Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a book that shows social darwinism. Social darwinism is shown in the book when Jurgis breaks his shoulder working in the steel factory and he has to stay at home to get better, but when he goes back to work they already have someone else in his place already. So Jurgis has to go around town looking for a new job but no one will hire him because he’s blacklisted. Other themes in the book are capitalism and socialism. Capitalism has driven people to do terrible things in order to survive.

Sinclair explains, “all of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it ‘special,’ and for this they would charge two cents more a pound” (pg. 79). Sinclair’s detailed exposure of the production of products being consumed by society caused a strong public reaction, and is what The Jungle is commonly known for describing. While his work may be more commonly known for exposing the meatpacking industry, Sinclair also successfully exposed the horrific working conditions and their effects. His purpose was to improve working conditions and expose the immorality and indecency of industry and capitalism. Sinclair easily convinced society of this motive through gruesome detail of the Rudkus’ experiences.

During the late 19th century, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle where he romanticized the notion of American culture. This exaggeration enticed immigrants to travel to America in an effort to start a new life as exemplified by Jurgis Rudkus and his family. Immigrants traveled due to their high hopes and expectations for finding more opportunities and climbing up the socioeconomic ladder. They allowed unrestrained capitalism to take advantage of them which ultimately led to inhumane living and working conditions. With its abuse of the immigrant workers, the system of capitalism was a major downfall in society.

In “A Gringo in the Lettuce Fields,” Gabriel Thompson spends about two months cutting lettuce in the hot fields of Yuma alongside immigrants laborers. At first glimpse, the immigrants thought he was either crazy or an undercover immigration agent ready to deport them back to their home country. But within a few days just outside Watsonville, Thompson got to know some immigrants and sensed the backbreaking, harsh conditions work of these immigrant laborers. He would then get physically drained, and never became good enough to keep up with the machine that puts along with the rows of lettuce driving the pace of the crews. Thompson, in the end, shines a bright light on the underside of the economy, exposing injustices endured by low-paid laborers

“With one member trimming beef in a cannery, and another working in a sausage factory, the family had a first-hand knowledge of the great Packingtown swindles” (par.1). This statement from Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, introduces trust from a family because of their own personal knowledge . The Jungle, features an immigrant family trying to survive in 1900’s Chicago meat packing district. In the story, Sinclair’s goal is to expose the miserable life of immigrants who work in factories.

Immigrant workers were limited of their freedom and constantly exploited due to the fact that they were working in hazardous working conditions, were living in deplorable conditions, and were being harassed under the intimidating power of corrupt politicians. Such miseries the immigrants had to face included the hazardous working conditions where they had to stay for long hours. There was no doubt that workers had either die or were injured as they worked in such environment. In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the dangers of working conditions are emphasized through Jurgis’ incident at the meatpacking plant.

The Unfair Treatment of Immigrants in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Imagine going somewhere new, far away and ending up in a bad situation with no way out. That’s how Jurgis and his family felt when they left their home country of Lithuania to come to America to pursue their dreams of wealth. Their world was quickly turned upside down when they realized that the deck was stacked against them in Chicago’s unfair system, which was designed to leave them trapped. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair will bring you into the world of manipulation and poverty in Chicago during the 1900s.

The Jungle v. Fast Food Nation Brenton Beardsley Illinois Valley Community College In the book, The Jungle and Fast Food Nation, there was several points that were brought up about the values, beliefs, political ideas, and institution. These topics played an important role in both of the books, as many people just like the family in, The Jungle, face several hardships in our country to this day. During these hard times people find several ways to get to their inner self and overcome these hardships that are in their path to success. Also, migrants go to different countries and bring their traditions with them. Involved in their traditions are their beliefs, and then they also try to expand their traditions with other people surrounding them in their new society.

Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food. Body 1: The meat packing industry’s working conditions were much worse in the 1900’s than they are today. In the novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, working conditions were horrible for immigrants who were employed in these factories. People in these factories were worked very hard and used up till they could not work anymore. In the novel Jurgis broke his ankle because of the unsafe

The family members have been working for the meat industries, and have learned all their schemes. They describe the many inhuman and gruesome things that occur in the factories. “…The beef had lain in vats full of chemicals, and mean with great forks speared it out and dumped into trucks, to be taken to the cooking room.” (Sinclair 69), the factories found ways to mix spoiled meat with regular meat to sell, one being the amount of different chemicals used to relieve of the stench. They also state that there were rat problems and when the rats die they were usually proceed with the rest of the meat.

During the 1900’s working conditions were undeniably horrible. In Packingtown everyday got more difficult as the days went on. In the meat packing business things were supposed to be done quick. Inside the factories packing, chopping, inspecting and people actions didn’t mix. Not only did the people in the factories suffered, the people outside of the factory also suffered.

Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tension in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his novel “The Jungle”. He used the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, to show the harsh situation that immigrants had to face in the United States, the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions in the meatpacking plants, as well as the tension between the capitalism and socialism in the United States during the early 1900s. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were massive immigrants move into the United States, and most of them were from Europe. The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, like many other immigrants, have the “America Dream” which they believe America is heaven to them, where they can

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair In the Jungle, it is shown that there were many factors that made the lives of immigrants miserable. In the early 1800’s the American life was wanted by many new immigrants. In The Jungle, the life of Lithuanian immigrants was made miserable by alcoholism, poverty, and people in higher authority. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, describes how alcoholism, poverty, and people in positions of authority had a negative impact on the lives of immigrants.

The workers were often subjected to sweltering heat in the summer and frigid conditions in the winter. But, that was not it, at the time there were no laws in place that required businesses to ensure their employees' safety, and this regularly lead to many injuries and fatalities in the workplace on a daily basis. There was not a single work place that did not have injured or mutilated employees, and this was due to the unsafe working conditions of the factories, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one… There were men who worked in the cooking rooms… in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.” (109).

Revealing the harsh treatment of meatpacking workers and showing the reality of the disgusting conditions found in butchery shops to the public, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle became an enduring classic by American readers throughout the early twentieth century the prompted the later creation of the Federal Drug Administration. In the early 1900s, America was explosively transitioning from an agricultural society to a thriving manufacturing-based nation. As production demand in factories grew throughout the country, the work force needed to run those factories also expanded. A new type of demanding and dangerous work became prevalent throughout the nation, as immigrants coming into the “Land of Opportunity” found themselves desperate