The Jungle, a book about the tragedies and hardships a newly immigrated Lithuanian family goes through during their time in America, has become an important part of our history and a must read for anyone interested in the history of our country. Written by Upton Sinclair, this novel does a wonderful job describing the life of immigrants in the early 1900s. It was a very controversial book during it's time, as it brought up social issues that concerned many people. An example of an issue brought up was that of the meat packing industry, a corrupt industry at the time. In the book though, we follow a man named Jurgis, Sinclair goes on to describe what he and his family have to endure just to make a life for themselves in America
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In a way though, it's inspiring, as we follow Jurgis, an immigrant from Lithuania, and his life that he is faced with in the cruel corrupt town that is Packingtown. He loses everything near and dear to himself, his wife Ona dies in childbirth, and his son Antanas who drowns in a mud puddle. The death of his son was the signal of the death of hope is Jurgis' life. He even goes on and abandons what he has left, and the people that have cared for him. We follow him througout his time in the meat packing industry as well as the fertilizer industry which was a graphic yet captivating read. It's incredible to read about the conditions that workers were faced with. The fact that factories let these conditions pass baffles me. It's a controversial topic in the book because people at the time did not know what the meat packing industry was like. So the readers used the book to inform themselves of what the industry was really like. In the end, I was left with an ending that I was unsure of, do I like it or not? I think I do, as it was not a happy ending that I expect with most books, Jurgis was of course happy with his life after finding his soul and becoming a socialist, but really it isn't a happy ending because of how much he has messed up and how much he has
In a way though, it's inspiring, as we follow Jurgis, an immigrant from Lithuania, and his life that he is faced with in the cruel corrupt town that is Packingtown. He loses everything near and dear to himself, his wife Ona dies in childbirth, and his son Antanas who drowns in a mud puddle. The death of his son was the signal of the death of hope is Jurgis' life. He even goes on and abandons what he has left, and the people that have cared for him. We follow him througout his time in the meat packing industry as well as the fertilizer industry which was a graphic yet captivating read. It's incredible to read about the conditions that workers were faced with. The fact that factories let these conditions pass baffles me. It's a controversial topic in the book because people at the time did not know what the meat packing industry was like. So the readers used the book to inform themselves of what the industry was really like. In the end, I was left with an ending that I was unsure of, do I like it or not? I think I do, as it was not a happy ending that I expect with most books, Jurgis was of course happy with his life after finding his soul and becoming a socialist, but really it isn't a happy ending because of how much he has messed up and how much he has