Inensibility In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Many Americans living in urban America in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially the ones living in poverty, suffered from insensibility. They were worked so tirelessly and paid so little that after a while they would start shutting down and become numb to their feelings, emotions, and even the emotions of others around them. In this era this could be portrayed as a gift for the people, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about the horrible way of life that they were becoming accustomed to living. Becoming numb would make them able to work without distraction and be able to help keep them going even if they couldn’t feel anything. Even though this can be portrayed as a blessing it was almost like a curse in its own way. In the story

Jurgis, is a prime example of how insensibility can become a problem for himself and the people around them. Day-by-day, Jurgis would depart from home and go to work in the horrendous fertilizer mill. After a day of physically straining work, Jurgis would become covered from head to toe in the unpleasant fertilizer and during his time working he succumbed to getting headaches from the chemicals used to manufacture the fertilizer. Working this job was exhausting for Jurgis, after a while the job started to become a routine and he started to exhibit signs of being in a stupor. This could be considered a blessing, however, he started to want to feel something and the way he decided to deal with that was to take up the

Ona, a once cheerful woman who sang “like a bird” became so tired and miserable that she would fall into silence and go home without a word and proceed to depart for work in the morning and come back home exhausted. At night she would suffer and start weeping about her troubles and all the stress that she was going through. Ona, however, was not as numb as some of the others, when it was known that she was with child she started breaking down and becoming hysterical causing Jurgis to question why he would want to be with her since she was causing him so much trouble. Ona would then attempt to pull herself together and beg Jurgis to stay with