The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, shows the harsh conditions that immigrants were forced to endure in an industrialized city. Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant from Lithuania, has just moved to Chicago with his fiancee and her family and is expecting a glorious life. His dreams are sadly crushed once he realizes how awful life for a working man is. The family faces many hardships when they arrive to America and it never seems to get easier for them. They experience the lack of worker’s rights and the conditions of the factories and begin to change their attitude towards the place they had hoped would be a paradise for them. Not only were the factory conditions horrible, but the political system was corrupt as well. The system was about money and making …show more content…
When he discovers socialism, it becomes a light at the end of the tunnel. Socialism seemed to be beneficial to everyone, not just the few rich people. It would also help the working class and change the working and living conditions. Businessmen did not want socialism because the working class would have other options instead of everyone competing for the factory jobs. They would not longer be able to keep the wages extremely low because there would no longer be a mob of people waiting outside for a …show more content…
They were subjected to so many hardships that they were not prepared for and eventually they were broken by them. The lack of worker’s rights led to a change of attitude in the workers, they wanted to be treated better and work in conditions that were healthy and sanitary. Socialism was an open door for the people that had been driven into poverty by the capitalist system. The corruption of the political system and the factories led many people to support socialism because it was a fair chance for everyone. Although the factory owners and bosses were strongly opposed to socialism, with enough support from the working class, they could overpower the capitalist
In 1900, there were over 1.6 million people living in Chicago, the country's second largest city. Of those 1.6 million, nearly 30% were immigrants. Most immigrants came to the United States with little or no money at all, in hope of making a better life for themselves. A city like Chicago offered these people jobs that required no skill. However, the working and living conditions were hazardous and the pay was barely enough to survive on. This is the bases for Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle.
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, emphasizes the importance in changing to become a thriving society through socialism. Sinclair writes his novel to show the corruption that occurs as a result of capitalism. Jurgis’ family is in search for a better life in America where he believes he will make enough pay to support his family. The novel shows that poverty is in control over the working class, but the working class still has a desperation for money. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair pushes for Socialism by showing Jurgis’ struggle to find work, the hardships of the packingtown workers, and the inequality of all men in this capitalistic society.
Sinclair’s The Jungle, is his fictionalized report of Chicago's Packingtown. It traces a family of Lithuanian immigrants in Chicago, and describes the horrifying living and working conditions they endure. Through Jurgis, the protagonist, and his family, Sinclair unfolds the tragedy of suffering of all Packinghouse workers in their pursuit of the American Dream. He gives a detailed description about their ordeals, from their lodging at boardinghouses to their buying of cheated house,...
...es. By adapting socialist ideals into a capitalist economic and social system a prosperous society results.
The division inside the socialistic party put only one question in front of Europe - how will the bettering of the workers' lives come upon the continent, through gradual small reforms or through big and rapid revolution? Late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century were the years of achievement, the years of one huge reform, the years that shaped the present day in so many ways. The present day industrial workers owe their stable life, pleasant working conditions, and a variety of insurances to nothing else but these fifty four years. The struggling lives of industrial proletariat (thesis), their desire for improvement (antithesis), and the emergence of the welfare state, political democracy, trading unions, and social equality (synthesis) skillfully describe the picture of the events happening in those days.
The minority of the economy during the early 1900’s was the wealthy Capitalist class while the majority of America’s population was the poor working class (Bakthawar 2). Socialism is a political movement with the goal of changing the Capitalist economy, so that it no longer exists. Socialists want a society where industries are regulated by the government (Merriam-Webster). Socialism works towards ending the misery of those in poverty by increasing wages, decreasing working hours, and improving working conditions. “[Jurgis] would no longer be the sport of circumstances, he would be a man, with a will and a purpose; he would have something to fight for, something to die for, if need be!
In the early 1900’s there was a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants coming to the eastern shores of America. Many were pulled to America because of its economic opportunity, freedom, need for labor and its beautiful country. Immigrants were excited to come to America and were pushed from their home countries because of food shortages, overpopulation, war and political instability. This was going on in an important era in American history called the “gilded age”. It was a time of economic growth, and industrialization but also had high percentages of poverty mainly in urban environments. The majority of the immigrants intended to advance out west but actually settled in the eastern cities. In the book The Jungle, Jargis and his family moved to the Americas and hoped to live the “American Dream” but it was the exact opposite when they arrived. Jurgis, his wife Ona, and the rest of the Lithuanian family struggled with working conditions, living conditions, health problems, and maintaining a stable workplace. They were all dealt with disgusting conditions in the boarding houses and a brutal working environment in Packingtown. In 1905, when the book was written, there were very little government regulations, especially in the meat packing industry, which led to unsafe working conditions and sanitation issues.
“In twentieth-century America the history of poverty begins with most working people living on the edge of destitution, periodically short of food, fuel, clothing, and shelter” (Poverty in 20th Century America). Poverty possesses the ability to completely degrade a person, as well as a family, but it can also make that person and family stronger. In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, a family of immigrants has to live in severe poverty in Packingtown, a suburb of Chicago. The poverty degrades the family numerous times, and even brings them close to death. Originally the family has each other to fall back on, but eventually members of the family must face numerous struggles on their own, including “hoboing it” and becoming a prostitute. The Jungle, a naturalistic novel by Upton Sinclair, reveals the detrimental effects that a life of poverty exerts on the familial relationships of immigrants in Chicago during the early 1900’s.
“The Jungle,” written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, describes how the life and challenges of immigrants in the United States affected their emotional and physical state, as well as relationships with others. The working class was contrasted to wealthy and powerful individuals who controlled numerous industries and activities in the community. The world was always divided into these two categories of people, those controlling the world and holding the majority of the power, and those being subjected to them. Sinclair succeeded to show this social gap by using the example of the meatpacking industry. He explained the terrible and unsafe working conditions workers in the US were subjected to and the increasing rate of corruption, which created the feeling of hopelessness among the working class.
William Morris described the system as a battleground, in that owners pushed their workers to new bounds to make the products required of them, to make a profit for the owner. Morris then goes on to say competition between nations, manufacturers, and individuals are immoral and there is a way to live in peace and harmony. The only way is through socialism. The principal idea of socialism is that people should have an even playing field, which would deter competition workforce. The socialist principal idea would have been improbable if not for the hardships many laborers faced because people’s lives were so miserable that someone concluded that a new form of government and dealing with the economy was needed.
The 1906 novel, The Jungle talked about some of Sinclair’s concerns. Worker exploitation was one of his concerns. This novel also showed how companies would sell rancid vermin-infested meat and how it was processed. Most of the workers lived in Packingtown, which were immigrants and their children. Northern and Central Europe immigrants were mainly Protestants, even though numerous Irish and German Catholics moved as well. In the twentieth century, about nine million immigrants came to America. Many immigrants moved to Chicago rather than any city besides New York. The immigrants were attracted by the construction jobs in the downtown area and they would work in huge manufacturing firms.
In the world of economic competition that we live in today, many thrive and many are left to dig through trashcans. It has been a constant struggle throughout the modern history of society. One widely prescribed example of this struggle is Upton Sinclair's groundbreaking novel, The Jungle. The Jungle takes the reader along on a journey with a group of recent Lithuanian immigrants to America. As well as a physical journey, this is a journey into a new world for them. They have come to America, where in the early twentieth century it was said that any man willing to work an honest day would make a living and could support his family. It is an ideal that all Americans are familiar with- one of the foundations that got American society where it is today. However, while telling this story, Upton Sinclair engages the reader in a symbolic and metaphorical war against capitalism. Sinclair's contempt for capitalist society is present throughout the novel, from cover to cover, personified in the eagerness of Jurgis to work, the constant struggle for survival of the workers of Packingtown, the corruption of "the man" at all levels of society, and in many other ways.
Author Upton Sinclair published the novel The Jungle in 1906. In his novel, Sinclair wrote of a Lithuanian immigrant family who moved to Chicago in the early twentieth century, who was struggling to make ends meet. The author explained how immigrants in this time era experienced difficulties adapting to the new society of America, and its conditions. Sinclair’s novel described how immigrants’ lives, experiences, and choices were effected by social class, racism, and sexism. He produced very strong examples, some more significant than others, which illustrated how immigrants were effected.
In 1906, Upton Sinclair's Book The Jungle was published in book form; it had previously been published as a newspaper serial in 1905. Few works of literature have changed history in the United States so much as The Jungle did when it was published. It has been said that the book led to the direct passage of the "Pure Food and Drug Act" of 1906 (Dickstein) and that it lead to a decades long decline in meat consumption is the United States.
Many immigrants came to The United States searching to obtain the American Dream; to be successful and own property they could call home. In the book The Jungle, Sinclair (1990) paints a picture of the many immigrants that came in the early 1900s with their hearts set on working hard and having that pay off only to have the American Dream be just that, a dream. As immigrants arrived in Packingtown, a meatpacking district in Chicago, they were soon met with many struggles and the reality that America was not what they expected; with horrible living condition, unbearable working and sanitation conditions.