The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair is a fictional story that shows the conditions of immigrants in the United States. It takes place in a town called Packingtown, in which meat packing and industry jobs are all you can get. The story starts off with a man named Jurgis Rudkus who is marrying his fiance Ona, and they are celebrating in a dance hall as is a custom of theirs. They had immigrated from Lithuania to the United States in order to find a better life. What they had heard about the United States is that some friends of theirs had struck rich, but in truth there is not much. So they set off to this new country with some of their family. What they soon come to find out about this place is it isn't so great, the streets aren't exactly paved gold, and the scenery is smoggy and gloomy. Soon a few of them find jobs, Jurgis in the meatpacking industry, Marija painting cans, Antanas and Jonas both having a position at the meatpacking plant. As you see the story seems to be fine so far but then with buying a house and the cost of living being much higher then what they are used to leads to desperate times. Winter comes around and Antanas gets sick and ends up dying from a lung problem and a lot of work is slowing down and some industries are shutting down because of the winter. So now with Ona being pregnant and soon to have a baby they are out of two incomes. Then Jurgis gets injured at work and they have a baby boy whom they named Antanas after his grandfather. They now have not a lot of income and send two young boys from their family to work for all the extra money they can get. Jonas has ran away and not to be found, Ona is pregnant again and in despair, and of all Jurgis is losing his hope. Now the worse of worse has happened....Jurgis finds out Ona's boss has raped her and that has been selling her as a prostitute. Jurgis attacks her boss Conner and winds up in jail. Once out it is the world of chaos that has dumped on Jurgis's head. His family has been evicted from their home, all of them have lost their jobs and are selling newspapers and begging, Ona is incredibly sick with another child that she has had. Then Ona dies, along with her other premature born baby. Jurgis is driven mad and starts to get drunk. Things begin to get worse and worse by the days that pass by where Jurgis is still lonely and hurt....His son Antanas ends up drowning with no one to watch him, Jurgis becomes a criminal and cares for nothing more then getting drunk and prostitutes. He loses his way of life and becomes nothing and thinks life has ruined him. He then stumbles upon a meeting where Socialists are gathering and talking about the issues in industry and the fat people leading them corrupting the political structure, and the only way to defeat them is to rise together and take part in opposing them. To fight for a better environment and way of life other than poverty.
The main character Jurgis is a big man who wishes nothing more than to have a happy life with his love Ona and to raise a family. He thinks by going to Packingtown that all this will happen from what he here's about the opportunities there. But they end up being lies and there is nothing more than poverty, despair, and corruption.
So the town drags him down and breaks him, and kills off most of his family and corrupts the others. He becomes a sad man, once driven by the thrive of life now crushed and broken with no help but alcohol. But he eventually finds his way with socialism which gets him back on the right path and become a strong supporter. He hopes that it would be the socialist party that fixes things up for other immigrants in search of what he wanted.
So the town drags him down and breaks him, and kills off most of his family and corrupts the others. He becomes a sad man, once driven by the thrive of life now crushed and broken with no help but alcohol. But he eventually finds his way with socialism which gets him back on the right path and become a strong supporter. He hopes that it would be the socialist party that fixes things up for other immigrants in search of what he wanted.
Setting -
The setting of The Jungle is the twentieth century in Chicago where there are stockyards and major meatpacking industries. Now see Upton Sinclair is what you would call a muckraker, someone who finds out the fault in industries and depicts them in literature to show real faults. His first intentions were to bring an impact of socialism but along with that he had a very large impact on the Meatpacking industries themselves. The dark smoggy yards of Chicago were packed and dirty, not the place Jurgis was looking for. The working conditions, living conditions, and health hazards that stormed the yards in the early twentieth century were horrid and begun from the slaughterhouses. At this time there was a need for reform, springing up support for the socialist party. Where they would bring support and create things that would help the lower class and all people suffering from corrupt businesses paying to low of wages and having a harsh environments. This novel although being fiction is based off of real working conditions that needed to be addressed, and Upton Sinclair had started the actions of cleaning up cities and meatpacking industries in order for social reform. Cleaning up the meat industries and making policies about the meat and how it is to be packed and checked so they are not shipping out bad or sick meat. This book had a huge impact on the way of life of many immigrants during this era. It changed the way packing meat is today and thank goodness.
The setting of The Jungle is the twentieth century in Chicago where there are stockyards and major meatpacking industries. Now see Upton Sinclair is what you would call a muckraker, someone who finds out the fault in industries and depicts them in literature to show real faults. His first intentions were to bring an impact of socialism but along with that he had a very large impact on the Meatpacking industries themselves. The dark smoggy yards of Chicago were packed and dirty, not the place Jurgis was looking for. The working conditions, living conditions, and health hazards that stormed the yards in the early twentieth century were horrid and begun from the slaughterhouses. At this time there was a need for reform, springing up support for the socialist party. Where they would bring support and create things that would help the lower class and all people suffering from corrupt businesses paying to low of wages and having a harsh environments. This novel although being fiction is based off of real working conditions that needed to be addressed, and Upton Sinclair had started the actions of cleaning up cities and meatpacking industries in order for social reform. Cleaning up the meat industries and making policies about the meat and how it is to be packed and checked so they are not shipping out bad or sick meat. This book had a huge impact on the way of life of many immigrants during this era. It changed the way packing meat is today and thank goodness.
man v man, man v self, man v society
In The Jungle the main conflict would be Man V Society, because the main problem is that no matter what Jurgis cannot get ahead no matter how hard he tries. The conditions are too rough on him and his family and society does nothing but dig him deeper into a hole of despair.
Another main conflict would be Man V Man as you can see in The Jungle it is a fight for survival and if you can beat that man out of his job then you survive. There is always someone waiting in line to replace you once your injured or sick for the low paying job. Everyone seems to be against you and doesn't care but for their own safety.
Later in the book we find that Man V Self is also an important conflict. Jurgis begins to fight himself as he has no more hope for himself and is desperate to just get money for alcohol and prostitutes. His family is all gone, his loved ones dead, nothing but despair in his life until he finds socialism. Socialism gives him hope and he became a strong believer in it.
In The Jungle the main conflict would be Man V Society, because the main problem is that no matter what Jurgis cannot get ahead no matter how hard he tries. The conditions are too rough on him and his family and society does nothing but dig him deeper into a hole of despair.
Another main conflict would be Man V Man as you can see in The Jungle it is a fight for survival and if you can beat that man out of his job then you survive. There is always someone waiting in line to replace you once your injured or sick for the low paying job. Everyone seems to be against you and doesn't care but for their own safety.
Later in the book we find that Man V Self is also an important conflict. Jurgis begins to fight himself as he has no more hope for himself and is desperate to just get money for alcohol and prostitutes. His family is all gone, his loved ones dead, nothing but despair in his life until he finds socialism. Socialism gives him hope and he became a strong believer in it.
Themes
A major theme would be reform, although it is technically not the point Upton Sinclair wanted to get across. It is still a major theme that affected a lot of people in the real world and fixed a lot of problems within the meatpacking industries. It is also still an apparent theme in the novel because that is what Jurgis wishes for his family, to become wealthy and to live a good life with a job and raise a family. But this is not what happens for his situation, it just calls for reform.
The theme of poverty is present in The jungle, as most the people of Packingtown and in actual Chicago were poor and unable to live healthy or live at all. There were extreme conditions in the meatpacking industries, workers getting hurt, an unclean environment, and the meat having bad parts packed in carelessly because of the drive of workers. The citizens in despair to make a measly buck to try and live under horrible conditions. It was a cruel time where poverty had taken over.
Sinclair proposes that the reader sees Packingtown in terms of Social Darwinism. The title of the book, The Jungle, alludes to the idea that in an environment such as Packingtown, certain members of society will survive while other weaker members will not. Sinclair also uses metaphors of nature, such as how winter's cold kills those trees which cannot find light, to describe the process through which economic and societal forces push the weaker members of Packingtown into sickness and death. Throughout the novel, Sinclair describes this process pejoratively.
A major theme would be reform, although it is technically not the point Upton Sinclair wanted to get across. It is still a major theme that affected a lot of people in the real world and fixed a lot of problems within the meatpacking industries. It is also still an apparent theme in the novel because that is what Jurgis wishes for his family, to become wealthy and to live a good life with a job and raise a family. But this is not what happens for his situation, it just calls for reform.
The theme of poverty is present in The jungle, as most the people of Packingtown and in actual Chicago were poor and unable to live healthy or live at all. There were extreme conditions in the meatpacking industries, workers getting hurt, an unclean environment, and the meat having bad parts packed in carelessly because of the drive of workers. The citizens in despair to make a measly buck to try and live under horrible conditions. It was a cruel time where poverty had taken over.
Sinclair proposes that the reader sees Packingtown in terms of Social Darwinism. The title of the book, The Jungle, alludes to the idea that in an environment such as Packingtown, certain members of society will survive while other weaker members will not. Sinclair also uses metaphors of nature, such as how winter's cold kills those trees which cannot find light, to describe the process through which economic and societal forces push the weaker members of Packingtown into sickness and death. Throughout the novel, Sinclair describes this process pejoratively.
Symbols –
Packingtown and the stockyards, symbolizing the real Meatpacking and stockyard city Chicago. Showing how gross at one time in the early twentieth century this place was. Not only that but also the symbolism of the animal that were taken into the stockyards and slaughtered to be produced and sold, just as the immigrants came pouring in and slaughtered with poverty.
The meat which the meatpacking industries packed into cans is a symbol of how good something may seem from the outside, but then when it is opened it is disgusting and putrid. It shows how nice of a place Packingtown is described to be under a wonderful government, but it then opens up the corruption on the inside.
The title itself stands for a major symbol of the book, The Jungle. Which is basically what this place is described to be because it is crazy and full of animals just trying to survive. Everyone is a preditor and everyone is a possible prey.
Packingtown and the stockyards, symbolizing the real Meatpacking and stockyard city Chicago. Showing how gross at one time in the early twentieth century this place was. Not only that but also the symbolism of the animal that were taken into the stockyards and slaughtered to be produced and sold, just as the immigrants came pouring in and slaughtered with poverty.
The meat which the meatpacking industries packed into cans is a symbol of how good something may seem from the outside, but then when it is opened it is disgusting and putrid. It shows how nice of a place Packingtown is described to be under a wonderful government, but it then opens up the corruption on the inside.
The title itself stands for a major symbol of the book, The Jungle. Which is basically what this place is described to be because it is crazy and full of animals just trying to survive. Everyone is a preditor and everyone is a possible prey.