In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, Jurgis is the most complex character throughout the novel. He demonstrates many characteristics that sets him aside from the other characters and also utilizes the title of villain. He is not necessarily an evil man by nature, but does portray an evil life by existence. In the beginning, Jurgis was a man of great muscles and strength. “…and he was young, and a giant besides. There was too much health in him. He could not even imagine how it would feel to be beaten.”(23) He was a country boy, meaning he was use to lifting things and from that became strong, which was a physical feature Packingtown seemed to like, leaving Jurgis excited knowing he could easily become employed as he and his family arrived in Chicago. Besides strength, Jurgis was a curious man who yearned to learn the American culture, the language, and get ahead to live the life other than a poor Lithuanian immigrant. He loved his family, especially his wife, Ona, and worked hard to ensure all their basic needs were provided. He learned quickly, while working for the Beef Trust, that he had to work independently and not rely upon others to get the job done. An accident left Jurgis with a broken ankle and shortly afterward unemployed. The beginning of Jurgis’ violent episodes of anger and violence was introduced when “…little Stanislovas spent most of the day dancing about in horrible agony, till Jurgis flew into a passion of nervous rage and swore like a madman, declaring he would kill him if he did not stop.”(131) Another example of his violence was when Ona admitted to him that her supervisor, Phil Conner, had threatened her and her family’s employment if she would not be his mistress. Jurgis flew into such a rage that he at... ... middle of paper ... ...ow of what was happening unlike when he first moved to America and could barely even speak the language; he was growing mentally, not physically. Jurgis found Socialism as his religion which is what really saved him from himself. It gave him new hope, new opportunity, and confidence in the “jungle” of a world he lived in. The villainy effect Jurgis has on this novel enhances it in means of showing how so many men in this time period survived. In the beginning he wanted everything for his family, and by the end he cared only for himself. He gained an exclusive temper, living his life like a yo-yo having high times and low times. It really was survival for the fittest and if you were not fit enough you would not survive. Jurgis was a not a villain per say, but he lived a villainous lifestyle in the way he was beaten down by so many obstacles that were thrown at him.
A common past may partially be responsible for the close psychological similarities between Kravitz and Gatsby. During their initial portion of life, both characters were confronted with similar problems. Due to their impoverished state, both characters appeared bound to a lifetime of mediocrity. As Richler describes, “Where Duddy Kravitz sprung from the boys grew up dirty and sad, spiky also, like grass beside the railroad tracks.” (45.) Kravitz’s background is further exposed when he claims, “He’s a hack and he picks up extra money pimping. My father’s a pimp…That ought to be good for a laugh. My old man’s a lousy pimp.” (105.) Certainly, Kravitz was never brought up under ideal conditions, and neither was Gatsby, who encounters much of the same problems. “For over a year he had been beating his way along the south shore of Lake Superior as a clam-digger and a salmon fisher or in any other capacity that brought him food and bed.” (Fitzgerald, 95.) Fitzgerald further reinforces this fact, “A young major just out of the army and covered with medals he got in the war. He was so hard up he had to keep wearing his uniform because he couldn’t buy some regula...
change his life for the better. With each new job, Jurgis was faced with a new issue or problem.
He was a young man in his twenties, pressured by his family and peers to fight for his country despite not wanting to. The use of imagery allows the reader to see through his eyes. Though untrue, the fact is it could have happened. This gives the reader a “taste...
His ego was heighten when he found a job during his first day in Packingtown. (Sinclair, “The Jungle”, 23)*. Excited as he was, Jurgis had no knowledge of the work he was going to get involved with. The meat industry at Durham’s are not a pleasant sight, and Jurgis was shocked with the production of the meat industry. His time working there allows him to view the process of meat packaging and distribution; though he can’t understand the error towards the industry’s method of employment and production. The superintendents and higher officials have no interest in the well-being of there employees, and view them as replaceable objects. If an employee was not long fit work; or refused to comply with their regulations: such as “speed up” demands or longer hours, they would immediately get replaced with another person willing to obey. In additions, accidents (though not as frequent) arose having workers injured, or in dreadful occasions, killed. Therefore, these accidents became a valid reason to replace workers without owning up to any ethical consequences. Jurgis was also recruited to work on confidential assignments, such as process and distribution of tainted meat (Sinclair, “The Jungle”, #)*. This allowed Jurgis to witness the corrupt version of an industry. Tainted meat was washed and recruits removed as much spoiled meat as possible. After this task, the recruits
Jurgis comes to America as a strong willed man looking for better opportunities for his family and himself but is slowly crushed by the hard struggles of a working class man in a society where capitalism is dominant. Sinclair portrays socialism as the resolution to the story but especially to Jurgis’ struggling life. By showing the torment that the working class had to go through because of capitalism, Sinclair wanted to promote the wondrous changes that socialism was going to bring. Sinclair highlights the terrible situations caused by capitalism but pushes for socialism through Jurgis’ intent in finding work, the struggling working class, and the inequality of the men in a capitalistic society.
Sinclair, has shown in a dramatic style the hardships and obstacles which Jurgis and fellow workers had to endure. He made the workers sound so helpless and the conditions so gruesome, that the reader almost wants a way out for Jurgis. Sinclair's The Jungle is a "subliminal" form of propaganda for
A muckraking novel about the Chicago meatpacking industry, The Jungle follows Jurgis Rudkus on his move to the big city of beautiful America. Or so he thought. As a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis has less opportunities to be successful in such a thriving business. He begins his journey in a comparably easier job than some men can achieve, sweeping the fallen remains of animals into a room where they are thrown in with the rest of the “healthy” meat. When Jurgis loses this job after an injury, he finds work at the only place left hiring: the fertilizer mills. The stench of him is incapable of removal until he takes his first bath in a stream—only after leaving Chicago. Jurgis leaves Chicago to travel the countryside in search of food and pay.
In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck brings to the reader a variety of diverse and greatly significant characters. However, the majority of each characters' individuality happens to lie within what they symbolize in the microcosm of the Joad family and their acquaintances, which itself stands for the entire migrant population of the Great Depression era. One such character is that of Jim Casey, a former preacher and long-time friend of the Joads. In this story, Casey represents a latter-day Christ figure who longs to bring religious stability to the burgeon of migrant families facing West.
The author uses ethos in several of the paragraphs to help pull the listener into his speech. After his introduction he starts off telling of himself as a young Jewish boy, where he was from, and when he was set free. “He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart.” He uses strategic pausing
public health concern, but it was far more of a concern for the workers. He also portrays
In The Jungle, Jurgis is worn down by systematic exploitation, forcing him to abandon his morals and obligations. Submission to the process is his only hope of survival for himself and his family. However grim the book is, the reality supports the terrors exposed in The Jungle. Despite the era of “progress,” the culture only brought harm to their life. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy is a “perfect woman” in the lap of luxury. But she is also pulled down by the negative influences of the new society. She is shallow, and is unconsciously careless with others, knowing that she is protected by her wealth. This behavior is encouraged and reinforced in their upper-class world on East Egg. They indirectly made their money though the work of thousands of other less fortunate, such as Jurgis and his family. They live in a world cordoned off by classes. It is a time of capitalism and pleasure, of expansion and exploitation, and under the surface of it all there is a negative undercurrent that affects both the affluent and the beggars. Both books are in unison and explain with piercing foresight how corruption lurks in everyone's lives. Both books illustrate the evils created by industrialization and
The novel, The Great Gatsby focuses on one of the focal characters, James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby. He grew up in North Dakota to a family of poor farm people and as he matured, eventually worked for a wealthy man named Dan Cody. As Gatsby is taken under Cody’s wing, he gains more than even he bargained for. He comes across a large sum of money, however ends up getting tricked out of ‘inheriting’ it. After these obstacles, he finds a new way to earn his money, even though it means bending the law to obtain it. Some people will go to a lot of trouble in order to achieve things at all costs. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, conveys the numerous traits of Jay Gatsby through the incidents he faces, how he voices himself and the alterations he undergoes through the progression of the novel. Gatsby possesses many traits that help him develop as a key character in the novel: ambitious, kind-hearted and deceitful all of which is proven through various incidents that arise in the novel.
Upton Sinclair reveals the identity of a person can come from the external and internal conflicts one has to face through their lifetime. Sinclairs characterization of Jurgis’ in the beginning is blatantly optimistic; the philosophy he has when he comes to America is to “work harder” as long as he could “work harder” he would be fine and everything would be alright (Sinclair, 15). Sinclair leads the reader to believe that Jurgis’ is able to withstand whatever America has to offer. This is reaffirmed, when Jurgis repeatedly tells his wife, Ona, the same phrase “I will work harder” to any hardship that seemed come their way (Sinclair, 18). This phrase Jurgis says over and over gives the idea that his character seems strong. Sinclair ultimately counters this idea when Jurgis loses it when he believes his family is “swindled” in a deal for their house.
Jay Gatsby is the epitome of a tragic hero; his greatest attribute of enterprise and ambition contributes to his ultimate demise, but his tragic story inspires fear amongst the audience and showcases the dangers of allowing money to consume one’s life. To qualify as a tragic hero, the character must first occupy a "high" status position and also embody virtue as part of his innate character. In Fitzgerald’s novel, the tragic hero Jay Gatsby was not born into wealth but later acquired social status through bootlegging, or selling illegal alcohol during Prohibition. When he was a child, James “Jimmy” Gatz was a nave boy from North Dakota without any family connections, money, or education who was determined to escape his family’s poverty through hard work and determination. Once he enrolls in the army, however, Gatsby gets “’way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn’t care” (151) when he meets who he believes to be the girl of his dreams—Daisy.
Even though the relationships differ from story to story, there is a dominant and inferior relationship that is present within each. Many would suggest being the dominant character would hold its benefits; however within each story the dominant suffers some kind of loss as a result of their behavior or actions. Since emotions begin to play a large part in decision making, the contradictions of behaviors between the two tend to push the relationship to a breaking point causing a downfall for one of the characters. As we continue to study the effects of relationships within these literary works we are given the opportunity to learn the precursors of character flaw so we may avoid such decisions ourselves, thus eliminating the chance of history repeating itself.