The Jungle And The American Dream

Decent Essays
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a testament to a string of sickening events that occurred in America during the early 19th century. These repulsive acts were a result of the rise of Industrialization, the massive influx of immigrants making their way from various countries in order to pursue the American Dream. What these immigrants envisioned as the
American Dream, was soon to become nothing more than the intoxicating fumes from all the waste set before them. In the course of the novel, Sinclair writes about a wide array of issues occurring at the time, but most importantly his message was to inform the people living in America that these issues were not to be lightly dismissed. One of the most crucial issues presented during the time and

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The American Dream is universally sought after and coveted, after all the possibility of becoming anything and rising above one 's meeger beginnings is tantalizing. However, the American Dream can also produce destruction and devastation. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the destructive nature of the American Dream through his characters Myrtle, Tom, Gatsby, Daisy, and Wilson and through his symbolic use of dust. Set in the Roaring Twenties, Fitzgerald’s novel focuses on these characters, who are intimately woven together through an intricate web of affairs, and dreams. Fitzgerald uses the relationships that each of these characters have to each other and their relationships to dust to reveal the true price of the American dream, and how those who idolize it will find themselves destroyed by it.…

    • 1761 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great 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

    1890-1915 Research Paper

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The industrial condition reforms and improvement of urban life during the 1890-1915 period were very successful progressive reforms. Both helped improve the life of many citizens during that period and today. The many laws, such as child labor acts and pure food and drugs acts, made the quality of living much better. The Jungle, a book written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, was a fiction book about poor conditions in the meatpacking industry.…

    • 295 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, by Upton Sinclair, was written in 1906, about an immigrant family from Lithuania that came to the United States searching for a better life. Jurgis and Ona, a young couple who were desperate to find their way in America by living the American Dream. Jurgis was eager to work and earn money in order to gain prosperity for his family. However, as the story unfolds, we quickly see that the dream he was searching for seemed almost untouchable. The working conditions were hard, dangerous and filthy.…

    • 108 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jungle And Socialism

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Upon Sinclair was an American Novelist that wrote The Jungle in 1906. Sinclair’s novel portrayed harsh conditions and abused lives if immigrants in Chicago. The book illustrates working class poverty, lack of social support and unpleasant living and work conditions causing hopelessness among many workers. Sinclair wrote The Jungle to promote socialism. The issue that caught attention of the public was the horror of the meat packing industry.…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle in 1906 during the Progressive Era (1890-1920). In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century a vast rift between the upper and middle/working class began to develop. As a result of this growing division, a group of activists stood up for the voiceless society. These people were known as “progressives”. The progressives believed that Social Darwinism was immoral and that government should provide solutions to the social and economic problems of the lower class.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When President Theodore Roosevelt read The Jungle, he was sickened by what went on.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Achieving the fame and incomparable significance The Jungle has on todays world, was not an easy feat for the Baltimore born 27 year old. Sinclair was the author of numerous books throughout his college career, and each time he faced the same difficult struggle with his attempt to get them published. Surprisingly, The Jungle was no different story. The Jungle’s road to fame began with harsh rejection from six publishers. They feared the language was too gruesome for the people, furthermore, they were worried Sinclair’s primary desire was to tear down the rich, rather than lift up the desperations of the poor.…

    • 1902 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sinclair’s belief? Socialism was great in his eyes and he wanted the public to think that too so of course The Jungle reflected on Socialism’s pros. The writing in The Jungle also reflected on his observation of the corruption of society at the time. Although gut wrenching and somewhat terrifying The Jungle was the truth and Sinclair made sure of that with his research and time spent studying the matters in Chicago. His dedication and heart that he put into the book, along with the horrid truth, sold this book and the ideals it expressed.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel, The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, is about the life of people working in factories in Chicago during the early twentieth century. After the first two chapters, the story begins with Ona and Jurgis' wedding in a bar in Packingtown, Chicago. Both Ona and Jurgis are Lithuanian immigrants who came to America for a better future. So far the main characters are depicted as hardworking and caring people. The story began with a happy and easy going mood, yet soon to discover the horrors of their life in Packingtown.…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Investigative journalists or muckrakers helped bring reform issues to the attention of the public by exposing problems in American society. Specifically, writer and photographer Jacob Riis used photojournalism to capture the dismal and dangerous living conditions in working-class tenements in New York City. His work revealed serious problems in American society and advocated, often successfully, for change. Riis's work drew attention from Upton Sinclair, whose novel The Jungle helped to establish stricter standards for worker safety and food production. Both men's works dramatized situations in need of reform and, as a result, laws including the Pure Food Act, the Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act, and laws that improved housing conditions took effect.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jungle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a book about a family of immigrants who came to America to try and form a better life for themselves and their family. The book mainly focused on the pain parts of Urbanization and the struggles that each main problems came with. For example, crime and corruption was one of the main struggles of urbanization at the time. The government inspector at the factory Jurgis works at dosen’t stop the bad, rotten meat from going through to processing.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a great book that gives the reader and insight of how life was for people with low income, foreigners and also how females and men were looked upon as. Sinclair signals how people that come from poor class are treated and also taken advantage of. Racism is also shown to foreigners, they are looked at as if they were animals. Sexism is shown when women are taken advantage and unable to say or do anything for their own safety.…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair recounted one immigrant family’s failure to live the American Dream. Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania in hopes of beginning a new and better life together. They “had dreamed of freedom; of a chance to look about them and learn something; to be decent and clean, to see their child grow up to be strong” (Sinclair 143). In actuality, the novel highlighted the difficulties they faced living in filth while struggling to rise up in a grueling America. Upton Sinclair, a muckraker, wrote the The Jungle to highlight the poor working conditions in the country’s meatpacking industry.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays