Vimy Ridge: 1917-1992, a Canadian myth over seventy five years. Thesis. Simon Fraser University. 1995. Web.
“Here nature’s plagues abound, to fret and tease,” (9) expresses how nature contributes to the torture of the slaves. The “snakes, scorpions, despots, lizards, [and] [centipedes]” (10) are parts of nature’s mockery. By giving harmful objects human actions or emotions, Freneau reflects the thoughts of the overseers. Freneau... ... middle of paper ... ... his devilish treatment to the slaves. Hell is a place that inflicts pain upon unfortunate souls by filling them with never-ending misery.
Unfortunately, that dream is crushed under the deepest and darkest aspects of Capitalism through terrible working conditions, appalling living situations, homelessness/unemployment, and unfair legal and political procedures. These obstacles make excellent examples as for why some rules and regulations are needed in our otherwise Capitalistic society. Sinclair first and foremost shows the importance of these regulations through harsh and dangerous labor conditions. He does and excellent job of this by detailing the state of the workplace and the dangers within it while also leaving characters within the book relatively unaware of said dangers. For example, Sinclair describes a rather horrifying scene within the “pickle-rooms” of Durham's, stating that if a man so much as scraped his thumb, he could have an absolutely terrible sore that could “put him out of the world” (Sinclair 104).
Germinal, written by Emile Zola is about a man, Etienne, who receives a mining job at Le Voreux, a coal mine. While working, Etienne discovers the harsh working conditions, and the malnourishment men and women have. As the status of these workers continues to deplete, Etienne is motivated to start a revolt in hope of gaining better working conditions and wages so he and the other workers can live proper lives. I think Zola wrote this novel to promote the act of revolting, in necessary conditions. Throughout the novel, there are various scenes which depict the hard lives of people living under the harsh conditions.
The details regarding the unsanitary and disgusting conditions in meat packing factories are background details of a much larger picture. The Jungle was written in order to provoke outrage over the miserable working conditions of industrial wage labor. He detailed the lack of sanitation in the factories in order to provoke sympathy and outrage for the impoverished factory workers. The germs and disease inside the meat packing establishments were indeed a public health concern, but it was far more of a concern for the workers. He also portrays the various sicknesses they suffer as a result of their working environments.
Delhi: Pencraft International, 1996. Print. Moses, Daniel David and Terry Goldie, eds. An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English. Toronto: OUP, 1992.
Betty Friedan Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
Sinclair was able to take advantage of the struggle of laborers and wrote his story through the eyes of poor Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus. It was brilliance on his part to create this fictional look into the working conditions during the Progressive era while laborers fought for better treatment. Within the novel, he is able to show the brutality of the conditions workers faced and a disgusting insight into the meat packing industry. One of Sinclair’s strongest literary devices used in the novel was his attention to detail; he could create vivid, though unpleasant, images of “Durham’s” meat packing plant into the reader’s mind. Probably the most memorable description in the novel was that many worker”s “peculiar trou... ... middle of paper ... ... very good ending.
Ferguson, W.F. (2005): Canadian history for dummies. Mississauga, ON: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Francis, R.D. (1988): Destinies Canadian history since confederation. Canada: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited.
The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014. "Biography – FRASER, SIMON."