The Jungle Essay, Research Paper

The Jungle

A Summary and Review of Upton Sinclair & # 8217 ; s The Jungle Upton & # 8217 ; s Sinclair & # 8217 ; s book portrayed a broad assortment of characters to convey his messages. Merely one character can be considered a major character, Jurgis Rudkus. The book revolves around Jurgis & # 8217 ; life in Packingtown. The back uping characters, transitioned in and out of the narrative with great frequence. When Jurgis ab initio arrives in Packingtown from his native Lithuania he can best be described as being big and powerful. He believes in the work ethic to a point of na vet. His exclusive reply to any reverse: & # 8220 ; I will work harder. & # 8221 ; Eventually Jurgis learns that no labourer can do adequate to be the exclusive supplier for his household. His lone resort is to direct his married woman and kids out to work. Soon Jurgis begins to detect certain unfairnesss that the meat baggers employ to work their workers. Workers are worn out by a & # 8220 ; speed-up & # 8221 ; system, they are non compensated for unwellnesss or hurt incurred from their work, and they are literally paid by the hr, anything less than a hr does non acquire compensated. Jurgis, frustrated with the current conditions in the meat packing industry, that uses the work forces the same manner they use swine ( every portion ) , joins a Union, as does Marjia, and assorted other members of his household. Investing money into a place and life into his occupation gets a Jurgis no where. Positions of power tend to travel merely to the corrupted characters. Bribes and kickbacks come every bit normally as unemployment and occupation insecurity. He eventually realizes that even a physically strong adult male, willing to work hard, can be beaten by the system ; so, the system must get the better of and fling him as portion of its & # 8220 ; advancement & # 8221 ; through development of people for net incomes. Finally his fortune runs out and Jurgis is injured upon his the violent death beds at the meat wadding works. His pes crestless waves and he has no other resort but to put in bed and delay until his pes heals. Ironically, he is free to bask the company of his boy merely when he is laid off from work. In merely a few old ages after immigrating to the state, he is brutalized by fortunes to the point of ruin. His one time mighty stature has been reduced to rubble, and looks seedy and wretched. He acts dull and beats immature Stanislovas into traveling to work. After two months of waiting, with measures pilling up, Jurgis goes back to work to happen his occupation filled by another adult male. Due to his big house payment and the demand to eat, Jurgis takes the worst possible occupation in Packing town, the Glue mill. By this clip he has taken to the bottle and has started to travel male parent and farther off from his household. The kids have all been put to work, every bit good as his married woman, Ona and his Grandfather-in-law Deda Antonias. To do affairs even worse, Jurgis finds out that Ona has been forced have sex with her Boss. This wholly enrages Jurgis, he runs to the Packing house to happen the foreman, Connor, and so beats him viciously. After his apprehension he must function on month in gaol. During his stay in gaol he meets Jack Duane, and becomes slightly good friends with him. Within the month his household is in shambles. The kids now, for the most portion, live on their ain, assorted household member are dead, Ona is about to present a kid, everyone has lost their occupations, and the house that they struggled so difficult for has vanished off. By the clip he finds Ona she is in mid child birth and in demand of medical aid. Due to his current deficiency of financess, Jurgis finds a Dutch lady to present his kid for $ 1.25. Even with the aid of the Dutch lady Ona and the kid dies. After Ona & # 8217 ; s decease in premature childbearing, their boy & # 8217 ; s dies in an inadvertent drowning while his male parent is at work. Jurgis so takes to the state as a hobo. Through his journey in the state he gets slightly rejuvenated, and returns to his old stature. He works when he needs to, and travels and slumbers when he wants. By winter it becomes obvious to him that he can non last out in the state for the continuance of the winter, and is forced to seek work in the metropolis he left buttocks. He becomes a rotter, and drinks highly to a great extent. While imploring and rolling through the streets he, falls into a spot of fortune and meets a immature adult male named Frederick ( & # 8221 ; Freddie & # 8221 ; ) Jones. Freddie, being the boy of rich Old Man Jones, takes Jurgis back to his place, giving Jurgis $ 100 and the privilege of dining and imbibing with him. Finally when the immature adult male falls asleep, the pantryman throws Jurgis out. With the hundred dollars steadfastly in his ownership Jurgis decides that the lone topographic point he could likely acquire alteration for the measure would be at a saloon. Jurgis goes into the saloon when no 1 is looking, and asks the barman to give him alter for the measure. The barman makes him purchase a drink, and so hands him a smattering of alteration. Jurgis becomes enraged, and pounces on the adult male. Jurgis gets arrested once more for battery and lands in gaol. With the aid of Jack Duane he drifts into offense and the corrupt universe of political relations. Jurgis make himself available now as an helper to a robber or to a political foreman set uping elections. Ironically, under these evil conditions, he discovers a new assurance and a endowment for direction. With a spot of fortune and some aid from freshly acquired familiarities Jurgis gets a soft occupation in the meat packing mill. To maintain this occupation, all Jurgis had to make was acquire the Democratic ticket elected, doing the common adult male think that it was the best pick. During the 1904 meat bagger & # 8217 ; s work stoppage, he gets a aureate chance to go a strikebreaker and so a typical foreman, driving his workers and taking payoffs. A opportunity brush with Connor proves to

be Jurgis’ moral salvation. Jurgis gets arrested again for furiously beating his wife’s seducer and realizes that he must jump bail. He has proven himself capable once more of moral fury, and he realizes bitterly which side he is really on. Cold and looking for a place to sleep, Jurgis stumbles into a Socialist meeting. He is profoundly moved by an orator who describes the life of the working class and how workers can take active measures to improve society. It dawns on Jurgis that he is entitled to join this movement. “A new man had been born.” He is no longer an isolated victim of circumstances; “he would have friends and allies.” Finally Jurgis reunites with Marjia, a doped up prostitute supporting the remains of his family. They have definitely become two different types of people. Her the victim, and him the fighter, still struggling for justice. With the idea, that he might be able to once again support his family Jurgis goes out in search of a job. Apparently by luck, he finds a job in a hotel, run by socialists. By the end of the book Upton Sinclair, through Jurgis and various other characters, makes various speeches, and arguments for the use of Socialism with opposition to capitalism. Personal conflict was not the key theme of this book, but rather social conflict within the corporate structures. There is, however, some conflict among various characters. The most notable instance occurs when Jurgis batters his wife’s Boss Connor, upon two occasions. This is his way to release his rage and anger at the man who abused, seduced, and molested his wife. Jurgis also has a conflicting view on how he looked at the people in the factories. He saw them as weak and lazy people, complaining because they could not handle their jobs. After the death of his wife and child, Jurgis goes on as self-destructive rampage through the city and the country. Not only does Jurgis conflict with others he finds himself in conflict with the legal system, and the factory system. This causes him to make a mental shift to socialism. This also brings up the conflicting types of government, Socialism vs. Capitalism, in a obviously biased portrayal. The most important message of conflict that Upton Sinclair wanted to deliver was his idea that the individual is constantly conflicting with the trusts and work machines that enslave him. The Jungle contains numerous themes which create the perfect atmosphere for Upton Sinclair’s tragic book. In 1900 – 1904, industrialized America is a jungle. The only real law is the law of the jungle: might makes right. The main problem is that the economic system fosters greed and ruthless competition as a way of life. Greed prompts people to sell spoiled meat, engage in false advertising, pollute, bribe and be bribed. In such a system, the hired worker lives at a distinct disadvantage. He is trapped, exploited, and cheated by employers who, in competition with other employers, must consider profits more important than people. The worker in early twentieth-century America is brutalized and stultified. Only that part of his personality needed to perform a monotonous task is kept alive; the rest is crushed. Under these conditions, love is reduced to mere bestiality; the tender aspects of marriage and the raising of children are harshly overshadowed by the agonies of the economic struggle; and indeed, marriage itself becomes an economic trap. Big Business has complete control of, but no responsibility for, the well-being of the masses. Big Business ultimately, deviously, controls government and the courts for its own benefit. In order to foster its corruption of politics, Big Business needs and thrives on crime and ultimately works in alliance with the criminal world. Capitalist democracy is therefore a fraud, a contradiction in terms. There can be no true democracy in a society controlled by one class with hereditary economic power. Turn-of-the-century immigrants to America were lured into a trap. They were attracted by promises of economic well-being and political equality; instead, they were sacrificed on the altar of “progress,” the generation that built industrial society for its native owners. “Here, precisely as in Russia [1904] . . . rich men owned everything.” American greatness is due to exploitation. “If we are the greatest nation the sun has ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad wage earners to [a] pitch of frenzy.” By using the characters in the meat-packing industry, Upton Sinclair is able to portray his Socialistic messages. In the end, Jurgis’ life is turned around because the character finds true “freedom” and happiness in Socialism. The entire book is a large piece of propaganda supporting Socialism. To say that it was only meant to be a piece of propaganda would be ignorant, and foolish upon any readers part. Through his characters, Mr. Sinclair exposes a corrupt and brutal system in which on the law of the jungle reigns true. This belief is maintained by every single character in the piece. The author obvious had strong beliefs and motives for writing this book. Mr. Sinclair used his beliefs on socialism to provided an answer to how America trusts could be broken up. This book, (from American History Class) aided the common man to understand the horrid conditions of the meat packing industry, as did books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe, ironically a white woman fighting for the freedom of slaves in the 19th century.OnaMarjiaJurgis RudkusTeta (Aunt) Elzbieta Kotrina Grandmother MajauskieneTamosziusDeda AntanasJokubas SzedvilasJadvyga JonasStanislovasMike ScullyPhil Connor AntanasJack Duane