Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

The Jungle Questions 1. Upton Sinclair depicts the lives of Jurgis Rudkus and his family to closely resemble the true lives of the working-class of America during this time period. The word bitter best describes the challenges faced Jurgis’s family. For instance, mostly whenever anything happens to Jurgis’s family mostly everything has a negative outlook on their lives. First, a large portion of Jurgis’s family has to undergo the cumbersome working conditions Packingtown has to offer. Ona, Grandpa Antanas, and little Stanislovas acquire work in order to bring more money to the table, but the working conditions they get exposed to in Packingtown lead to their literal demise. Due to these conditions, every single one of these people eventually
die, no matter what their age is. Second, the amount of pay brought home by the workers in Packingtown, no matter what job one is performing is relatively little. Even though most of Jurgis’s family is working at Packingtown, they are counting the pennies, and still can hardly make ends meet. Paying the house rent, food, and other miscellaneous expenses that may come up, the workers did not get paid enough to live a life that is close to comfortable. Moreover, it is not like the factories do not have enough money, they just hoard the money because there are no government regulations on how much is minimum wage, so they just pay as little of a paycheck as they wish. Third, and last, the world is bitter to Jurgis family because everyone takes advantage of them in some way to use them towards their own benefit. For instance, when the family first goes to buy the house, the agent does not tell them about the interest they need to pay each month, but the later find out from Grandmother Majauszkiene. Another time something similar happens is when Jurgis goes to a bar to drink and he gives the bartender a hundred dollar bill. He eventually gets into a fight because the bartender will not give him the full ninety nine dollar change he should get. In court, the judge rules listens to the evidence the bartender has to offer but then ignores what Jurgis says. Soon we find out that the bartenders bribe the police so that if there is ever an occurrence like what happened in Jurgis case, the bartender would always win. Therefore, through these different encounters of Jurgis’s family, it is plausible to conclude the word bitter best describes the situation of his family.
2. Jurgis and his family were victims of American society to a significant extent. Jurgis’s family were not the only people who experienced hardships of factories and poverty, it was a common motif amongst the factory workers. For instance, when the family first buys the home, it looks like a perfectly good deal with no loopholes in it. However, as they analyze the contract of the house and learn unknown details from Grandmother Majauszkiene the truth about the house is uncovered. Grandmother Majauszkiene claims that the house had been taken from past owners multiple times because they could not pay their monthly dues. The agents that sell the house are smart to put into the contract that if the owners of the house cannot make a payment each month the house will be taken away from them. Difficulty in finding jobs in factories, the unstable nature of the jobs, and the high payment needed each month causes most of the house owners to succumb the agents and they end up losing their house without getting any reimbursement of the past payments they made on the house. This process has happened multiple times to the past owners of the house Jurgis’s family lives in, this shows that when Jurgis’s family loses their house, they are amongst the many who fell for the nasty schemes of American society. Furthermore, Jurgis’s family suffers many great losses that tear apart the great family of Jurgis. For instance, first it is Grandpa Antanas that dies because he develops a lung disorder from working in the factories. Then came many children, Little Antanas and Stanislovas who died horrible deaths through the neglect and hard work they had to endure in the factories. The most tragic death was the death of Ona, who dies when she is giving birth to a baby. All of these deaths would have not occurred this early in all of these people’s lives if they had not been exposed to the gruesome work required in the factories. Again, Jurgis’s family had no choice but to send all these people to work because otherwise the family would have collapsed, not having enough money to support everyone. Many others who worked in factories would have died along with everyone in Jurgis’s family because of the unregulated work environment the factories had to offer. Last, Jurgis’s family were victims of American society because Jurgis never gets a fair chance at giving his perspective of a story. For instance, when Jurgis attacks Phil Connor for raping Ona, Jurgis does not get a fair chance in telling the officials why he did such a thing. The officials just see Phil’s side of the story where Jurgis is seen as attacking a completely innocent man. However, since Phil is a boss at the meat factory, he has connections with the police and other officials, meaning he can get away with a crime without ever getting caught. Furthermore, all the bosses of Packingtown knew each other, meaning if someone got on the wrong side of one of the bosses, all the other ones would find out and not give a job to that person. This shows the true power of the Meatpacking Trust, a monopoly that could cancel anyone out and ruin their family’s lives. Therefore, Jurgis’s family did not bear much responsibility for their hardships, their suffering was a common theme throughout most of America's working class, making them victims of American society. 3.
The government should assume some responsibility for caring for the working class of America because the working class made up a large part of American society and their hardships were not attempted at being fixed or addressed. First off, the government should assume responsibility for those trapped in poverty because the working class had to theoretically die just to bring food to the table everyday. Jurgis’s family has anyone who can working in Packingtown in order to help with the financial situation of the family. Even the little children, Little Antanas and Stanislovas are stripped of their childhoods and forced to work in factories all in the case of bring money to the table. Even with all these people working in the Rudkus household, they hardly made enough money to sustain themselves. The government should at least provide some type of relief benefit of extra money or food because many people of the working class were dying from lack of food and other live essentials. Another reason the government should assume responsibility of caring for those in poverty because of the schemes and unfairness in which the working class is treated. For instance, the real estate agents were to out to get the working class by putting loopholes within the housing contracts, making it practically impossible for the average working class family to obtain a home. Furthermore, even in court decisions the officials were always going to go with the people who bribed them better or had a higher status in society. This can be seen in the court case between Jurgis and the bartender, where the bribe brought the bartender to victory in court. Also, with Phil Connor, Jurgis lost because of Phil’s higher status and many connections in society. Even in a place meant to be fair for both sides, a courthouse, the government lacks in giving the working class a fair trial. Hence, all this evidence put together paints a vivid picture of why the government should assume responsibility in
caring for the working class and those in poverty.