Comparing The American Dream And Capitalism In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

The American Dream and Capitalism are two principles that attracted millions of immigrants to the United States; however, these ideas about the standard of living were not true for many immigrants living in America in the early 1900s. The structure of capitalism in American Society allowed industrialists to take advantage of the labor force and perpetuate the poor distribution of wealth in America. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair exposes the poor conditions for millions of immigrants living in America and demonstrates that there is a need for socialism. Sinclair is able to illustrate the political and corporate corruption at the time through the life of Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant who faces a lot of adversity and hardship. The environment that

After discovering the union, Jurgis wants to learn English, so that he can participate and understand the union meetings he was attending. Jurgis attends school to learn English, but is approached by a nightman who asks him if he is interested in becoming a citizen and if he would be open to voting for a certain politician in exchange for two dollars. Jurgis accepts the offer and becomes part of the political corruption. Voting is one of your basic rights as an American, yet Jurgis’ right to vote freely is immediately stripped from the nightman. Sinclair describes the political system when he says, “The officials who ruled it, and got all the graft, had to be elected first; and so there were two rival set of grafters, known as political parties, and the one got the office which bought the most votes.” (Sinclair 77). The corrupt political parties is a perfect example of how wealthy politicians took advantage of the desperate situation that many immigrants were in. Immigrants were forced to vote in politicians that were causing their poor living conditions, which allowed Grafters to maintain control of immigrants and to strip immigrants of one of their basic

Jurgis is comfortable with the real estate agent because of his ability to communicate in his own language; however, the real estate agent tricks Jurgis into believing he can pay the necessary expenses to acquire the house. Jurgis learns from Grandmother Majauszkiene that “since it had been built, no less than four families that their informant could name had tried to buy it [the house] and failed.” (Sinclair 56). The owner of the house knew that Jurgis was not going to be able to pay the full amount for the house, causing Jurgis to lose the payments he made on the house. Sinclair demonstrates how many attempts to complete ordinary tasks, such as buying a house, are hindered by capitalism and political