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. There were many people that thought badly of him and opposed his efforts, yet he attempted to take on the herd of the Chicago meat packing industry single handedly. Upton believed “The American Dream” was flawed and impractical. He believed that you must humble yourself to rise in society or even survive. He employed these
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The Lithuanian family found that “The American Dream” was nonexistent and just a way to entice people into thinking that there were jobs, good living conditions, and high wages. Bryant sums up the theme of The Jungle best, “The novel tells the story of a group of Lithuanian immigrants who have been lured to America from their old-world villages with the promise of high wages” (1192-1193). Jurgis eventually begins to see that “The American Dream” is something mock, “…[character] having begun to see at last how those might be right to laugh at him for his faith in America”, he realizes that he and his family came all the way over to the United States of America because of “The American Dream” and yet it has failed them (Sinclair …show more content…
Sinclair spent many hours of effort in trying to make this novel as historically accurate as possible. Sinclair wanted to show the common man social injustices created by the unfair working conditions, the quality of various products, and the overall fall of “The American Dream”. He spent several weeks in Chicago walking the streets trying to finding out the most he could about the meatpacking industry, “Sinclair spent seven weeks in Chicago living among and interviewing the stockyard workers and studying conditions in the packing plants”(Woodress). McEwen further shows that Sinclair spent much time and effort actually writing. This novel in addition to the in-depth research needed to write it, “Another strength of the novel lies in the painstaking research that went into it”(McEwen). Rather than creating a fictitious setting Sinclair valued letting the people know what was happening in their own country’s meat packing industry. This novel is still remains a very applicable primary source that shows the true industry that made Chicago famous, “Any student of American history and culture owes it to himself to read The Jungle in order to understand more clearly the impulse behind the labor movement, the drive for regulatory agencies, and the need for social conscience on the part of all citizens”(Woodress). Sinclair wanted to expose the
The Lithuanian family found that “The American Dream” was nonexistent and just a way to entice people into thinking that there were jobs, good living conditions, and high wages. Bryant sums up the theme of The Jungle best, “The novel tells the story of a group of Lithuanian immigrants who have been lured to America from their old-world villages with the promise of high wages” (1192-1193). Jurgis eventually begins to see that “The American Dream” is something mock, “…[character] having begun to see at last how those might be right to laugh at him for his faith in America”, he realizes that he and his family came all the way over to the United States of America because of “The American Dream” and yet it has failed them (Sinclair …show more content…
Sinclair spent many hours of effort in trying to make this novel as historically accurate as possible. Sinclair wanted to show the common man social injustices created by the unfair working conditions, the quality of various products, and the overall fall of “The American Dream”. He spent several weeks in Chicago walking the streets trying to finding out the most he could about the meatpacking industry, “Sinclair spent seven weeks in Chicago living among and interviewing the stockyard workers and studying conditions in the packing plants”(Woodress). McEwen further shows that Sinclair spent much time and effort actually writing. This novel in addition to the in-depth research needed to write it, “Another strength of the novel lies in the painstaking research that went into it”(McEwen). Rather than creating a fictitious setting Sinclair valued letting the people know what was happening in their own country’s meat packing industry. This novel is still remains a very applicable primary source that shows the true industry that made Chicago famous, “Any student of American history and culture owes it to himself to read The Jungle in order to understand more clearly the impulse behind the labor movement, the drive for regulatory agencies, and the need for social conscience on the part of all citizens”(Woodress). Sinclair wanted to expose the