of allied countries. Throughout his work of Hills like White Elephants, he depicts the many distractions in Spain, the scenery, the alcohol. This type of literature of the urban modern period reflects the nation’s attempts to come to terms with the many meanings of modernity. The glamour of American cities was real indeed.

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