...“The Jungle” American Protest Literature Analysis 211 In Class Essay In the early 20th century, America was in the process of becoming the most industrial cities in the world. With the increase of factories across the country, stories were becoming more popular. One the most well-known stories from the novel titled “The Jungle”, written by Upton Sinclair. In the American Protest Literature text, I was able to see certain chapters of Upton Sinclair’s novel which peeked my interest. Upton’s techniques of persuading the readers, during that time, were able to have the realization of the harsh conditions of working the factory, however many of the readers have had a negative opinion towards his novel, believing it supporting communistic views. While I was unable to read the full novel, I was able to read certain important chapters from “The Jungle” by reading its section in American Protest. The story is about the Sinclair’s main protagonist named “Jurgis”, who is an immigrant from Europe. When he moves to America with his family, he starts to witness the harsh...
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...Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was an American industrialist. After immigrating to the United States in 1835, he amassed a fortune in the steel industry making him one of the world’s richest men. His rags-to-riches story epitomizes the immigrant success story. While Carnegie was a firm believer in the importance of philanthropy and the potential of the laboring class, the rise of business and industry created a widening gap between the rich in the poor by the late nineteenth century. This discrepancy of wealth and unjust activity within business and political enterprises became commonly discussed in writings of the day. Over the course of seven weeks in 1904, journalist Upton Sinclair entered Chicago’s meatpacking industry and...
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...immigrants of the past who came to America educated and with financial resources, this new group of immigrants came to America in search of jobs, political freedom, and to escape the mass poverty in Europe. This new group of immigrants were often poor and uneducated and were likely considered peasants in their own countries. Jurgis Rudkus, a fictionalized character in Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle is an example of such a person. Jurgis is from Lithuania and comes to America in search of the American dream. At the beginning of the novel Jurgis comes to America as any other typical European immigrant. He dreams of America as being a land where a man with little can rise through the ranks and ultimately become a man with wealth and prosperity. Jurgis quickly realizes that industrial America is a land of heartache, where a willing man is exploited and used as energy to fuel the never ending industrial machine. At the end of the novel Jurgis learns that the great land of America has its limitations, but at a cost as he loses his wife and child and spends stints in jail for trying to defy the machine. Thus, the novel, The Jungle exemplifies how immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s could not fully realize and achieve the American dream no matter how hard they toiled and worked in the brutal American factories of the time. A jungle is an area of madness and chaos where animals roam free and one either eats or is eaten. Upton Sinclair titled his...
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...On February 26, 1906, Upton Sinclair released The Jungle, a novel written about the life of a Lithuanian family moving to America and the hardships they faced there. Sinclair, a Socialist and a muckraker reporter wrote the novel in hopes of gaining supporters of the Socialist party. What he ended up doing was single handily cause the formation of the Food and Drug Administration after he showed the nation what was really happening with their food. Yet looking at the work as what it’s meant to be, an exposure of the negative effects of a capitalist society on the impoverished citizens, was Sinclair’s indictment a fair assessment. The novel The Jungle, follows the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his new family as they move to America in search of...
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...Whenever you hear "The Jungle" most think of a tropical forest full of thick, brightly colored plants and trees containing various types of animals. However, the book The Jungle is a novel written by the American journalist and muckraker Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to expose the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the meatpacking industry of Chicago. So how do the two relate? The novel's title symbolizes the competitive nature of capitalism. The life of living in Packingtown is like living in a jungle, in which the strong prey on the weak and all living things are engaged in a violent, brutal fight for survival. In the book, you only see the use of the word "jungle" once. This being when Jurgis has been drinking and decides to sleep with a prostitute. The novel also seems to compare Jurgis' sexual desire to that of a beast in the jungle. Therefore associating jungles with uncontrolled desires. This being said, the awful conditions of the workers in Packingtown are the result of the uncontrollable human desire for money. The Jungle is about bringing to light human greed and the social damage it does. The images of "beasts" that live in the jungle also depicts violence and brutality – another huge theme of Sinclair's analysis of life in Packingtown. Sinclair describes capitalism as destructive because he shows it...
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...paved with gold, rather they were welcomed by streets paved with trash and the air filled with smoke and pungent odors, as presented in the book The Jungle. The Jungle is a novel written by Upton Sinclair that displayed the severe working and living conditions that immigrants were forced to deal with. Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tensions and historical processes in hand in the late 19th, early 20th century showing us factory conditions, housing conditions, and political corruption through the eyes of an immigrant family. Writing the novel through the eyes of the family allows readers to feel sympathetic towards the family, and is why this book was so effective in bringing attention to the circumstances that the lower class was put in. The Jungle is about an immigrant family from Lithuania who came to the United States being promised a better life, however as soon as...
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...pursuit of Happiness.” This document led to the national ethos that is the American Dream. This dream states that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class. Following the Civil War the United States of America underwent large scale change and by the start of the twentieth century was one of the richest nations in the world. By 1950 the U.S.A. was the richest country in the world and a superpower. The state was not the only thing to change during this period. From the late-nineteenth century up to the 1920s average Americans experienced a dramatic expansion in wealth and prosperity. However, with the Wall Street Crash in 1929 the U.S.A. experienced an economic depression that destroyed millions of livelihoods. This eventful period of American history led many to question the American Dreams place in modern America. This research paper will examine the interpretation of the American Dream in literature between the Progressive Era at the start of the twentieth century and the 1950s economic and social boom. In order to do this the paper will examine the novels The Jungle, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman. These three novels all examine the American Dream in different decades. Written in 1906 by Upton Sinclair The Jungle is a novel that portrayed the life of immigrants and the working class in early-twentieth century America. The novel was published during the muckraking...
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...The cruel economic system in The Jungle led Jurgis and others to a life of oppression and injustice. The corruption of capitalism affects everyone around it and eventually leads every character to destruction. From Jurgis and Ona to the bad conditions of the city, the industry set up is detrimental in more ways than not. Upton Sinclair portrays the evils of capitalism throughout the book as the characters’ motives become distorted. The government system causes calamity to run all throughout Packingtown. Packingtown is a city filled with crime and lawlessness, caused by the inadequate system set up by the the people in authority. “That was their law, that was their justice! Jurgis stood upright, trembling with passion,” (167). For an example,...
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...history. However, unarguably, one of the most deserving is a man by the name of Upton Sinclair. Growing up in a poor family in the city of Baltimore, young Upton Sinclair had to overcome many feats in order to do what he strived for… help improve lives for the average American working class family. Because of his noted accomplishments, Upton Sinclair can be seen, without a doubt, as one of the most influential people of the early 1900’s. Sinclair’s early life as a child was very rough compared to that of a normal child today. It is said that, “Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the scion of a father who suffered from alcoholism and a mother who had descended from an affluent...
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...Throughout this paper, I will be discussing about the meat packing industry during the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th to 29th century. I would like to expand on the environmental consequences of the meat packing industry, the cruel treatment of the workers, and the epidemic diseases that occurred due to the unsanitary environment of the industries. The meat packing industry was a ground turning point of U.S history, which symbolized meat as a symbol of man’s conquest over nature and the environment. Meatpacking industries were largely concentrated in large cities such as Chicago, New York, Ohio, and Kansas City. The big four companies were known as the Armour, Swift, Morris, and National Packing companies. Live animals would be shipped via railroads and sent directly to the factories in the city, ready to be sliced and prepared. This was during the Industrial Revolution , a time when powerful monopolies and companies took control of U.S.: Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, including meat packing industry. Cincinnati, Ohio originally was the center of the meat processing industry. Environmentally, the industry gained benefits due to the plants located near the Ohio River, allowing easy transport of goods. However, Chicago replaced Cincinnati and demonstrated new unique advantages with the emergence of refrigerated railroad cars, allowing convenient transportation facilities throughout different cities. Despite the fact that the exterior of meat packing industries seemed powerful...
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...Progressivism was a time period where there was emphasis on improving working conditions, improving the way of life, exposing corruption, and expanding democracy. The excerpts from Fast Food Nation and The Jungle outline the citizens who demanded a change in numerous areas such as business, labor, economy, consumers, and an increase of democracy. The Jungle’s main goal is to allure and impel the audience to endorse socialism. Throughout the excerpt Sinclair makes efforts to discredit the capitalist political system and display how a socialist political system would restore humanity to the abused working class. Schlosser’s main goal was to inform the people about how these major plants have no economic incentive to spend extra money to make the work environment safe. He implies that it should be the role of government to force the plants to set up adequate safety regulations....
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...II Dr. Hilton | | | Upton Sinclairs’ The Jungle is a common form of muckraking during the 20’s. The book is about a Lithuanian family who relocated to the US in hopes of finding success and building better lives. After hearing the story of how America supports the idea of freedom, and has unlimited opportunity, the main character Jurgis is convinced America was the place to be. Once arriving to America and coming in contact with the reality of the myth of his ideal society, Jurgis exposes the deeply rooted capitalism and the effects and problems that it causes. Because of this, Sinclair feels that socialism is the remedy to the capitalistic conditions he’s now a part of. Andrew Carnegies’ The Gospel of Wealth is a viewpoint of how beneficial capitalism is to American society and economy which is seen through the eyes of a high-class businessperson. Carnegie discusses the history of there being an equal society, the natural law of competition, and the capitalistic results and benefits. Sinclairs’ The Jungle and Carnegies’ The Gospel of Wealth are opposing viewpoints, therefore when it comes to the unequal distribution of wealth and ideas about capitalism and socialism both arguments are supportive and reasonable to a certain extent. In the 1920’s, the unequal distribution of wealth is evident and Americans start to see many cultural changes. America has now adopted the idea of conspicuous consumption which means Americans are competing with their neighbors and...
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...improved the economy, and made the United States a top destination for immigrants. Consequently, industrialization led to the exploitation of the working class and the rise of the socialism1. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair illustrated the fate of immigrants in Chicago in the meatpacking industry, the harsh realities of life in the city, and the truth about opportunity in America as a result of capitalism. Through vivid imagery, metaphors, and symbolism, Sinclair described the horrors of industrial capitalism through the portrayal of the poor working and living conditions and annihilation of the Rudkus...
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...The book “The Jungle” was published at 1905 and written by Upton Sinclair. The novel’s main characters Jurgis Rudkus was a Lithuanian immigrant lived in U.S., and the book described the life he experienced while he was working in a meat packing house at Chicago. Jurgis’s family and his fiancée’s family immigrated to the United States from Lithuania; they thought they could have a better life after living in the U.S. At the beginning, they were lucky and found the job in a very short time. It look like everything should be better, however things didn’t develop as they expected. In the meat packing house, people had a long working-time and the work environment was horrible; it made some of the worker hurt and even some of them were died. After Jurgis married, in order to support the family, he was working very hard. Unfortunately, Jurgis was hurt in an accident and had to stay home. After he back to the meat packing house, there was someone already did his task which means he lost his job. Everything became worse and worse. Jurgis went to jail because he fights with his co-work; when he got out of the jail, he found his life was totally changed because both his wife and kid were died. After that, Jurgis became weaker and hard to find a job. One day, he was listened a speech about socialism, he was very enlightening. After experiencing so many unfair things, he thought the society need to be changed and socialism brought hope to him. “I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident...
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...wanted the government to be more democratic in which they would make it possible for there to be direct elections of senators and an open primary. With a direct democracy, citizens could now empower popular majorities and give them a greater voice in state government. Progressives also were in favor of ballot initiative and the referendum which put constitutional amendments before voters. By taking down political machines who were placed in office, there would now be elected, non-corrupt, representatives that citizens could vote for to be in power. These representatives would actually help the people rather than having the political machines in power that only did what was right for the rich and themselves. During the Progressive era, the people of the country needed those in office who would be beneficial for the growing middle-class, and that would help the impoverished, being mostly the new influx of immigrants who were trying to adjust to their new American life. President Theodore Roosevelt, was the first Progressive Presidents to stand with the working class and do everything in his power to help the impoverished. Roosevelt did a lot to help lead the Progressive movement and improve the political world, freeing it from corruption. Roosevelt developed the “Square Deal” which controlled corporations and gave consumer protection. With this, along with a lot more policies, Roosevelt proved that he was a...
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