My Term Paper

Joshua G. Buchanan
U.S. History
Joanna Freligh
March 16, 2009
Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle begins by placing the reader amidst the events of a wedding day for two Lithuanian immigrants: Ona and Jurgis Rudkus. Sinclair depicts Lithuanian traditions and culture while also introducing and describing several of the novel’s main characters. The groom, Jurgis, is a tall, strong man who is somewhat socially awkward. Jurgis is very much in love with Ona and vows to “work harder” in an attempt to provide the best future for the two of them and their family. Ona herself is extremely beautiful and initially appears to be the opposite of Jurgis. Aside from the married couple, an additional character is presented; Ona’s Cousin Marija Berczynskas. Marija is an independent and strong willed female with an enormous personality. Along with Marija is Ona’s stepmother Elzbieta Lukoszaite. Elzbieta is the personification of the Old World. Accompanying these four on their journey to America are Jurgis’ father, Dede Antanas, Elzbieta’s brother, Jonas Lukoszaite, and Elzbieta’s six children; in all the total number of immigrants was equivalent to twelve. Upon arriving in America, the family travels to Chicago and reunites with a member of their village, Jokubus Szedvilas. Jokubus’ stories of riches and success found in America were the family’s motivation for leaving Lithuania. Joy overcomes Jokubus and he proceeds to lead the family to Packing Town outside of Chicago, the center of the meat industry for the United States. Jokubus is a successful owner of a delicatessen and enthusiastically entices the travelers to generate their fortune by working in Packing Town.
Finding work in Packing Town takes only a few hours for Jurgis, as his strong build attracts the attention from supervisors and receives a job shoveling guts of slaughtered animals. While Jurgis effortlessly becomes employed, the other family members encounter difficulties in securing a job and over time graciously accept any position which they are offered, regardless of the conditions and stipulations which surround working. With the family achieving financial stability, they seek to locate affordable housing. Owning a house is just a small step in achieving and living the American Dream, a goal coveted by every member of the family. Naively the family is tricked into buying a house and they soon fall victim to crafty business owners. The family quickly becomes acclimated to the swindles and grafting which perpetuates Packing Town. They soon discover the house they purchased has been built atop a land fill and they must pay a hefty insurance fee yearly, also the house is not new as advertised, only freshly painted, and until the house is completely paid off the family is forced to pay high interest rates each month. While shopping for furniture and groceries, the family regularly purchases second rate goods severely marked up. The house soon becomes an economic burden far too great to handle, forcing several of the children to drop out of school and falsify their ages in an attempt to work.
Every aspect of life in Packing Town is over shadowed by greed and profit. Sinclair illustrates the horrendous working conditions each family member is forced to endure. The majority of the factories and buildings only are illuminated by the sun, which is if they even have windows. Neither air conditioning nor hearting units are present, resulting in numerous cases of heat stroke in the summer and frost bit and pneumonia in the winter. Jurgis soon becomes able to state the occupation of any given individual simply by observing the symptoms of their illness. Employees are forced to essentially work in the filth of the animals they kill. This same filth is pushed down the production line where it is processed into lard, created into fertilizer, incorporated with sausages, or various other items for retail distribution. For in Packing Town, every part of the animal is used except for the squeal. The bosses and owners of the slaughterhouses are only concerned with making a profit and continually allow spoiled meat to pass inspection and be sent to the American consumer. Health inspectors are bribed to permit and ensure such acts will continue to occur.
As the realities of Packing Town present themselves, Jurgis begins to question the American dream. The family continues to face financial troubles throughout the year. With the arrival of winter comes the harsh, unforgiving cold. The snow piles up to the residents knees, and they still are required to be at work on time. Several of the family members catch cold and even frostbite. As the year progresses Ona becomes pregnant and gives birth to their son Antanas, named after his grandfather who passed away earlier in the year. His death was attributed to a sickness caught while working in the cellar of a factory. Ona is forced to return to work after only a week of maternity leave. Ona never fully heals and suffers the rest of her life; however this is not uncommon within Packing Town as all women return to work after child birth without adequate recovery periods. Before the family knows it, the winter has returned. Jurgis attempts to tackle and overcome the unrelenting snow by carrying his wife to and from work daily. During a mishap on the killing beds, Jurgis sprains his ankle. Overcome by fear of losing his position, Jurgis attempts to continue working, only to succumb to the pain. A doctor declares Jurgis to be out of work for three months, only forcing additional financial stress upon the family. The family manages to survive the winter only to discover in the spring Jonas has disappeared. When Jurgis is finally healed he promptly returns to work only to find his position given to a younger man. Jurgis once again is unemployed; however he no longer is the strong young man he was upon first arriving to Packing Town. Jurgis is forced to take a job with the fertilizing plant; a job deemed the lowest in all of Packing Town. Due to the inhumane working conditions and dangerously high toxin levels, Jurgis immediately begins to suffer from headaches and intense nausea, ultimately resulting in his health never fully recovering.
Throughout this time period, several family members are forced to seek out new job positions, none being better than before and with conditions continuing to decline. Jurgis surrenders to the consumption of alcohol and frequently retreats to it as an escape from his American Dream turned nightmare. Ona turns to prostitution in an attempt to secure additional income. The man she sleeps with is Phil Conner. Phil threatens economic instability on Ona’s family if she refuses. Upon realizing what Ona has been doing, Jurgis, in an enrage frenzy, attacks and attempt to kill Conner. With the aid and effort of several men, Jurgis is wrestled from Conner and sent to jail. When Jurgis appears in court, the judge has already been paid off and sentences Jurgis to 30 days in jail. When Jurgis cannot pay his court fines he is issued additional time in jail. While in jail Jurgis curses the cruel American society and the countless injustices forced upon him and his family. While in jail, Jurgis meets a fellow cellmate by the name of Jack Duane who preaches to him concerning the necessary war which must occur against society. Jurgis takes interest and a seed is planted in his mind. Upon being released from jail, Jurgis returns home, only to see it has been repainted and someone else taking up residence within. To Jurgis’ horror he is told his family had been evicted and is revealed the location in which they are currently living. A bewildered Jurgis races to his family only to walk in upon Ona giving birth; her child had come early. Ona endures several complications during child birth and dies upon completion; the baby also dies upon delivery. Awestruck and inconsolable, Jurgis announces he is going to get drunk, and retreats to a local bar. When Jurgis runs out of money he is forced to search for a job. After several unsuccessful attempts, Jurgis is told he has been black-listed due to his encounter with Phil Conner and will never find a job amongst the working class in Packing Town again. Jurgis looks to the union leaders in a final attempt for aid, through luck he is given a job, only to be laid off ten days later. There is heavy downfall on the following day, and Jurgis returns home to be told his son has drowned. In absolute shock Jurgis runs away from Packing Town and boards a train destined to the country side.
Jurgis is able to forget his family for the most part and eventually is forced to roam the streets as a beggar. One evening a drunken man invites Jurgis home and produces a one hundred dollar bill, which he precedes to give to Jurgis as travel fare. Jurgis pockets the money and attempts to break the bill at a bar, upon doing so the bar tenders gives him change for a one dollar bill and a fight ensues. Jurgis finds himself in jail once again along with a recognizable face, the face of Jack Duane. The two talk and Jurgis is influenced to accept Duane’s beliefs and attitudes toward life and once Jurgis is out of jail Duane introduces the criminal under world of Chicago to Jurgis. The two become involved in several illegal activities and after a while Jurgis lands a job working in the packing plants of Packing Town. Phil Conner happens to encounter Jurgis once more resulting in a brawl. Jurgis is severally beaten this time and is forced to pay all he has in an attempt to avoid harsh criminal penalties. When Jurgis is released on bail he skips town and is told where Marija resides. To Jurgis’ dismay Marija works in a brothel and is addicted to morphine. Jurgis, heartbroken, stumbles into a political rally where an old flame is reignited within him. After consulting the speaker, Jurgis decides socialism to be the only means of salvation for mankind. Jurgis continues to grow in his belief and infatuation with socialism. Jurgis finds work and continues to aid the Socialist Party. After gaining several political seats in the recent election, the Socialist Party declares a major victory and the novel concludes with an orator inciting a crowd with chants of “Chicago will be ours!”
Upton Sinclair presented several themes throughout The Jungle, The first of which was the farce conception of the American Dream. In the beginning chapters, Sinclair depicts how the Lithuanian family gathers all the money they heave and decide to set forth toward American in the hopes of achieving success and riches. These desires are fueled by the glorious tales concerning a fellow village member who attained success in America. Upon arriving in America Jurgis and his family are greeted with anything except a dream. The working and living conditions along with the brutality shown by the greedy slaughterhouse bosses are experiences no human should ever attempt to endure. Jurgis and his entire family are worn down and some even worked to death. Jurgis repeatedly loses everything and is thrown out on the street to fend for his own. The situations and occurrences Jurgis and his family encounter are sadly accurate depictions of the actual events transpiring during the time period.
A second major theme presented by Sinclair in The Jungle is one corruption. Every aspect of life in Packing Town was directly and heavily influenced by corruption. The primarily goal and concern ultimately lied within making a profit. Health inspectors were regularly paid off to allow contaminated meat to pass through inspections and on to the American consumer. Local judges and police were bribed to allow illegal actions to occur and for court rulings to result in favoring big industry. When it was time for elections, politicians paid the poor immigrant workers to vote in their favor. Once again I believe these were accurate illustrations of the time period in which the novel was set.
A third major theme of Sinclair’s The Jungle was the separation between working classes. Those at the bottom of this social ladder were forced to work at the bidding of those higher on the ladder. Those at the top were able to enforce the rules of their desire and implement the labor laws of their choice. Humans (mainly immigrants) who desired a working positions were forced to take whatever jobs were available and work the hours in which they required while receiving the stingy pay allotted. Eventually workers formed unions in an attempt to earn employee rights; however, the economic times were so strenuous that the need for jobs was at its highest, so while the unions could stage a walkout and strike, the business always had an ample supply of eager and willing bodies to fill the vacancies. This allowed for no gains to be made in worker’s rights and compensations. The poor were forced to continue to be poor, while the rich continued to be rich at the expense of the poor.
A fourth and final theme of The Jungle, was the agenda of the socialist party. This theme may be supreme over the other themes in The Jungle. Sinclair’s main goal was to portray capitalism as an evil empire while forced the poor to succumb to the desires of the rich and forever be lock in an infinite losing battle. Sinclair describes the slow, cruel, and brutal destruction of Jurgis and his family who gave everything they owned to come to America in pursuit of the American Dream. Sinclair attempted to pursue readers into believing Socialism was the only hope for salvaging this American Dream gone wrong. Every aspect of the novel points to accepting Socialism as answer for the addressing the evils created by Capitalism. While I myself am not a supporter of Socialism, I, along with one who reads The Jungle, must confess there was no justification for the horrors and atrocities depicted in Sinclair’s writings; especially when these accounts were based on truth and not fiction. Even the President could not deny the events transpiring. All political views set aside, the fallout generate and legislation passed as a direct result of The Jungle were needed and made American a better place and helped shape it into the great nation it is today.
The conditions depicted by Sinclair in The Jungle are ones no human should ever have to face. Impossible working hours, meager pay, horrendous working conditions, lack of sympathy from supervisors, the unremarkable amount of corruption, and the sheer indecency forced upon residents of Packing Town are not justifiable and are in no way indicative to human survival. The idea that these actions were allow to continue and even prosper are enough to make anyone ashamed to sit idly and allow the events to transpire. I would never believe accounts such as these occurred in American history if I have not read the first hand reports for myself. America is the country of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; not a place where the rich enslave the naïve in an endless battle for survival.
Sinclair’s decision to entitle his novel The Jungle is a fitting and fair choice. Chicago and Packing Town were depicted to be wild, harsh and have a set chain of order in which only the strong survived; exactly as in a jungle. Likewise in a jungle, the ones on top are directly in control of the lives of those subservient to them. Those in power were essentially the law, for they had the money to pay off any official and to bride anyone to look the other way. Life in Packing Town was equivalent to that of a jungle; only I believe animals treat each other better than they way rich humans treated the poor humans.
Upon my completion of reading Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, I can only stand in awe and sheer dismay from the illustrations and depictions of everyday life in Packing Town. The cruelty and apathy shown by those in charge of the slaughterhouse are actions not reserved for the evilest and vile criminals. The ability to attracted people only trying to achieve the American Dream and then force them into bondage with never an option to escape is one which is completely and utterly unjustifiable. Grinding men and families down to a mere pulp and then to throw out onto the street as if they were yesterday’s trash is in stark contrast to the ideals and goals set forth by the nation’s founding fathers. As if these atrocities were not enough, the idea that the products being produced in these factories were being allowed to be consumed is horrifying. Once again those in charge never once batted and eye toward these events. Their primary goal was generating a profit and ensuring that profit would be preserved. I applaud congress for the passage of legislation concerning the food produced in factories. I only wish congress would have continued their efforts and instated more civil liberties and rights to employees before they did. The thought that congress allowed for the mistreatment of employees to continue is awful and flat out wrong. Only half the problem was addressed and fixed, no human should be forced into bondage of any kind. I also prefer for the Socialist overtones to be omitted from this writing. I know Sinclair was a diehard Socialist and pursuing Americans to join his cause was the primary goal behind his writing, I could have done without reading the dull conversation between the evangelist and the philosophy professor. American was founded, and thrived on the concept of Capitalism. Yes the greed for power and money by those in power lead to the tragic events described within Sinclair’s , The Jungle, I still believe Capitalism is the only way for America to endure and remain true to her roots and concepts for creation. All in all Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, is an important piece of American literature. Sinclair’s writings exposed the truth behind the beef industry and many others similar to it. Several acts of legislation were passed and Americans can sit down to dinner without the hesitancy and perceived notion of disgust when pondering the origins of their steak.