Jungle
In Upton Sinclair's Jungle, the author attempts to make known the evils of the industries and capitalist businesses in Chicago in the early 1900's. The main character Jurgis was part of a lower class immigrant family from Lithuania that came to the US for a new start on life. They explain their illusion of the many chances that the country gives and decide to try and do as well as their friend Jokubas Szedvilas had done. However, as Jurgis starts work; as well as the rest of the family including Antanas, Ona, and Marija; they discover that the "land of the free" is not as forgiving as the naif had expected. Sinclair shows Jurgis's disillusionment and counters them with problems of the Chicago meat-packing industry such as the poor working conditions, gross employee exploitation, job insecurities, and most abundantly the drive of capitalism. As Szedvilas is giving the Rudkuses a tour of Durham's meat-packing plant, he tells them that behind the closed doors are secret rooms and such that the company executives do not want the public to see. Sinclair is hinting with this statement that later in the novel the family will experience crude working conditions that prove to defeat the new lifestyle the Rudkuses envisioned. Howe
When he goes back to work, he is denied his job because it has been given to someone else. When a fellow worker gets splattered with molten iron, Jurgis rushes to help him, injuring his hand in the process. He was able to effectively show these through his imagery and detailed descriptions of Chicago. This is a prime example of a common thing that happened in Chicago in the early 1900's. When Jurgis is suspected of being a part of a strike, his wage is cut and he is denied the right of overtime. Sinclair also makes it a point to describe the conditions from a narrator's stance. Capitalists profit off of others misfortunes. This is the first clue of the effects a capitalist society has. Finding a steady job in the early 1900's was rare for an immigrant worker. The damp pickling room that he works in leaves him with a respiratory problem that makes it hard to talk without coughing. The "dog-eat-dog" method is again emphasized with this aspect. As the main wage earner, he needed to immediately find another source of income when he was laid off of his previous one. " The misfortunes include the health and wages of the workers and the health of the consumers. Dede Antanas, Jurgis's father, experiences the same conditions. Another incident that shows the lack of job security is when Jurgis starts another job, but is injured.
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Acceptance Essays
