Upton Sinclair The Effects Of The Jungle

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Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle depicted many disturbing social injustices immigrants had to endure at the time during the 19th century. Jurgis and his family moved to America in search of a better life, but upon arrival the harsh reality set in that America was not what everyone said it to be. They suffered many hardships. The working conditions, when they could find employment, were terrible. They battled discrimination, they were grossly taken advantage of, and survival from day to day in Packingtown slowly worked to deteriorate their faith. Faith in who they were and what they had now become. Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, describes how alcohol, poverty and people in positions of authority had a negative impact on lives of immigrants. …show more content…

Ona, being Jurgis's wife, had to deal with Jurgis's drinking problem. This resulted in Jurgis resenting his family and inevitably the couple grew apart. Stanislovas was affected heavily by alcohol that led to his tragic death. When Stanislovas was working serving beers, he would drink the top off the beer and Stanislovas eventually got drunk, fell asleep, and was eaten alive by rats. Jurgis was heavily addicted to alcohol. He had seemingly satisfying short term effects, but inevitable detrimental long term consequence. When Ona died, Jurgis took all the money he could find, even taking the kids money that they had earned. Jurgis ended up drinking all of his pain and his money away. And this was the telling of only three immigrants depicted in the story that were affected by

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