The Role Of Immigrants In The Jungle, By Upton Sinclair

Webster defines the word immigrant, as a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence. In the novel, The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair the word immigrant takes on a whole new meaning. The immigrants in the novel are in search of the American dream, but after arriving in America that dream becomes a nightmare. Sinclair describes the journey of the immigrant working class in the meatpacking industry as “wage slavery”. “Sinclair writes that the immigrant population was "dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers."” (Sinclair) This is no description of a dream, but of a cycle of poverty that is kept up by the capitalist owners and the corrupt …show more content…
The owners keep the wages low, which keeps the immigrants in poverty. The corrupt politicians and businessmen come up with scams, hidden fees, and bad products that they push off as “new”. Another, definition of immigrant is stated as someone who has traveled from one place to another to live or have a better life. The idea that in 2017 we are chanting “build a wall” or having airline “bans” to keep immigrants out, seems to go against the idea of the second definition. Just let them read the book and maybe they would change their minds about coming here. Immigration should define its true meaning and not that of “only the strong will survive”. It should stand for the words on the Statue of Liberty and not as a way to add dollar signs to our bank accounts. The upper class should not profit off immigrants hard labor or their attempts to achieve the