Chicago Will Be Ours
"Their home! Their home! They had lost it! Grief, despair, rage, overwhelmed him - what was any imagination of the thing to this heart-breaking, crush reality of it ... Only think what he had suffered for that house - what miseries they had all suffered for that house - the price they had paid for it!" "The Jungle", by Upton Sinclair, gives a heart-breaking portrayal of the hardships faced by the countless poverty stricken laborers in the slaughterhouses of Chicago. As in the quote above, a struggling family underwent months of back- breaking labor only to lose their house at the drop of a hat. It was a desperate and unmerciful time when an accidentally fractured ankle cost a man his job and his family food and shelter. In the early 1900's, strikes, riots, labor unions, and new political parties arose across the country. The Government, with its laissez-faire attitude, allowed business to consolidate into trusts, and with lack of competition, into powerful monopolies. These multi-million dollar monopolies were able to exploit every opportunity to make greater fortunes regardless of human consequences. Sinclair illustrates the harsh conditions in Packingtown through a Lithuanian immigrant family and their stru
The old man, Antanas, later succumbs to tuberculosis from the cold cellar he worked in where the chemicals soaked through his shabby boots. they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting . He craftily weaves this in through the voice of a powerful speaker in a large convention hall in Chicago from which Jurgis was ejected the night before. Ona, a young and frail woman, and Jurgis, a hardworking and strong man and the husband of Ona, come to America with some of their family to find work and to make a new and better life for themselves. Schliemann, a socialist, explains "anyone would be able to support himself by an hour's work a day. " This powerful language causes for the reader to stop and really think about Jurgis's anguish. With everyone finding employment right away, the family begins their lives in America with optimism, enthusiasm, and ignorance. Then after a fit of rage, he beats the man forcing sex upon his wife, Ona. Through the duration of the novel, disaster after disaster strikes this unfortunate family. In Chicago, the number of votes for socialism started at next to nothing and, by the end of the book, there were nearly fifty thousand votes. Finally, Sinclair tries to convert his readers to socialism and reject capitalism by using numbers. Jurgis is deeply inspired from his speech and instantly converts to socialism. For example, the author depicts the working conditions in the Packinghouse, "As for the other men who worked in tank rooms full of steam .
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Acceptance Essays
