The Role Of Jurgis In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Improved Essays
The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair is a political fiction novel. In the Jungle, a Lithuanian family comes to America in hopes of achieving the American Dream, but instead finds many hardships in America. Jurgis and his family are poor, dying, and enduring a strenuous work load. Due to some of these hardships, Jurgis went from naïve in entrusting the capitol boss with his welfare to hostile in entrusting the capitol boss with his welfare. Jurgis entrusts his welfare with the capitol boss. The author says, “Jurgis talked lightly about work, because he was young. They told him stories of the breaking down of men, there in the stockyards of Chicago, and of what had happened to them afterwards- stories to make your flesh creep, but Jurgis would …show more content…
The author says, “Working in his short sleeves, and with the thermometer at over a hundred, the phosphates soaked in through every poore of Jurgis’ skin, and in five minutes he had a headache, and in fifteen was almost dazed. The blood was pounding in his brain like an engine’s throbbing; there was a frightful pain in the top of his skull, and he could hardly control his hands.” (Sinclair 151) Jurgis is being worked during harsh conditions and it is causing him to be physically ill. Working under harsh conditions is a hardship that changes Jurgis’ character. The author says, “Then suddenly her eyes opened one instant. One instant she looked at him – there was a flash of recognition between them, he saw her afar off, as through a dim vista, standing forlorn. He stretched out his arms to her, he called her in wild despair; a fearful yearning surged up in him, hunger for her that was agony, desire that was a new being born within him, tearing his heartstrings, torturing him. But it was all in vain – she faded from him, she slipped back and was gone. And a wail of anguish burst from him, great sobs shook all his frame, and hot tears ran down his cheeks and fell upon her.” (Sinclair 225, 226) Jurgis’ wife died and Jurgis was devastated. The death of Ona, Jugis’ wife, contributed to a character change in Jurgis. Jurgis suffers many misfortunate tasks that lead to a character

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    (Sinclair 1906). The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was intended to show the plight of immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry of Chicago. Sinclair wanted to show how capitalism had failed and that socialism was the only way to solve the problems of the American worker. However, the American public centered their concerns on the awful conditions that meat was processed and how unsanitary, contaminated, and rotten meat was making their way to American stores.…

    • 1628 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    They try to find jobs and find out how difficult it is to support a family on a little pay and unsafe working conditions. As death and misfortune creep onto the unsuspecting family, their lives becomes harder. Jurgis’ father, Antanas, soon dies from unsafe working conditions in a chemical factory. The chemicals burned through his boots and led to an infection. In addition to the sudden introduction, some of the family members are soon laid off by the companies and are unable to pay their contribution for rent.…

    • 2643 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior 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

    Many people could get seriously sick or die. ( Sinclair 38) The inspector is using his higher power to not say anything about the bad meat, the more meat he does not use, the more it could get taken out of his pay. Ona confessed to Jurgis that her boss Phil Connor, harassed her and pleaded to become his mistress.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the early 20th century, swarms of immigrants began coming to America, in hopes of a better life. They were soon exposed to several forms of corruption--although many did not know of this. This was because most immigrants came from poverty, and did not have a high end education. Many of them did not speak English, and therefore could not exactly comprehend the U.S. government laws, community rules, and the way businesses worked. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair presents a wide range of corruption involving blacklisting, political scams, and the mishandling of meat.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The issue of Income disparity of the working class has been a prevalent economic issue, especially since the industrial revolution in the United States. In The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, he explores the exploitive nature of capitalism during the infancy of the industrial revolution in the United States and the struggles of the immigrant working class. While this piece of literature is a work of fiction, it gives a typical account of the abhorrent working conditions and the lack of policies which protect the rights of workers. This expose helped push legislation which aimed to protect the rights of workers, and strengthened unions. While this helped with alleviating the issue of income disparity, there has been an increase in income disparity…

    • 1091 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jungle And Socialism

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jurgis saw the unbelievable way animals were butchered, cooked, packed and shipped out. Packingtown seemed to take pride in that not one part of an animal was wasted. Jurgis being of a bigger built obtains a job rather quickly. It seemed that Jurgis was happy with his job and being in America until he learns that America is stricken with corruption and bribery.…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These go from generation to generation not caring about anything or anyone, except their money. At the end, as anybody could guess, Jurgis will have to choose between the different paths that open before him. In the fight against the strongest there are only three ways to face it: give up and die, thrive to be stronger than they are, or resort to the union of the weak against the common enemy. Sinclair sums up Jurgis decision with the words of a socialist speaker, “we shall bear down the opposition, we shall sweep it before us- and Chicago will be ours, Chicago will be ours, Chicago will be…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 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

    The first struggle the family had had started before they made it to America. The family had asked people for directions and people would take their money in order for them to get directions. When the family gets to America the first thing they need to do is get a job to support the main character, Jurgis’s, family. Jurgis was recently married to Ona when they got to America.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In many ways, the time period in which an author lives greatly affects their writing. The time period influences an author in how they write, and also in what the author writes about. The events during the lifetime of Upton Sinclair influenced his writing enormously. During the 1900’s the working conditions of the meat-packing industry were very harsh. Many workers were injured and many were even killed.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During a frigid winter months, when having a steady income directly correlated to survival, some of the factories shut down in result of broken machinery. In the novel, Durham’s factory, a canning production factory, closed and left Marija out of work. Likewise, the majority of the winter, Jurgis earned less than half of his expected earnings from working the slaughter beds. At this point, Jurgis starts to realize that the factories cheat workers out of sufficient pay. Jurgis analyzes the issue by noting “he could appreciate the bitter irony of the fact that it was precisely their size which enabled them to do it with impunity” (107).…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The jeering crowd roars as they strike. The meat packing industry is appalling; poisoned rats and tuberculosis infected steer are thrown into the quality meat. People call to end these horrendous practices. Upton Sinclair wrote, The Jungle, in response to the alleged horrors and intriguing claims. To prepare himself for informing the world, studied, lived, and breathed in the meat packing industry for several weeks.…

    • 1806 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    At this point in the story, Jurgis has lost everything that he once loved in his attempt to live a prosperous life in America. Through bad fortune he ended up with nothing and no one but his criminal counterpart, Jack Duane. They go out one night and find a man they think they can rob. As they approach, "Jurgis leaped forward and shoved a revolver under his nose, while Duane, with his hat pulled over his eyes, went through the man's pockets with lightning fingers" (Sinclair 272). Though Jurgis needs all the money he can get to survive, he surely does not need to resort to a life of crime the way he did.…

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Jungle”, written by Upton Sinclair, was one of the most well known books to emerge during the Progressive Era. The publication of this piece is known to have influenced the passing of two federal laws concerning food health and safety, the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906, and the Federal Meat Inspection Act. During the time of its' publication, it had evoked an immediate and powerful effect on Americans and federal policy. It had paved the way for federal laws regarding food health and safety that we now follow in today's day and age.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays