Important aspects of naturalism are the ideas that people are essentially animals responding to their basic urges without rational thought, and the insignificance of man to others and nature. In The Jungle, Sinclair portrays Jurgis as a man slowly changing into animal as well as a man whose actions are irrelevant to the rest of the corrupt capitalist world of Chicago in order to show the reader the naturalist ideas of the struggles between man and society.
Jurgis's struggle between human thought and animalistic tendencies are evident in several major events in the book. In the beginning of Jurgis's life in Chicago, he can disregard most of the obstacles thrown at him by the corruption of man and keep his rational thinking dominant of his animal-like instincts. However, when Jurgis finds out that Connor has violated, harassed, threatened, and raped his wife Ona, he reached his breaking point. Jurgis was so overwhelmed with rage, he reverted back to his primal instincts and "sunk his teeth into the man's cheek" (153). We again see Jurgis "animal instincts" when he escapes from the city and lives in the countryside from a while. He has given up on being rational and has resorted to use his survival instincts like stealing and scavenging to survive. Sinclair shows us how these instincts will not help us survive in the end. Whenever Jurgis behaves like an animal, he is punished in some kind of way like an animal. When he attacks Connor, he is sent to prison and when he is in the rural area, he does not get any money to help him survive.
Moreover, Jurgis does everything he can to help his family and himself survive, but regardless of his actions, the corrupt society plows through him without remorse or regret. Jurgis's op...
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...te the flawed example of muckraking by The Jungle, the main reason for the use of muckraking was and still is an effective way of revealing the corruption of politics and businesses. Although The Jungle may not have served Sinclair purposes for social reform, it brought reform to the way food is handled. Without the enlightening view of the meat-packing business, even if false, the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act may never have been created. We still see examples of muckraking today from Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me to magazines like People, Time, Cosmopolitan, and National Geographic. Muckraking is one of the few ways that the average person can find out about information quickly and easily. In certain cases, it even connects the nations together in order to fight a common enemy, whether it is political, social, natural, or supernatural.
When arriving to America the family sees the real way that the people live in the city and immediately know it is not the life they thought it would be. When arriving to the city Jurgis says, “Tomorrow, I will get a job, and perhaps Jonas will get one also; and then we can get a place of our own”(Sinclair 35). Jurgis arrives to america with an eagerness to find work to support his family which becomes more and more difficult for him as the story goes on. The constant bad luck that happens to Jurgis is later connected to the faults of capitalism and how corrupt it is for the working class in this society. Soon Jurgis could not support his family on his own and eventually the entire family needs to get a job to pay for their costs. Sinclair builds sympathy for Jurgis and his family throughout the beginning of the novel but also depicts the poverty of the working class and how they are equally struggling to make a living.
From respectable authorities on the subject, and the 1906 Food and Drugs Act itself, gave paticual understanding of the events effecting that time period, a understanding of certain points in the novel “The Jungle”, and how the government went about solving the nation’s going problem, has lead myself to agree that Upton Sinclairs’s
predators “preying upon the people”. Jurgis soon after joins a union and learns the web of
In the late 1800s to the early 1900s people there were people called “Muckrakers”. These were the people that uncovered the ugly truth of things like meatpacking apartments. One of the books written was Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle. Their goals were to uncover a problem to the public then try to eliminate it. In the Progressive Era, muckrakers tried to point out things that no one else knew about. Muckrakers were very influential people during the Progressive Era.
Muckrakers are known as reporters that investigate and also a writer during the Progressive Era, which occurred around 1890 to 1920. The Muckrakers wrote about the how the society was and how corruption it was by exposing, in order to make changes in the society. There were many Muckrakers back in the Progressive Era, the most talked about was a man named, Upton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle” in 1096. The book talked about a meatpacking industry which took place in Chicago and it revealed the working conditions and unsanitary conditions of the industry. One of the main character in the book named Jurgis Rudkus, exposed tons of details while working inside of the meatpacking industry. Furthermore, in 1906, due to Upton
...hat rape is a horrifying act, but instead of stopping himself from raping women, he lessen his guilt by forcing his victims to fake enthusiasm. He seen the pain he put on his victims, but rather than changing his behavior, he continues to do harm and then expresses genuine regret after the damage has been done. This is a very ironic action. When he is getting his way, Rufus can be a kind and gentle man. But despite the regret Rufus show, and other personality, Rufus is, in the end, a brutal man. He thinks nothing of beating and continually raping women, selling men, and breaking up families. He is selfish and brutal, and his selfishness and brutality only gets worse as he get older.
Muckrakers are reform-minded journalists who wrote for popular magazines and continued a tradition of investigative journalism reporting. The purpose of muckrakers was to expose corruption and inform readers about social issues. Muckrakers had a great amount of influence, often resulting in the passing of laws to reform the abuse they reported. Muckrakers provides America with evidence to make social reforms possible during the Progressive Era. Muckrakers went to great length to expose the truth. Investigating social issues meant putting themselves into situations to find the whole truth; these truths impacted society greatly. Muckrakers focused on exposing corruption, by doing so it brought about change by greatly impacting society and opened the eyes of American across the nation.
Jurgis says, “I will work Harder” (Sinclair 22). He is determined, with just starting a family, to give Ona the life she deserves. As for Jim, he has been working hard to give his family a good life, both men’s lives are headed in the right direction, as far as they know. Until, they come upon some unexpected bumps in the road. One day while Jurgis is working an accident happens; this leaves him unable to work. The doctor tells him, “He would have to lie quiet for two months, and if he went to work he could be lame for life” (Sinclair 121). The news is upsetting to him, he feels like he is letting his family down. Just as Jurgis had his accident, so did Jim with breaking his hand in a fight. With having no source of steady income, Jim becomes fretful that he cannot support his family and keep them together. The turning point for the characters emotions in the end of the stories describes them being proud and feeling accomplished. The narrator writes, “The socialist party was really a Democratic political organization-it was controlled absolutely by its own membership, and had no bosses” (Sinclair 310). Being a part of a group helped Jurgis to want to fight for something again; this helped him to strive to be a better person again. Jim has his feet back under him. He is making money for his family, and is able to support
Muckrakers were reporters that would investigate the problems of American society and expose them to the public.
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
Muckraking. The public was becoming more and more informed throughout the Progressive Era. Muckraking, the predecessor to investigative journalism, would play a major role in exposing social problems. Muckrakers had a huge impact on the changing societal landscape and investigated anything that they felt was corrupt and needed reform, such as unsanitary conditions and housing. Two Famous muckrakers, Upton Sinclair and Jacob Riis, wrote books that would expose two of the biggest scandals of the Progressive Era.
Naturalism includes stories based on movements by authors in my opinion. From what we learned in class and what the PowerPoints they were all based on this notion of panic and social change in America. We see issues that authors like Stephen Crane used in his stories that focused on nature, ambiguity and this relationship between Realism and Naturalism. His stories “The Blue Hotel” and “The Open Boat” are very much Naturalist works due to Crane’s kinship of mankind having ethical obligations. Crane used this opportunity to then toil with the human mind by instinctive human behavior when faced with life or death situations.
Muckraking is the action of searching out and publicizing scandalous information about famous people or news in an underhanded way. During the Progressive Era, muckrakers hoped to influence the public to address certain political and social problems. Muckrakers would use journalism to combat social evils and made calls for reform. Journalists who investigated issues wrote intense, opinionated articles. During the Progressive Era, the term "muckraking" came about when president Theodore Roosevelt when he used a phrase from John Bunyun. Muckraking journalists exposed all of America's problems such as rapid industrialization and growth of cities. Ray Stannard Baker and Upton Sinclair were two among the many muckrakers who helped spread the gossip
Scientific Naturalism is a worldview that states only natural laws and forces work within our world and that supernatural does not exist. Naturalism states our universe is a closed system. Therefore all objects and events are formed through nature. Which makes everything that is created subject to research. Naturalism believes in two elements which are science and reason. This worldview appreciates science and how it provided benefits to everyday life. It also accepts how important reason is. Naturalism have confidence in facts, only things that can be proved. Scientific Naturalism also rely on unity. Sanford and Wilkens (2009) states “If follows, therefore, that the shared elements of human existence should
Throughout history, many individuals wish to discover and explain the relationship between nature and society, however, there are many complexities relating to this relationship. The struggle to understand how nature and society are viewed and connected derives from the idea that there are many definitions of what nature is. The Oxford dictionary of Human Geography (2003), explains how nature is difficult to define because it can be used in various contexts as well as throughout different time and spaces. As a result of this, the different understandings of what nature is contributes to how the nature society relationship is shaped by different processes. In order to better understand this relation there are many theorists and philosophers