The Beast In The Jungle Chapter 1 Summary

Improved Essays
The Beast In The Jungle is a tale of two people, May Bertram and John Marcher. John Marcher is a man who expects some rare and prodigious fate to befall him. He eventually discovers that he has already suffered his fate.

In Chapter 1, the reader is introduced to May and Marcher who are the most important characters in the novella. After many years they meet at Weatherend, which is an English country house. May is now living with her great-aunt. In return for security, she renders certain services. There are other guests in Weatherend. John Marcher however remains aloof and does not mix with them. His apprehensions are seen in the later part of this chapter.

In Chapter 2, the reader learns that the great-aunt is dead. May has inherited enough from her complicated will to own a small house in London. The meetings between May and Marcher increase. However there is no deep involvement.
…show more content…
With time, her health continues to deteriorate. The meetings between Marcher and May however continue. Marcher, in the meantime, continues to be haunted by the idea that he has been singled out for an extraordinary visitation. This eventually becomes a compulsive fantasy for him. Marcher’s obsessive fantasy and May’s ill health continue through Chapter 4, as May moves closer to her death. May’s house now gives the impression as though everything has been wound up. Marcher’s fantasy continues to generate the powerful image of a beast lying in wait for him amidst the twists and turns of his life. Marcher waits for his special fate, but at the same time, he is also afraid of it. He feels that he is not the type of man with whom any woman would like to share her

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Mrs May has two sons, Wesley, an intellectual, and Scofield, who sells insurances to black people, who do not get along and that she does not really love. Her husband died and she raised her sons alone, and because of that the relationship between Mrs May and her sons is tense. Mrs Turpin however does not seem to have any children, and her husband is alive. Mr and Mrs Turpin's relationship is happy and loving. Mrs Turpin thanks Jesus that she is the one to have married him, and after she is assaulted by Mary Grace, her first instinct is to make sure that her husband is alright, even if she is the one who had a book thrown at her face and a girl attempt to strangle her to…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Upton Sinclair published his book, “The Jungle”. This story was about Jurgis Rudkus and his family. Immigrants came to America in search of a job and many of these immigrants worked in the meat-packing plants of Chicago. The people working in these industries had to go through difficult working conditions, poverty and hunger, people were taking advantage of them, as well as politicians who passed laws that supported this. This story reflected the reality that some people were facing.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle published in 1906 marked a very critical moment is U.S. history. The book became an instant best seller and immediately brought change due to public outcry. It was an important turning point in United States history because it exposed the disgusting and careless way the meat was handled in meat companies around the United States. This book led to the result of two major legislations being passed. The Jungle not only affected the United States domestically but also internationally.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jungle And Socialism

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are a lot of characters in The Jungle, they all have significant roles. The main character is Jurgis Rudkus he is a Lithuanian immigrant. His wife is Ona Lukoszaite who is also from Lithuania. Their one child named Antanas but he died which I believed caused one of the major crossroads in Jurgis’s…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As an agent of either utter destruction or fruitful prosperity, ambivalence serves as the catalyst to separate the before and after of an individual's life. At the end of the line, that path that was once shrouded in confusion becomes clear, and the outcome of each potential choice can be seen. In Sinclair Ross’ “The Painted Door”, the treacherous setting embodies an edge of escalating ambivalence in Ann’s character as she is awakened to the reality of her routine life, ultimately causing her to spiral into the rising storm of her suffocating loneliness and reckless desperation. As the impending external blizzard begins, Ann faces her own internal battle over the opportunities presented in her emotionally destitute state.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Book Summary: The Jungle

    • 1860 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Jungle Antanas Rudkus- Jurgis’s and Ona’s oldest son. Very much loved and cared for, by his family. Antanas, just as his father was portrayed as a strong, well-built boy. Unfortunately, after Ona’s death while Jurgis was at work, he drowned in a puddle of mud. Ultimately ending the little hope Jurgis had left.…

    • 1860 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Blue Men Analysis

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The town is cut off, like May from the rest of the world, but this suggests that she intentionally cuts herself off. In the same scene, it talks about May has taken up lying, as some sort of hobby, “She had taken up lying rather late in life, but with enthusiasm. Bomber didn’t seem to notice, even though he had, in May’s opinion, a hurtful obsession with the truth (p.105)”. More than likely, she has taken to lying, in some way to create this life that, she thought, her son inspired to have, and one that was different from the one she had now. For instance, she lies to the women at church about seeing the blue men, which we know from the postcards, her son wished to see them in his travels, “May held one close to her eyes.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The one who is wins is the the one who sinks its teeth into the victim. In most cases, the predator wins in the wild nature around us. In the book, The Jungle the same concept applies to our human race. The Jungle is a story of the life of an immigrant worker, Jurgis and his family. Jurgis is a strong man, strong built and ready to work to support his growing family.…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    He appears to be torn between performing his duty and the horror of war and constantly seems to have problems with Colonel Marlowe. They march on and are soon attacked by a patrolling enemy. Afterwards, they decide to rest at a house at the invitation of Miss Hannah Hunter. They discuss on the way forward…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mrs. May’s control over her sons, the bull, and the Greenleaf family come to a screeching halt once her control transfers from her hands to the bull’s horns. Mrs. May believes that Mrs. Greenleaf is inferior to her because of her religious practices and letting her life be in the control of an entity she cannot see or prove to be real. Even though it is indirect, Mrs. May’s mockery of “the weird holy roller” ends up being the death of her (Giannone 338). In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit is the character that highlights the grandmother’s phoniness. The Misfit says that death is inevitable and either you should follow Jesus and throw it all away or do some ‘meanness’ and enjoy yourself.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, is a fictional literary work that illustrates the labor conditions in the Chicago stockyards, describing the harsh realities immigrants faced and exposing the callous side of human nature. The Jungle is a depressing realization of how unregulated capitalistic corporation and monopolies treated human beings as less than human, with complete disregard for the workers' well-being. Throughout the book, Sinclair displays the struggles of an immigrant family in order to expose the failings in American society. Upton Sinclair was a well-known author and “muckraker” journalists in the Progressive Era. The term muckraker is known today as “Investigative Reporting”.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This provokes thought about human nature to change oneself for another. How can one be safe and feel at home in a relationship if one has to play a different part other than themselves? By questioning this, the narrator becomes a character taken over by self-doubt and…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In every book, story, biography, or novel ever written, the author has projected his bias into his writings. Sometimes it can be picked up on immediately and others the reader must search and dig deeper into the work. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, is most known for his style of writing that avoids authorial responsibility. He releases his accountability on what topics and values are brought up in his stories. Even with that said, his unavoidable bias comes out in his works, especially the Merchant’s Tale.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Into The Wild Book Report

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Into the Wild Into the Wild is a book about a man named Alex, Chris was his name before then he changed it. It is a biography of him, and it tells about what Alex has written in his journal during his adventures. This book talks about his life and all the troubles he gets through, up until he dies. Alex is a traveler that travels throughout everywhere. He is a hitchhiker and does not need material things or money.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Then, a closer look at the different sources of fear and how they relate to society will allow us to understand that the story is in fact arguing for a delicate balance between integrating into society and preserving your own agency. Let us first examine the first external line of conflict – that of the haunted castle with hidden treasures – through the lens of Warner and Shavit. Warner focuses on the gap between the center and the marginalized, but in particular the power of the margin that allows you to see different perspectives and nudge the center into the desired direction. Meanwhile, Shavit focuses on the concept of childhood – about our objective on successfully integrating children or ourselves into adult society, whether through education or other means. The margin/center dynamic in this first part of the story centers around the main character, who has been rejected since birth by his brother (“Dear Lord, my brother’s really a dumbbell!”…

    • 1758 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays