The Jungle

Introduction

The novel starkly portrays the harsh conditions of workers in the canning industry in Chicago meat, as well as corruption and lack of scruples of their employers. The literature describes the terrible conditions of life and work of millions of Polish immigrants, Lithuanian, German, who came with the intention of fulfilling their American dreams. The American dream is all about working with sheer hard work which will in future enable them with happiness and success. This is hypocrisy that the author in this novel exposes that the main character learns very soon as the immigrates to America to fulfill his American dream. They experience an environment where they get zero amount of acceptance, a lot of prejudice and torture, filled with skepticism and immoral work for them to perform. In the slaughterhouses of Chicago, their struggles, their poverty, their downfall, the strikes, the alcohol, the prostitution are the experiences of the characters. Their dreams came crashing down as they came here for justice, equality and, and a better living and got the opposite. This is a novel written by American author and socialist Upton Sinclair. It emphasizes the feelings of the immigrants about the corruption of the American meat packing during the early twentieth century.

The novel describes in shrill tones poverty, lack of social programs, unpleasant working conditions and life, and hopelessness prevalent among the poor, which is contrasted with deep-rooted corruption on the part of the haves. The packinghouse and is relating industries are bring nothing but extreme poverty, rising illnesses and diseases, which is additionally attached with injustice rape, injuries, jail and exploitation. This is exactly what the immigrants are facing in this period as the hero of this novel goes through all of these evils. The wives are to succumb to their boss's sexual advances if they want their employment and if that is not given then either money or some other corruptive action re forcefully applicable on them. This is the torturous life of the immigrant that they face once they enter America. This is comprehensively mentioned in this report. The sad state of turn of work Front and Center's century is present here, so that the American public sees the suggestion that something had to be changed to eliminate the American wage slavery. Sinclair wanted to persuade his readers that the traditional American political parties have offered minor means for accelerating change as a realistic and scathing portrayal of the life of an immigrant worker. These immigrant workers were living a life in which they were paid less than what is their absolute right; their wives were facing extreme sexual harassments, along with exposed to harsh conditions in which means for survival became unbearable. (Sinclair, p. 343)

Discussion

Jurgis Rudkus is the character through which the author shows the experiences of the immigrants working in the meatpacking industry and explaining reason how they come to America to live and work to achieve the American dream. The main character after is marriage sets forth his emigration from Lithuania to downtown Chicago, eager to find the American Dream he has so much been ...