The Jungle
"The Jungle" portrays the lower ranks of the industrial world as the scene of a naked struggle for survival. Where workers not only are forced to compete with each other but, if they falter, are hard pressed to keep starvation from their door and a roof over their heads. With unions weak and cheap labor plentiful, a social Darwinist state of "the survival of the fittest" exists. The real story revolves around the integration and eventual disintegration of Jurgis Rudkis and his family, Lithuanian immigrants who move to the Chicago stockyards in hopes of a better life. Unfortunately, their hopes quickly disintegrate; like thousands of other unskilled immigrants at the turn of the century, financial necessity forces them into virtual slave labor in order to survive. For Jurgis and his family, the slave master is the ruthless and greedy meat packing industry, whose leaders value their workers no more than the animals they slaughter.
"The Jungle" shows the relationship between the animals that were being slaughtered and the workers who were slaughtering them, from very early in the novel. It compares the workers to the animals who are penned up and killed every day in the stockyards, which are moved along on conveyer belts by machinery that cares nothing for their individual desires. In the monotonous killing of each of the hogs, "They had done nothing to deserve it; and it was adding insult to injury, as the thing was done here, swinging them up in this cold blooded, impersonal way, without a pretense of apology without the homage of a tear."(Pg. 35) The key comparison is the condition of the workingmen; as cold, efficient machinery assimilates them, a blind fate swallows them up. A few of the men are even swallowed up literally when they would fall into huge vats and emerges as "Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard". (Pg. 99) "The Jungle" also shows precisely how wounded, diseased, and pregnant animals are turned into food under just the same unhealthy conditions that soon leave healthy men wounded and diseased; "There was no heat upon the killing beds; the men might as well have worked out of doors all winter…. On the killing beds you were apt to be covered with blood, and it would freeze solid; if you leaned against a pillar, you would freeze to that, and if you put your hand upon the blade of your knife, you would run a chance of leaving your skin on i...
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...e for him. There had to be something to show him the meaning of his sacrifices. It is then that he happens upon a Socialist political meeting. At this point, Jurgis truly is a beaten man. However, when he listens to the political speaker, he finds that he expresses the essence of all his pain and frustration. He takes Socialism to his heart, believing that it is the only political philosophy that can save his kind.
"They were so innocent, they came so very trustingly; and they were so very human in their protests-and so perfectly within their rights!"(Pg. 35) This is exactly how each of the immigrant families came over to America just like the hogs, cattle, sheep and many other animals that came into to the stockyards of Chicago only to find that a shadow of a deadly fate was awaiting their arrival. Each family arrived with hopes and dreams of succeeding in this free country were they could work for honest wages and live peacefully, but with each dream and hope came death and despair. It was a huge rat race, in which it was every man for himself, but not even the strongest could survive in this urban jungle for only the wealthy and corrupt were the ones who made it to the top.
The Jungle dealt with the cruel and shocking truths behind the meat packing and processing business. Day was captivated by the stories of its characters. She was also largely responsible for taking care of her brother, John, as the family expected it of her. In her earlier years, Day would walk with John through the Park to relax and appreciate nature, but as she began to read Sinclair's work, she shifted the strolling routes to the poor district on the West Side of Chicago. While she walked through the district, she would often imagine Sinclair's work in motion, as she let fiction become reality.
His ego was heighten when he found a job during his first day in Packingtown. (Sinclair, “The Jungle”, 23)*. Excited as he was, Jurgis had no knowledge of the work he was going to get involved with. The meat industry at Durham’s are not a pleasant sight, and Jurgis was shocked with the production of the meat industry. His time working there allows him to view the process of meat packaging and distribution; though he can’t understand the error towards the industry’s method of employment and production. The superintendents and higher officials have no interest in the well-being of there employees, and view them as replaceable objects. If an employee was not long fit work; or refused to comply with their regulations: such as “speed up” demands or longer hours, they would immediately get replaced with another person willing to obey. In additions, accidents (though not as frequent) arose having workers injured, or in dreadful occasions, killed. Therefore, these accidents became a valid reason to replace workers without owning up to any ethical consequences. Jurgis was also recruited to work on confidential assignments, such as process and distribution of tainted meat (Sinclair, “The Jungle”, #)*. This allowed Jurgis to witness the corrupt version of an industry. Tainted meat was washed and recruits removed as much spoiled meat as possible. After this task, the recruits
Built off of the backs of immigrants, it is the very same people that are poorly mistreated but are the reason for the country's booming economy. Yet, a century ago these migrant workers who devoted their health and time to the factories receive a poor man’s salary. They worked long strenuous hours in horrible conditions and would often get injured during the process. The corporation had no compassion towards its laborers. This extract from Sinclair’s novel The Jungle explains the terrible conditions in which employees worked: “...your hand slips up on the blade, and there is a fearful gash. And that would not be so bad, only for the deadly contagion. The cut may heal, but you never can tell,” (Sinclair, 12). Mikalos, a character in the novel, is used in this instance to personify the way in which the employees had to conduct their job. They had to focus on working as fast as humanly possible even if they were injured. The character states that he accidently made a laceration while deboning an animal. Even though his injury is significant, he is not to breathe a word of it to his employer. The employer cares not of the accident nor of the worker wasting valuable time chatting about “frivolous” events such as their health. It did not matter if a laborer lost a finger, the only thing that mattered to the businessmen was making more money. This was how life was working in the factory and it shows that the industries
Immigration is, and has been, never a fair game for the people who do not possess certain privileges. Broadly for the poor and for the people of color, but specifically for people of color, immigration (and perhaps life thereafter) was a site of struggle, then and now. It is not an imagination; however, it is a daunting truth that many of the immigrants live by, both during the turn of the twentieth century and the immigration in the later twentieth century until now. At both times, some were able to assimilate and fully achieve the American status, while some did not, and people who were allowed full incorporation were people with certain privilege: the racial privilege. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, race was
“The Jungle” dehumanized the workers so to draw parallels between them and the animals; the objective in doing this was to show the characters of the novel as animals within the jungle of a capitalistic society. Sinclair suggests the workers are weak animals which is evident in the description of Antanas “And now here he was, worn out in soul and body, and with no more place in the world than a sick dog” (97). The author portrays Old Antanas as weak and useless to the world because he is unable to work to help support the family, the author uses the word Old to add emphasis on the fact that the older the person the less useful they are. The author also uses
The enormous rush of European immigrants encountered a lack of jobs. Those who were lucky enough to find employment wound up in factories, steel mills, or in the meat packing industry. Jurgis Rudkus was one of these disappointed immigrants. A sweeper in slaughter house, he experienced the horrendous conditions which laborers encountered. Along with these nightmarish working conditions, they worked for nominal wages, inflexible and long hours, in an atmosphere where worker safety had no persuasion. Early on, there was no one for these immigrants to turn to, so many suffered immensely. Jurgis would later learn of worker unions and other groups to support the labor force, but the early years of his Americanized life were filled, with sliced fingers, unemployment and overall a depressing and painful "new start."
A major theme of The Jungle is socialism as a remedy for the evils of capitalism. Every event that takes place in the novel is designed to show a particular failure of capitalism. Sinclair attempts to show that capitalism is a "system of chattel slavery" and the working class is subject to "the whim of en every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers"(Sinclair 126). Sinclair portrays this view through Jurgis, a hardworking Lithuanian immigrant and his family. Sinclair uses the hardships faced by this family to demonstrate the effect of capitalism on working people as a whole. Jurgis' philosophy of "I will work harder" is shown not to work in this system. No matter how hard Jurgis worked, he and his family were still stuck in the same squalor. These characters did not overcome the odds and succeed. That would defeat the purpose of the novel; to depict capitalism as an economic and social system that ignores the plight of the working class and only cares for the wealthy, as well as furthering his socialist agenda.
Jurgis comes to America as a strong willed man looking for better opportunities for his family and himself but is slowly crushed by the hard struggles of a working class man in a society where capitalism is dominant. Sinclair portrays socialism as the resolution to the story but especially to Jurgis’ struggling life. By showing the torment that the working class had to go through because of capitalism, Sinclair wanted to promote the wondrous changes that socialism was going to bring. Sinclair highlights the terrible situations caused by capitalism but pushes for socialism through Jurgis’ intent in finding work, the struggling working class, and the inequality of the men in a capitalistic society.
The Jungle’s goal is to persuade the reader to adopt socialism. Every aspect of the novel’s plot, characterization, and conflict is designed to discredit the capitalist political system and illustrate the ability of a socialist political system in order to restore humanity to the exploited, and abused working class which is what Jurgis has come to figure out towards the end of the novel a little too late, when most of his family is dead.
What if your family’s life was in your hands and a decision had to be made, and quickly? What if war was consuming the things that were revolving you? Well that was the case for the majority of the Mexican families living during the Mexican revolution. Many Mexicans fled Mexico moving to America looking for a prosperity, wealth, a better life to live because revolution had taken charge in Mexico, destroying people houses, changing family’s lives.
Using the symbol of the camps, Steinbeck illustrates the illusion of communism. The idea of communism is working together. The migrant camps are described as “a world” (ch.17; 265) and in the mornings are “torn down like a circus” (ch.17; 265). Through the illusion of Communistic ideas in the camp, the migrants are able to escape the realities of Capitalism. The camps are the migrants’ own worlds, created on the idea of a better life in California. Comparing the camps to a circus indicates the camps stand as an illusion, because like a circus, it is an escape from reality. Circus performers create an alternate world in the stunts and acts they perform. The description of the camps shows the reader the migrants’ illusion of Communism against the reality of Capitalism. The description of the Weedpatch camp is another of Steinbeck’s examples of Communism. As the Joads come across the camp, they notice “a high wire fence fac[ing] the road and a wide-gated driveway turn[ing] in” (ch. 22; 389). The fence separates the camp from the real worl...
From the point of view of history, The Jungle, is both a comment on and a product of its own times. Those times most definitely need to be viewed in relation to what happened in the last half of the nineteenth century. This incredible time period saw the making of great industries and great fortunes (for those who were in control of the industries).
We are living in a colorful world. There are many different people live with different cultures. But, what makes so many differences in our world? According to the story of In the Jungle and my personal experiences, our lives are affected by living condition, natural resources and social environment around us.
Throughout Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the author demonstrates the greed of Capitalism and how it gives politicians and businessmen the ability to exploit the immigrants population. Sinclair's main purpose in naming the book, The Jungle, is to put the reader's focus on the heartless politics of Capitalism. If he had named the book Stockyards or Packingtown, a person's concentration may be solely on these places. It is evident that Capitalism does not equally distribute the industries ruling, but rather allows certain groups to dominate the workers. The businessmen and politicians took advantages of this right and did not allow the immigrants to respond. They treated them very poorly, often working them so hard that they died or suffered from life long injuries. Since the story's main setting is in Packingtown, the reader is familiarized with this town and is engrossed with its surroundings. With the title The Jungle, the reader will want to closely examine why Sinclair chose this title instead. With another name, the reader might have been inclined to get distracted by the gruesome details and not have realized the Socialist concept that he was trying to convey. This title was necessary to enthrall the reader's mind to think about his purpose.
The jungle was specifically written to draw the government's attention to the working condition faced by laborers in America. Especially the immigrants like"jurgis" who came from Lithuanian, and had no choice but to work long hours and will take whatever wages they get. The novel covers the economic system that destroyed jurgis and his family treating them like the very cattle that were slaughtered in the Chicago stockyard.