The Jungle by Upton Sinclar may be named one of the most significant books in American literally history. The book is remarkable not only because of its esthetic features but also (or mainly) due to its impact and honesty in revealing brutality of meat packing industry and cruelty of capitalism.
The Jungle is a muckraking novel, a type of novel significant and popular in the United States during Progressive Era. The main aim of this type of journalism is revealing truth about companies and industries as well as advocating reform and change. Sinclair considered himself to be a muckraker.
The book was published in 1906 and since this is that day it has been considered one of the most significant of American novels. It is a remarkable piece of work because besides showing true colors of meat packing industry it also draws archetypical portrayals of immigrants in 19th century. Jurgis and Ona stand for thousands of broken dreams and lives of people who came to America to look for better life; the American dream which turned
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The chapter is written in the way that reflects dazzling and pulsing Slavic ethnic energy. Air is full of voices and music remaining of “home”. In the scene family is pictured together: both young and old. I believe this is one of the most important part of the novel. It shows old generation: the one that still remember home country and the young who assimilated. Later readers will be witnessing the fate of characters they met in the opening scene. I thing it is important to acknowledge how The Jungle was and how it is today seen. In the view of 1906’s readers the most shocking was the aspect of meat packing conditions: the food safety. Having sad that it is important to mention that Sinclar’s novel contributed to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. By contrast today’s readers are more empathetic and moved by personal stories of
The novel follows a family of immigrants from Lithuania working in a meatpacking factory, and as the novel progresses, the reader learns of the revolting conditions within the factories. Sinclair’s The Jungle illustrates the concept of Bitzer’s “Rhetorical Situation” and Emerson’s quote quite effectively. For instance, the horrendous safety and health conditions of the packing factories were the exigencies that Upton Sinclair was making clear to the reader. The rhetorical audience that Sinclair aimed to influence with his novel was Congress and the president, as both had to agree in order to establish health and safety bills to better the conditions within factories. Sinclair’s efforts did not go unnoticed as in 1906 both the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug act were approved by both Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt (Cherny,
Predators and Prey in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. & nbsp; & nbsp; 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 immigrant 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 Jungle, the 1906 exposé of the Chicago meatpacking industry. The novel focuses on an immigrant family and sympathetically and realistically describes their struggles with loan sharks and others who take advantage of their innocence. More importantly, Sinclair graphically describes the brutal working conditions of those who find work in the stockyards. Sinclair's description of the main character's
While The Jungle was by far Sinclair’s most famous work, what many are not aware of is the fact that The Jungle was initially written as an expose for a well-known socialist newspaper in the country, Appeal to Reason. Although Sinclair once said he were to write the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the labor movement”, he did so not by merely speculating what the meat packing industry was like, but by actually experiencing the lifestyle firsthand. Upton Sinclair went to the packing plants himself in order to truly gain the experience of what it was like to work in the stockyards as well as communicating directly with employees, laborers, social workers, and locals to truly grasp what life was like in a place like Packingtown. It was not until Sinclair was able to take all of his experiences in that he was able to sit down and write an accurate and to some, frightful expose of what the meat packing industry
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
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
An author depicts certain elements of a historical time period in his or her novel by incorporating literary elements. Upton Sinclair, the author of the novel The Jungle, was a Socialist who supported the rights of the working class in America’s economy. He lived during the time of the American Industrial Revolution when the lower class of the society were poverty-stricken while the upper class were wealthy and corrupt. He had observed the meat-packing factories of Chicago and incorporated the knowledge he had learned into his novel. In writing this novel, Sinclair’s goal was to expose the harsh conditions in American factories (“Upton Sinclair”).
In Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, “The Jungle,” he exposes corruption in business and government and its disastrous effects on a family from Lithuania. The novel follows immigrant Jurgis Rudkus as he struggles against the slow ANNIHILATION of his family and is REBORN after discovering that socialism as a cure away to all capitalism’s problems. The Jungle is an example of protest literature because it exposes in a muckraking style the DANGEROUS, INHUMAINE conditions that workers lived and worked in, corruption in business and politics and the unsanitary meat that was sold.
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.
The public’s reaction created unintended consequences from the author’s original intent. Sinclair himself writes "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Publishing the novel led to new federal food safety laws such as the Pure Food and Drug act and the Meat Inspection Act. During his job Jurgis noticed the meat factory was a place “...where men welcomed tuberculosis in the cattle they were feeding...”(112). As it would fatten them up and the factory could sell disease ridden meat. Moreover, on the killing floor, they would butcher “slunk calves” for meat. Slunk calves are born prematurely and is against the law to process this cow meat for
...d on his real life experiences in Chicago, which he used to then write the book. One who has read the book would also say that Mr. Sinclair is in favor of these government regulations that we have today, as the end of the book quickly transforms into a sort of socialist propaganda, which includs a 7-page pathos-based speech by a socialist speaker in the story; the book ends with a large socialist movement ramping up all over the nation with Jurgis being a part of it. While the need for socialism is debatable, the regulations that we have in place today are derived from lesser forms of Socialism, and are undebatably in place for the betterment of our society.
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is about a Lithuanian family living in Chicago in the 1900’s. They had faith in the American dream, hoping to start a new and successful life. Unfortunately they were deprived of they hopes and dreams. They were placed in the middle of a society where only the strongest and richest survived. The rich keep getting richer and the poor get even poorer. Jurgis and his family went to extreme lengths just in hopes of finding a job, they were forced to travel in heavy rain, strong winds, and thick snow, even when they were sick, in fear of losing their jobs. The Jungle pointed out many flaws in society such as filthy meat and sickening work conditions.
In his struggles, Sinclair wanted to expose the evils of capitalism and put in open the benefits of socialism. He indeed managed to do so as he sparked up a public outcry concerning the operations of the company. Fortunately, the outcries got the attention of the state house. The sitting president, President Theodore Roosevelt called for an urgent special commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the claims made from the novel. To everyone’s surprise, the committee released its report in 1906 which to the shock of many confirmed most of the allegations.
Ryan Lee Colin Likens AP U.S. History August 8th, 2017 The Jungle Summary The Jungle is a story of Jurgis Rudkus and his family, all of whom are Lithuanian immigrants, and their immigration to the United States of America, as well as the corruption of the United States at the time.