Analyzing Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a story set in the early 1900s, in Chicago. It follows the life of a Lithuanian immigrant named Jurgis Rudkus who moved to America to start a new life and become rich. When he moves to America he is a young and strong man and gets a job at the Brown’s meat packing factory. Through all the troubles he faces he finds the idea of socialism and becomes a radical man trying to convert everyone to his new way of thinking. I think that this a very well written book about the hardness of life in that time of America’s development.
Jurgis and his family lived an area of Chicago called Packingtown. This part of Chicago was a very dirty and neglect area. There was dirt and mud everywhere, because the streets were not fully paved. There were gigantic holes in the streets where the dirt had been taken out and was then to be filled in with trash. Because of this system there was a horrid stench everywhere. This environment really attests to the poverty and lack of sanitation in that part of Chicago. When Jurgis and his family arrives in America they have almost no money to live on, so Jurgis immediately goes to find a job at one of the packing plants. The working conditions were very poor and dirty, but Jurgis was happy to just have a job.Jurgis is can be sometimes naive. In chapter four and five the buy a house that supposedly had no strings attached, only to find out they had to pay mounds of interest. Jurgis also has a quick temper. On page 130, it tells about how a massive snowstorm had blown in, and it was very hard to go to work. One of the boys named Stanislovas wouldn’t go to work, so Jurgis got up and whipped the boy until he went to work. The working conditions and the weather of Packingtown made life really hard for Jurgis and his family. The winters were bitterly cold, and the factory had little heating inside of them. Money also provided a great deal of hardship for Jurgis’ family. “Jurgis had first come to the stockyards he had been as clean as any workingman could well be. But
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If we let greed take advantage of us we end up hurting people we would never have intended to hurt, and you drive people away from you and people won’t want to be around you. The Jungle is written in a interesting way. It very potent, making you realize how dreadful and atrocious life was in the early 1900’s. It was very direct with how it presented the hardships of Jurgis’ life.Upton Sinclair really showed that when people don’t pay attention to how their actions and decisions affect other people, the world become a messed up place. I think Upton Sinclair could have used a little less description, especially in the beginning chapter when he is describing Jurgis and Ona’s wedding. It makes the story drag on and on. Otherwise I think this story was very well written. I think the author should have left the idea of Socialism out of the book. The story was going very well, until he had three guys get together and philosophise about Socialism. I understand at that time why they thought Socialism was a good idea, because at that time Socialism was a new

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