Evil And Socialism In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

After leaving jail, Jurgis had the opportunity to become incorporated into a life of thievery, with a man he met the first time he was in jail, Jack Duane, and together the two partners robbed people of money and jewelry, and soon it bothered Jurgis not to see a man harmed after he was mugged by the pair. "A month ago Jurgis had all but perished of

Many people believe Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the harsh conditions of the meat-packing industry, which led to new federal food safety laws. This, however, was not the only point Sinclair was attempting to portray in this novel. While industry was one of the points addressed in The Jungle, another main point Sinclair wanted to get across to the public was that immigrants were being treated very poorly in American society. By 1904, immigrants made up most of the workforce of the meat-packing industry, so they had to deal with all the conditions of the workplace, including slim pay. These workers were crowded into small tenement apartments near the slaughterhouse, therefore making living conditions incredibly poor for everyone.

As the story goes on Ona and her baby Antanas both die. Ona during child birth and Antanas will drowned in front of the house. Jurgis will then move out of the city to the suburbs leave all of his family behind. Later returning to Chicago and getting himself into a lot of trouble with the law. After some time of being in and out of jail Jurgis finally gets a job working at a hotel. He will become back in touch with his family that he left and begin to support them on what he makes by working at the hotel.

Ultimately, the city’s corrupt political system harnesses the unfettered capitalist economy in an effort to generate wealth and influence for those in power. When Jurgis is first introduced to the city’s democratic election process, he learns that politicians are able to collect large amounts of “graft” (i.e., money/privileges gained by corruption) by winning public office. In order to secure these positions, politicians must resort to corrupt elections tactics such as 1) buying votes, 2) hiring party-men to vote multiple times and 3) naturalizing foreigners in order to gain their vote. Sinclair uses vivid depictions of morally reprehensible politicians in order to demonstrate how the “system” is rigged against the workingman. For example, the venal Mike Scully misappropriates city funds to support his various business holdings (including the dump, tenement homes, the brick factory, and the ice house). He exempts his various businesses from taxes and also pays his workers with city funds (Ch. 9). By conducting business practices as such, Scully is able to scam honest, working men into buying inferior products at high rates. Although Scully campaigns as a man of the people, he is only concerned with collecting graft and offering special treatment to his supporters (e.g., he secured an alderman position for a

Jurgis was in the poor-working class that he never really get money maybe like $5 a week

Jurgis always struggled with money even when Ona was on the verge of dying. Jurgis finally convinced the women but Ona didn’t make it on time because it was too late already. Upton Sinclair shows you the struggle Jurgis went through with money and it wasn’t a fair life for him. When Jurgis lost both Ona and his son Antanas he was begging and a drunk man gave him a 100 dollar bill, that next day he enters a bar to receive change but the bartender tells him he has to buy a drink first, once he does the bartender only gives him 97 cents and refuses to give him his change. Jurgis then gets in a fist fight with him but then is sent to Jail. Once he was a prison he realized the life of crime was the best way to survive as an immigrant, then Jurgis finally loses his hope of getting that American dream he always wanted. Jurgis had a good reason to feel like this because he kept getting turned down by jobs and had nowhere to stay, he was homeless.

She prematurely went into labor, which kills her and their child. Devastated by what he saw, Jurgis disappears on a drinking binge. Making no money, becoming an alcoholic, and his wife’s death threw him into a downward spiral where he thought nothing could make it worse. All of his problems were driven by the poor treatment of the immigrants. Nobody cared enough to help him and employers would keep the people who would settle for less pay, no matter what problems they had.

People in this story live in a very dis honest world, it's a rough life and it's almost impossible to live comfortably and make an honest living. Jurgis tried to be an honest working man but all the frauds and dishonest people around him made an influence. You see the dishonesty throughout the book cover to cover. Jurgis has several encounters with people who constantly try to cheat him out of his money or are dishonest about their intentions. You can see one encounter in the early pages of the book when jurgis and his family first arrive to america, they're looking for kettles and pots for there new house and the man that they bought them from cheated them out of a few pots. You can also see this late story when jurgis is trying to get his 100 dollars changed the man he asked him to change it. The man took the money from him and changed him 95 cents.

Jurgis was a good man before he moved there. He was a good honest and worker who would always work hard and do what he was told. After a while with the way everything was, he started to change and adjust to everything. Being honest and always doing the right thing would either get you killed or you would become homeless. You would have to lie to get through work. You would barely get to see your family because you’re working from morning to night. He started to turn into a criminal by stealing stuff. He beat up his boss because he raped his wife. He went to jail for that my dog that aint cool you can’t be doing that man. When he first moved there he was buff and healthy but now that he been there for a while he’s starving and his house isn’t sanitary or clean so he’s very unhealthy. He becomes selfish because he starts stealing from everyone like his friends, coworkers, and boss.

His job entails sweeping the entrails of slaughtered cattle through trap doors. At first Jurgis enjoys his job despite the unsanitary working conditions, long hours, and intense manual labor. The family seems content at first, however the longer they are in America the more they begin to learn about the true way of survival in Packingtown. Immigrant workers come and go, if someone gets hurt or dies on the job they are immediately replaced with another immigrant. Wage laborers are cut short of pay and can do nothing about it, spoiled meat and leftovers from several slaughtered animals are canned and shipped for consumption, and moving up in the work force seems all but possible. Sinclair is trying to allow the reader to see the truth behind the supposed wonderful place of America. The cheap labor forced upon immigrants, the extremely unsanitary working conditions and food distribution and the harsh reality of social Darwinism.

Jurgis finally confronts Ona and finds that her boss has raped her by blackmailing her into becoming a prostitute in a brothel or losing her job. Jurgis is furious; he attacks her boss, Connor, and is thrown into jail for one month. Meanwhile, Ona has become too sick to work and Stanlslovas was unable to work due to the severe weather. He loses his job and is forced to sell papers in the city with his younger

From the beginning, Jurgis’s main goal is to divert his family from their difficult life in Lithuania and hopefully find freedom in America. He arrives in the new country with aspirations of beautiful scenery and a joyful life for him and his relatives

The plot structure not only forces people to reevaluate their views on capitalism, the American Dream, and opportunity itself, but furthermore advocates social change. The book implicitly suggests communist ideals through the characters of Tom and Casey. Casey, in his questioning of Christian dogma, begins to reevaluate equality, in the terminology of what is holy.

and therefore it was easy for him to find a job. Together his family agrees to buy a house. Dismally, the sale was a deception and the house was run-down. The area the family lives in is filled with immigrants, crime and corruption. Their jobs are the lowest of the low and they are given no respect or sympathy by the middle or upper classes. "He has no wit to trace back the social crime to its far sources-he could not say that it is the thing men have called "the system" that is crushing him to the earth; that it is the packers, his masters, who has dealt their brutal will to him from the seat of justice”(The Jungle Ch 16). The men continually work in situations that risk their lives in order to help their families survive. Frustrated, Jurgis

Jurgis suffered throughout his lifetime, he would be drunk and he lost the job at the meat factory. Jurgis and the rest of the family found jobs, but, it didn’t lead for the best. Jurgis came back to the tenement to find all the women crying and to find his son, Antanas, who drowned in a puddle. Jurgis fled to become a hobo during the summer and was able to get a job at a farm. He blew his money on alcohol and prostitutes; Jurgis stopped thinking about his future or his family. Jurgis became a bitter man and a criminal because if society got any worse for him, he would get payback.