Inensibility In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Many Americans living in urban America in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially the ones living in poverty, suffered from insensibility. They were worked so tirelessly and paid so little that after a while they would start shutting down and become numb to their feelings, emotions, and even the emotions of others around them. In this era this could be portrayed as a gift for the people, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about the horrible way of life that they were becoming accustomed to living. Becoming numb would make them able to work without distraction and be able to help keep them going even if they couldn’t feel anything. Even though this can be portrayed as a blessing it was almost like a curse in its own way. In the story

“The Jungle” written by Upton Sinclair the reader can also infer that it can be an issue and not a blessing especially when living with a family.
In the Jungle one of the main characters that Upton Sinclair wrote about was a man named, Jurgis Rudkus.

Jurgis, is a prime example of how insensibility can become a problem for himself and the people around them. Day-by-day, Jurgis would depart from home and go to work in the horrendous fertilizer mill. After a day of physically straining work, Jurgis would become covered from head to toe in the unpleasant fertilizer and during his time working he succumbed to getting headaches from the chemicals used to manufacture the fertilizer. Working this job was exhausting for Jurgis, after a while the job started to become a routine and he started to exhibit signs of being in a stupor. This could be considered a blessing, however, he started to want to feel something and the way he decided to deal with that was to take up the

drink.
When Jurgis took up drinking this allowed him a way to drink away the unfeeling and made him feel as though he was his own person again. This could have been fine, however, one day he started drinking and spent every cent of his hard-earned money on the drink, and when he came home he had nothing to give to his family. He started to regret his taking up the drink but he would now continuously crave the sensation that drinking gave to him causing him to think unpleasant thoughts about his family and things around him that were holding him back just because he was tired of not feeling anything and wanted to feel some part about himself that was content and happy.
Jurgis was not the only one suffering from insensibility, his wife, Ona Lukoszaite, starting showing signs of it herself.

Ona, a once cheerful woman who sang “like a bird” became so tired and miserable that she would fall into silence and go home without a word and proceed to depart for work in the morning and come back home exhausted. At night she would suffer and start weeping about her troubles and all the stress that she was going through. Ona, however, was not as numb as some of the others, when it was known that she was with child she started breaking down and becoming hysterical causing Jurgis to question why he would want to be with her since she was causing him so much trouble. Ona would then attempt to pull herself together and beg Jurgis to stay with

her.
So many people suffered from insensibility and “The Jungle” gives a very descriptive account of the consequences of possessing it. In many ways insensibility can be perceived as a blessing that the people acquired to numb the pain and be able to live without the worries that many were carrying upon their shoulders. Although this made them not be able to function in a normal way and most would continue to live emotionless until they hit their breaking point if their situations didn’t change for the positive. Living without their emotions caused many to turn to other crutches so that they were able to feel their emotions again just like Jurgis taking up the drink. Insensibility drove many to madness and tore families apart with the emotions that were not present in the individuals in this era.