“House of Earth,” by Woody Guthrie and “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair have a powerful view on the United States claim to freedom. Guthrie and Sinclair present different situations because of the time period in which each work was written but the similarities between the characters, conditions and consequences of living in the United States are significant. In these stories, the main characters experience different journeys, but they both endure hope and disappointment that leads them to recognize their dreams, shaped by the stereotype of the American dream, are unreachable because of the restrictions they have. Guthrie and Sinclair use their works to show us that the United States lacks the freedom it claims to have by presenting Tike and …show more content…
He describes to Ella May how his whole life he has wanted to own land and be a foreman and boss but that dream was taken away by Ella May’s family, “but I never was anything, nothing more than just the old hardworking son of, well, a family of folks that lost their land to your very father” (Guthrie, 62). His family had owned the land but it was taken out from under them by Ella May’s father and they were no more than hardworking renters. That was the lowest Tike had ever been but he had not reached the rock bottom of the farming industry, so the hope of owning land was still there. Therefore, when the idea of a house of earth was presented by a government brochure that was mailed out to the farming population expressing that they could live in a safe, sanitary, and inexpensive house, the dream of building this …show more content…
Jurgis, Ona, and their family moved to the United States to have a better life. They want to live freely and succeed giving their kids a better life than they had. They had so much faith for America, but not long after they got to Chicago things start to go wrong. Jurgis is blind to the reality of corruption in Packingtown. Sinclair said it very well stating, “from top to bottom the place was simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds; there was no loyalty or decency anywhere about it, there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar” (Sinclair, 50). All of the bosses in Packingtown were in a corrupt alliance to step on anyone and everyone to stay on top because all they cared about was the money. They could care less about their workers, forcing everyone who worked in Packingtown to be wage slaves. All of the workers were replaceable as well. Because the immigration rate was so high, both immigrants and native Chicagoans were having a hard time finding jobs that if someone lost their job someone new was there to take their place. “All year round they had
Emerson wrote, “Times of terror are times of eloquence.” Based on your reading of Bitzer’s article, what does this sentiment mean to you? Given your understanding, illustrate this concept by providing three illustrations, one each from the three different contexts indicated below, a(n):
Nehemi Winn Mary Hill American Studies 12 April 2016 The Jungle and The Progressive Era During the early 1900s, the changing views on human rights redefined the standards of society and government in America. When Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle, it immediately affected American society and American federal policy, although Sinclair had hoped to bring about a different reaction.
Dubbed as “The Greatest Country in the World” by god knows who, America is not as awesome and free as some may see. In doing a close reading of Heather Christle’s “Five Poems for America”, we can see how the author uses metaphors to portray a flawed American, specifically within its political system, religion, obsession with technology and basic human rights. Americans have been living with the oppression of these everyday issues, completely oblivious thus creating the America we infamously know today.
In Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, The Jungle, he exposes corruption in both business and politics, as well as its disastrous effects on a family from Lithuania. In a protest novel, the ills of society are dramatized for its effect on its characters in the story. The Jungle is an example of protest literature because it exposes in a muckraking style the lethal and penurious conditions that laborers lived and worked in, corruption in business and politics, and the unsanitary meat that was sold.
The Jungle was first published in 1906. Contemporary critics disagree about whether or not the novel has any “relevance” for modern readers. What do YOU think?
Folk singer and victim of the Great Depression Woody Guthrie, wrote the song “This Land was Made for You and Me” to express how U.S. citizens once viewed the nation as prosperous, now viewed the nation as desperate. In the song, Guthrie explains that the beauty and bounty of America’s land belongs to everyone. Poignantly, the song ends with “As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if [God blessed America for me.]” This line stressed how confused citizens felt about their country during this time. Citizens did not know what to think about living in America anymore. Should they leave? Where would they go? What about the
An author depicts certain elements of a historical time period in his or her novel by incorporating literary elements. Upton Sinclair, the author of the novel ,The Jungle, was a Socialist who supported the rights of the working class in America’s economy. He lived during the time of the American Industrial Revolution when the lower class of the society were poverty-stricken while the upper class were wealthy and corrupt. He had observed the meat-packing factories of Chicago and incorporated the knowledge he had learned into his novel. In writing this novel, Sinclair’s goal was to expose the harsh conditions in American factories (“Upton Sinclair”). The novel takes place during the early 1900s in Chicago were a working immigrant man named Jurgis
Soon after arriving in Chicago, they come across Durham’s, a meatpacking factory located in the slums of Chicago. Many of the family members have begun holding jobs at Durham’s, ranging from painting cans, to cleaning meat. Over time, however, Jurgis and his family begin to notice that cleanliness, as well as the workers’ overall health, is often, if not always, overlooked. This, as well as the acts of crooked business leaders, begins to corrupt the family and soon leads them into turmoil. The United States, possibly more than any other country, was not very welcoming during the early 1900s.
People will go to any length to achieve the American Dream, which consists of freedom, equality, happiness, and wealth. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Dorothy, a vulnerable young girl, ends up in Oz, due to a cyclone shaking her out of where she has been and forcing her to find herself in a new place. Dorothy takes the yellow brick road thru Oz, meeting people along the way. Each person she meets shows her that “there is no place like home.” (Twain 11.4) The Scarecrow, without a brain, doesn’t understand why Dorothy wants to go back to a grey place like Kansas when she is in Oz, such a wonderful and happy place. The Tin Woodman, without a heart, helps Dorothy realize home is Kansas because in her ...
The crops eventually fell and “the owners of the land came onto the land” (Steinbeck 31). The Oklahoma families are forced to leave the land that they lived on for generations. There isn’t any negotiating. It was either flee or die of ...
The rise of Detroit first began in the early 1900’s when Henry Ford was in his shed working on his “horseless carriage”. At that time he was thought to be the crazy next-door neighbor, but as he perfected his machine he quickly became one of the most famous and influential men in the world. Ford was powerful, however, the power of the people proved to be stronger and more effective. After years of working long hours in terrible conditions with little pay, the autoworkers formed the UAW in 1935. Six years later they were able to win a contract with the Ford Motor Company, however their success didn’t come easy. In The Flivver King, Upton Sinclair uncovers some of the problems that autoworkers had to endure and persuades the audience to be in favor of unionization through theme, the use of imagery, and his appeals to emotions.
Literature is a powerful and persuasive tool. History holds the proof that a well-written novel, even a work of fiction, has the power to profoundly impact society. One such novel is Upton Sinclair’s 1906 expose of the American immigrant, infamously titled The Jungle. The story is of the trials and tribulations of a Lithuanian family struggling to earn a living in the slaughterhouses of Chicago. The issues faced by this family are some of the most disturbing fictional depictions of the lower class, and some of the most well-read in the past century. The Jungle, now hailed as a literary masterpiece, is credited with being the reason for the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act of the early 1900’s (Ewers). Though Sinclair’s story is revered for supposedly helping to reform a corrupt industry, research of both the current day meat packing industry and life of the twenty-first century immigrant proves that the story actually had very little consequence. In addition, research about Sinclair himself raises a number of questions about his motives and credibility. Although Sinclair’s novel was well received and thought to have made a major impact on society, it actually had very little effect on anything but the American psyche.
For years literature has molded and shaped the minds of many Americans for better or worse. Literature gives us entertainment and knowledge about things we may not have the opportunity to experience in our everyday lives. These written works have the power to influence readers and alter one’s opinions. This is just what Louis Simpson aimed to do, he was skeptical of the idea that America was picture perfect. During his life, he served in World War II, experiencing it all primarily. The victory of World War II left Americans feeling on top and unstoppable. Simpson fed off of this overwhelming optimism translating it into his poems (Faville). His goal was to pick apart the fantasized image we created for our country and expose the real truth
The Jungle is a book that was written by Upton Sinclair in 1906. Upton Sinclair was a muckraker which is a fancy word for journalist that they used back in 1900. The purpose of The Jungle was to show the conditions of where the workers lived, how they lived, and how little they worked in order to get paid almost nothing.
In his mind he practices buying land and what he would say to the current land owners. He believed that wherever he sat could be his home, his “sedes”. He intentionally makes this point in order to create the picture of the home as a seed, growing out of the ground. He continues to say that the only home he ever really had was when he bought the Hollowell Place. Over the years, Thoreau had taken many voyages up the river to view the house in all of its glory. To paint a picture of the land, Thoreau says, “the house was concealed behind a dense grove of red maples though which I headed the house-dog bark,” (Walden,1997). This image conveys the livelihood of the farm which is destroyed by the farmer who owned the farm before Thoreau. At the point when Thoreau wishes to buy the farm it had changed greatly, become grey and broken down. There were no longer trees, or rabbits eating vegetation in the spring. For Thoreau’s purposes, it is dead. Thoreau sees the farmers, “improvements”, the “getting out some rocks, cutting down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture,” as detriments (Walden, 1997). Thoreau wanted to buy the property so the farmer couldn’t ruin it any further. He believes that by planting his “sedes” there, he can make the land grow again. He says that he isn’t afraid to let nature be nature. He presents the dichotic images of the poet and the farmer. The poet can look at the land and, “put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk,” (1997). The poet takes in all of the beauty of the land and can walk away with it, whereas the farmer, who cannot see the beauty of the land is left with only a crop of a few apples, bound to be