The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is an awakening to the truths of the wrongs done to people of the past as well as today. It is a very depressing realization of how everybody has their own motives and disregards those of others. Throughout the book Sinclair shows the struggles of an American family in order to show the flaws in the American Dream.
             The story begins with Jurgis, who along with his family has come to America in search of the "American Dream"; every man has an equal opportunity to own property, have a home, have a family, and put food on the table. In America, Jurgis believes that being rich is not having lots of money, but rather having the ability to live a free man's life of family, property, and the everyday comforts of a home. Jurgis believes through hard work and honesty he can gain this dream. These goals and expectations are not unreasonable to Jurgis because all he knows about America is that it is the home of the free man. He will learn quickly that the America he has heard about is not what it was said to be.
             Big business took advantage of the immigrants in so many ways it is impossible to mention them all. Working environments were harsh and unsafe. If a man was injured on the job there were no types of compensation for him during his absence in addition, his inability to show up to work would cost him his job. This type of incident is shown in the book when Jurgis sprained his angle at the killing beds. The pay was very low considering the time, hard labor, and even the danger required doing many of these jobs. The low wages made many men join unions. However they were not that successful, because the work force could be easily replaced by more immigrants or newly freed slaves.
             Big business took advantage of the immigrants in and outside of the work place due to crooked politicians, greedy business owners and vertical integration. Many immigrants were kept in debut by taxes issued...