The American Dream The early twentieth century marked a significant time period in history of America and its well-known reputation as a nation of prosperity and great opportunities. During this time, a massive wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in the land of hope and richness seeking for jobs, and fulfilling their American dreams. However, reality of the “great” America hit them hard and crushed all their expectations of what the land of freedom could offer. As a result, immigrants fell down to the bottom of the “food chain” and could not escape the ruthless cycle of capitalism in the twentieth-century America. Among the muckrakers who exposed the ill conditions of American industrialization, there stood out a journalist, Upton
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When Jurgis first arrives with his family, he is naively excited about being a meat packer since he is fascinated at the machinery and the efficiency of the factory. Even when he can smell the horrifying scent around those places, his ignorant blinded his judgement and only recalls it as “ a strange, pungent odor”. Sinclair continues to describe how visitor’s” ear was assailed by a most terrifying shriek,” to the eerie sound of hogs dying when they actually witness the process. “...high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax”(Sinclair, 2006). Ultimately, the image of the slaughterhouse and rows of hogs walking peacefully to their death is similarly to how Jurgis and his family are going toward their own destruction under the “hand” of the capitalist society without realizing anything like those doomed pigs. It is a metaphor of how the labors are lured into working in unsafe environments and abused their strengths by the American business of which they fantasize
When Jurgis first arrives with his family, he is naively excited about being a meat packer since he is fascinated at the machinery and the efficiency of the factory. Even when he can smell the horrifying scent around those places, his ignorant blinded his judgement and only recalls it as “ a strange, pungent odor”. Sinclair continues to describe how visitor’s” ear was assailed by a most terrifying shriek,” to the eerie sound of hogs dying when they actually witness the process. “...high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax”(Sinclair, 2006). Ultimately, the image of the slaughterhouse and rows of hogs walking peacefully to their death is similarly to how Jurgis and his family are going toward their own destruction under the “hand” of the capitalist society without realizing anything like those doomed pigs. It is a metaphor of how the labors are lured into working in unsafe environments and abused their strengths by the American business of which they fantasize