Preview

Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1374 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
The Jungle---just the title alone puts a perfect picture of flourishing foliage into the minds of everyone who has heard its name. One would imagine an adventurous tale behind the cover, full of exotic animals, exciting journeys, and perhaps a singing blue bear befriending an ambitious boy named Mowgli. However, the story behind the cover is anything but musical or exciting. To be frank, every line of literature will make you contemplate about becoming a vegetarian, and here’s why. The Jungle, written by American author Upton Sinclair in 1906, shocked its readers worldwide, but mostly in the city of Chicago. The novel focused on exposing the true horrors of the meatpacking industries in the United States, and the mistreatment of the workers, …show more content…
To add on to the dread, everyone who was working in these packing plants would catch the same diseases the cattle had, but still forced to work. The fact that no one knew that this was an issue was what truly disgusted the reader; no one was helping these hard working people, giving them pennies an hour, and having them break their backs in the smoldering heat and bloody stench for hours on end every day. “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one...you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife to hold it. The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count or to trace them.” …show more content…
The reader researched more of his works, and soon realized that Upton Sinclair does not have the artistic wit required for making creative titles. For example, his novel Oil! Is a novel about the oil industry. Honestly, it’s quite a laughable title, according to the reader. However, the second possibility makes more sense to the reader. A jungle often includes animals, which this story includes as well, but most would perceive the jungle to be mysterious, fun, and thrilling. Perhaps the story is thrilling, but fun is most certainly an inappropriate adjective to describe this novel with. In this case, the jungle Sinclair is describing is not like any Disney movie or fable; this jungle is harsh, where humans are the true animals, ---where survival is tough, and food is scarce, taken by other ‘animals’. Everyone died by the littlest of afflictions; a prolonging cough, maybe even a small cut on the fingertips could steal a life. In chapter twenty-two, the main character Jurgis is battling with his faltering emotions after his wife dies after childbirth, blowing all of his hard-earned money on alcohol and sex workers in order to numb his pain. Sinclair illustrates how Jurgis’ quality character is crumbling due to drinking and his sexual desires for women he did not

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Chapter seven then talks about the location of most meatpacking plants, in an urban city. Following that, Fast food nation, tells readers that Chicago was the meat capital of the world, at the time. Large meatpacking firms that employed around 40,000 people and shipped meat all throughout the United States and Europe was headquartered there. Upton Sinclair wrote the book titled “The Jungle” in 1906 based on working conditions in the meatpacking industry of Chicago. After poor working conditions were discovered and proven true, political influence on the meatpacking industry gave way for the “food safety Legislation”. This gave workers union representation and increased pay after WW2. Next, the book notifies on Iowa Beef Packers (IBP), telling us about its founders, employees, and working structures. IBP was the culprit for many wholesalers and butchers either going out of business or being fired, due to the fact that they had expanded their uses and ways of cutting beef. While talking about IBP, the workforce of its employees came to light. Dakota City workers went on strike and even showed violence towards those who were in a high position in IBP. Also, Iowa Beef packers…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a three-hundred and seventy page, descriptive and touching political fiction critiquing the social and economic inequality of work in the meat-packing industry during the early 1900’s. The book follows the life of Jurgis Rudkus, a poor immigrant who, along with his many family members, move to Chicago to live the "American Dream". However theses Lithuanian American dream are quickly crushed as work in the meat-packing industry has only given them intolerable levels of hardship such as death, injuries, scams, rape, and injustice. The Rudkus innocence and desperation causes many frustrations and…

    • 97 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In 1905, the Jungle first appeared in a Socialist newspaper in order to expose labor conditions in the meatpacking industry. The Jungle, a hot topic, holds the discussion of the harsh realities that labor workers face every day, making it hard for Upton Sinclair, the author, to find someone who would willingly publish the novel, although in 1906 Doubleday, Page, and Company agreed to publish the book.…

    • 67 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Jungle was an 1906 novel written by author Upton Sinclair. The book was wrote to help portray all the harsh and inhumane living conditions. It also exploited to unsanitary conditions of the meat factories and meat packing industries…

    • 84 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Upton Sinclair was born on September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland, where his family had once belonged to the southern upper class but, at Sinclair’s birth, the family floated near poverty. Sinclair graduated from high school early and enrolled in the City College of New York at the age of fourteen, during his college years, Sinclair encountered socialist philosophy, and became an avid supporter of the Socialist Party. Sinclair published five books, he spent weeks in the city’s meatpacking plants, learning everything about the work itself, the lives of workers, and the business. The Jungle a biography, was then brought up from this research the first few publishers whom Sinclair approached told him that his book was too terrible, and so…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upton Sinclair had always insisted that The Jungle was misread but did he ever think it could have been miswritten? The style of writing is not effective when addressing issues in a capitalistic society but proves to be very effective when exposing the secrets of the meatpacking industry. The novel is not remembered for being a classic work in literature but rather an important book in history in that it changed the way America looked at food in the early part of the century.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair can be considered one of the most influential novels written at the beginning of the 20th century. Though largely known as the book that resulted in the creation of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, The Jungle illustrated the harsh working conditions and ruthless competition that plagued the meat-packing plants in Chicago. Sinclair’s original intention for writing the book was to point out the flaws of capitalism, the greed that plagued society, and the poor imprisoned wage-slaves that struggled with starvation, disease, and the purpose behind their lives.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published almost century ago and it showed the Americans the problems that existed in the early nineteenth century, the industrialization timeline. Sinclair’s target was the workers who were mistreated in various workplaces, such as the meat packing companies in Chicago, so that they may be treated fairly. Sinclair wanted a future society where common people (those mostly that worked at the workplaces) to form a group and rule with their own rules which would be just in their eyes, much like a union. However, after the book was published, the readers were more traumatized by the fact of what the people were consuming in their food than the social problems. Sinclair says, “I aimed at the public’s heart…and by accident I hit in the stomach.” (pg3). After several years, Sinclair fighting the injustice system, finally society began to change and started to form unions in various meatpacking industries. However those unions didn’t last too long as fast food industries started impact the society in the 1960’s. Now almost century has past and another book was written, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Fast Food Nation faces somewhat similar issues like The Jungle, for example, the poor treatment of employees, the importance of mass production, and the immigrant issues. Once again, after Fast Food Nation was published, I believe people were more shocked of fast food than the concerns of the social problem that was mentioned in the book.…

    • 1436 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The title of this book is called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The length of this book is thirty-six chapters, the uncensored edition marking it three hundred and thirty-five pages long. Originally published on February 26,1906, the uncensored issue was published in 2003 over eighty years later. This book was about a young man and women have migrated from Lithuania to Chicago in search for a better life. They soon learn that in Packingtown, the center of Lithuania has no jobs available and the conditions are rough. In the process of their wedding arrangements Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite they come to an understanding that they are in more than hundred dollars in debt to the saloonkeeper. Everyone ends up having to look for a job because…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The young man was known as Upton Sinclair and traveled to Chicago to write about the life of the working class. Sinclair attacked the working conditions of the meat packing industry with newspaper articles but the situation was left unnoticed until a copy of a Sinclair’s publication was sent to President Roosevelt. “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair, contained reports of the unsanitary conditions and the horrible images he had witnessed during seven weeks of observing Chicago’s meat packing houses. Sinclair got the attention of the nation, especially with reports that included a section of how meat packing houses treated diseased meat. The report stated that the smell of diseased meat was masked by applying kerosene in order to pass the current standards before reaching the public. The report became a much bigger issue then Sinclair claimed that such meat did in fact reach the public killing more American soldiers than the Spanish-American war. This was a time of muckrakers and Sinclair was considered one of them, having a huge influence on investigations of corrupt industries and exposing to America harmful meat products, thus resulting in new government regulations and laws. Sinclair’s reports and horrible descriptions of filth and blood also influenced a decrease of almost half…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair, and it first appeared in a Socialist newspaper. It has become a classic not only for the heart-rending story in the pages, but because of deeper social and political commentary within it. It tells a sad story of the harsh realities that awaited many immigrants as they came over to America in the early 1900’s. It is not known how much of this is based on truth, and how much was for an entertaining aspect or to hook the reader. At the time of the story America was blooming and industrializing. It was becoming the talk of the world, and many foreigners were coming over with…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jungle Paper, Social Justice

    • 4072 Words
    • 17 Pages

    This paper was prepared for Social Welfare Institutions and Program, SWK, 639, Section 81, taught by Professor Yvonne Johnson…

    • 4072 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair has a plot like no other; the book is unique and teaches many how The Jungle got its name. The Jungle is a story on how two “soon to be” newlyweds and their families move to Chicago to seek opportunity at a new and better life than what they had in Lithuania. The main character Jurgis embarks on the journey to find a job to support his family while every man and their…

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle Paper

    • 1867 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair was a very touching and motivating story. Sinclair aimed for our hearts, but instead, he hit our stomachs. The Jungle is a story of hardships and trouble, some successes and many failures as a family tries to achieve the "American Dream." In this book, "The Jurgis Ruckus' myth of failure is the other side of the Horatio Alger's myth of success." (xxvi)…

    • 1867 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In February 1906, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group published the novel called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This novel exposed the plight of immigrants working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. It depicted the severe working conditions of the meatpacking industries employees in Chicago and also described the unsanitary factory conditions that they had to work through during a daily basis. For example, some of the unacceptable conditions that were described were the mislabeled canned meats, meat supplies contaminated by human remains, thousands of rats, and water from leaky roofs dripping over the meat. This is just one of many horrific conditions that were going on in Chicago. All of these alarming conditions…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays