The Disenfranchised in The Jungle and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In the novels, "The Jungle" and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" eachprotagonists, Jurgis Rudkus and Maya Johnson fights oppressiveAmerica in order to gain a measure of identity and integrity. Jurgis musthazardous and deplorable working conditions in addition to unsympatheticthat pit workers against one another, so that he may find a measure ofalso lives a working class environment, but in addition to the degradingseem to accompany many of her choices, she must also deal with sexism fromher life and racism from a secular white America. Each character is deniedcertain resources, particularly financial resources that would enable eachengage and seek out the American dream. Because Maya is forced to live in a Southern town that is encumbered bymilieu that readily segregates her and her family. Without access to aduring the Depression-laden town of Stamps, and being forced to live Blacksdidn't have a quality education, Maya and her brother, Bailey are forced to
After Jurgis becomes unemployed and his family members are forced todegradethemselves in order to survive, Jurgis begins to question the values of theAmericancapitalist system - at least until his is exposed to the workings of theSocialist partyvoices. We note how themeatpacking industryis prevalent with those who may gain some union support if they participatewith thelocal political machines. This novel led to the passage of the PureFood and DrugAct of 1906 because it outraged so many politicians that had become awareof thehazards and exploits of the meat packing industry. When he took time to recuperate, his bosscertainlywould imply that he could be replaced with a healthy worker. Ineffect, Hurgis realizes that he is party to the methods that bosses use toget more work outof their employees - pit them against one another; or at least imply thatyou could easilyreplace him. She winds up competing withother blackwomen for the affections of black men, and she has to confront the UncleTom nature ofmany Blacks who live in that area. However,he now knewthat he didn't have to tolerate the kind of abuse that a capitalist systemafforded most ofits workers. However, recent immigrants don't receive anykind of formaleducation and are subjected to threats and intimidation if they attempt tovoice a protest. In the case of Jurgis, we may note that he lives through similarsqualor anddegradation, but that his form of protest is taken in a somewhat differentroute. d milk and eggs as a form of daily bread. Lastly, we take it for grantedthat we willreceive overtime pay if we work more than 40 hours, but citizens living acentury ago didnot have such benefits. She suffers at the hands of a rapist andbecomes a mute and isforced into prostitution to earn a living. Many of us take apublic educationand unemployment insurance for granted, but the wide-ranging exposure andcontroversythat these novels caused led to the enactment of laws that would make the"EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission" a reality that would actively seek topromote thehiring of non-whites in meaningful jobs.
Common topics in this essay:
Uncle Tom,
American Socialists,
Maya Johnson,
America Jurgis,
Maya Bailey,
Opportunity Commission,
Security Act,
Rights Movement,
Drug Act,
Eugene Debs,
forced live,
capitalist system,
instance sinclair writes,
deplorable conditions,
maya bailey,
reader identify,
black women,
socialist party,
sinclair writes,
instance sinclair,
jurgis realizes,
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