The Jungle
The Jungle, considered Upton Sinclair's greatest achievement, shows the deplorable conditions in meat packing plants, as well as moving the reader on the path to socialism. In order for Sinclair to give accurate details in the book, he spent over a year researching and writing about the conditions on the meat packing plants in Chicago. This first hand experience allowed for Sinclair to see the plight of the "wage-slaves." At the turn of the century, no laws were in place to protect the workers or to regulate the shipment of meat. The Jungle was originally printed in a socialist newspaper, entitled Appeal to Reason. When the book was finally published in book form, it instigated a pure food movement, which brought about the Pure Food and Drug Act. The main characters in the novel are Jurgis Rudkus and his wife Ona Lukoszaite, both Lithuanian. After arriving in America, they are taken to Packingtown to find work. Packingtown is a section of Chicago where the meat packing industry is centralized. As Jurgis and Ona take a tour of the plant, they see the unbelievable efficiency and speed at which hogs and cattle are butchered, cooked, packed, and shipped. In Packingtown, no part of the ani
Sinclair uses this book to get more than just a message of disgusting meatpacking plants. He uses the book to show that conflict plays a role in the moving of the reader towards socialism. Man verses man is a prevalent conflict in the book because it shows the wage earners against the wage-masters. The lower class workers are being treated as if they were monkeys, or maybe some sort of intelligent dogs. The bosses of the lower class are heartless, cruel and have no soul. When a man was scalded by a hot, smoldering piece of steel, he received no compensation, and did not even get his job back when he was healed. Jurgis and the proletarians are being held down in low paying, long hour jobs, by a small group of rich men. These men practice something called vertical integration, in which they can control every aspect of the industrial process. An example in the meatpacking industry would include the shipment of the hogs, the slaughtering of the hogs, the packing of the meat, and even the occasional bribing of a government meat inspector. According to many socialists, including Sinclair, large things such as plants and mills should be either divided into small units so that work can coincide in a single person or a family, or in a collective ownership. Under this sort of economy, people such as Jurgis would be able to control their own destiny, not a greedy wage-master. One is forced to believe that if Jurgis was able to control his own destiny, he might have succeeded.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Jurgis Ona, Act Sinclair, Comrade Ostrinski, Food Drug, Upton Sinclair's, Upton Sinclair, Appeal Reason, Stock Ordinance, Packingtown Packingtown, Drug Act, meat packing, pure food, pure food drug, packing plants, food drug, meatpacking plants, meat packing plants, drug act, food drug act, meatpacking industry, jurgis ona, able control own, jurgis able control, able control, jurgis able,
Approximate Word count = 1406
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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