For example, the Lithuanian delicatessen vender, Jokubas Szedvilas, begins by owning his own means of selling foodstuffs in a more healthful and independent fashion that the mechanisms of production destroy, in contrast to what Sinclair calls the "metaphors of human destiny," in the form of the miles of cattle to be put in chutes and killed. (Chapter 3) Later, a young couple, Jurgis and Ona, recall they "had always been accustomed to eat a great deal of smoked sausage, and how could they know that what they bought in America was not the same -- that its color was made by chemicals, and its smoky flavor by more chemicals, and that it was full of 'potato flour' besides? Potato flour is the waste of potato after the starch and alcohol have been extracted; it has no more food value than so much wood, and as its use as a food adulterant is a penal offense in Europe, thousands of tons of it are shipped to America every year." (Chapter 13)
European immigrants before they came to their new land could recall working on a farm and selling the goods they raised naturally for food. Farmers were also able to reap the profits of the goods they sold, in contrast to factory workers who were always working for a wage and producing food they would never eat in such mass quantities, even if they should desire to consume the tainted product. The human animal under...
Sinclair's The Jungle Upton Sinclair's describes the struggles of immigrant life in his novel The Jungle. The book opens with a wedding scene between Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite, a young couple from Lithuania. They celebrate with their extended family in the backroom of a saloon in the Packingtown district of Chicago, the new home of this collection of Lithuanian immigrants. The story then switches to the arduous journey the Lithuanian
Social and cultural capital enable access to educational institutions. Social and cultural capital also offer access to positions of power within organizations. The menial labor jobs that the Lithuanian immigrants do thwart social mobility. The myth of the American Dream creates the illusion that capitalist social structures are beneficial and immutable. Immigrants like those depicted in the Jungle believe that hard work alone can lead to upward social mobility and
Jungle, Upton Sinclair describes horrific conditions within the meatpacking plants, and writes of men falling into tanks and being ground up with animal parts and then made into lard (Sinclair pp). He writes that it was Jurgis's job to slide the cows into the trap, calves and all, and on the floor below they took out these slunk calves and butchered them for meat and even used the skins
Jungle Updated Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, is a worthwhile piece of literature that can contribute to the understanding of human development within the last century. It is a story of an immigrant family who experiences incredibly difficult and trying hardships in early 20th-century America. The purpose of this essay is to contrast the author's thesis of the story with my own personal interpretation of this novel. It is my understanding that
He was the typical immigrant who sought to make his way in America but the harsh realities of American capitalist system left him battered and broken with a dead wife and child. After wandering through a life of crime and corruption, Jurgis is finally redeemed through socialism; just as American society could be redeemed through socialism. The Jungle ends with the socialist making some progress in the American political
Jungle Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle is perhaps best known for its historical and journalistic contributions, because the book opened the public's eyes to the horrors of the American meatpacking industry, and particularly its appalling health and safety standards. However, Sinclair's novel also represents an aesthetic and ideological advancement that is often overlooked in favor of the book's somewhat more dramatic accounts of life inside a slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant.
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