Poverty Exposed In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, depicts the life of Jurgis Rudkus. He is an immigrant from Lithuania who travels to Chicago with Ona - his soon to be wife - and both their families. They see America as a new start and a new opportunity. They soon find out that in a country built on capitalism there isn't much freedom for the working class and the family is thrown into poverty with little hope of escaping. Poverty and capitalism are two themes that are still very destructive in our society today.

In The Jungle, we see poverty through the eyes of Jurgis. His family knows little English, they are quite poor, and they get taken advantage of due to their vulnerability in a new country. This is something that happens to people every day in America.

In the United States, a percentage of the population are immigrants from other countries.

They come to the U. S. not knowing how to speak English very well, and they struggle getting jobs due to their language barrier. The same thing happened to Jurgis in the book. A study done in 2003, showed that 85% of Mexican immigrants thought that learning English was essential to succeeding in the U. S. (migration policy.org, 1). If immigrants do not have the proper education to learn English, they often get launched into poverty. They also get roped into contracts that often lose them money rather than gain it, due to a misunderstanding with the English language. In the book, Jurgis and his family find a cheap shelter that they can stay at. The problem is that different families all shared the same rooms and beds. The areas were cramped and the family struggled adjusting to their new life. The adults in Jurgis' family all had to find jobs, but when they did the working conditions were very unsanitary. They got paid only enough to survive and when Jurgis gets hurt with no compensation for his injury, the family struggled even more. The women are even forced into prostitution as a means to get by, but by that point the family has

lost more than they can ever regain. All these things are common for new families immigrating to the U. S. looking for hope, employment, and new opportunities to grow. Jurgis’ family thought they were coming to Chicago to start new, but they were under the false assumption that America was all that people said it was. In reality it was full of lies, pain, and raging capitalism. Jurgis' family showed us what happens to many naive families who immigrate to the U. S. trying to live the 'American Dream'.

In reading The Jungle, it is clear that capitalism is a huge theme that Sinclair is trying to get across.

He shows us a happy family that is destroyed by the turmoil of capitalism in early 20th century Chicago, although it is still something that runs rampant in our society today. In the book, Jurgis gets a job where he works at a packing house and the conditions are horrible. The people who own the packing house are deceitful and unfair, and when Jurgis gets hurt at work his employer shows no sympathy. He struggles to find another job where he can get paid well, and when he gets put in jail he struggles even more. He finds that his family is falling apart and the young children are having to work to support the family. At one point a character literally gets eaten by rats due to bad working conditions. Another theme is corruption. In the beginning of the book Jurgis is a hardworking family man, but by the end he is a stealing thief. It is apparent that living in a place where police are out for themselves and salesmen lie for their own profit, can change you as a person. Jurgis gets so obsessed with money that he beat a child to make him go to work, when he knew that in the freezing winter the child might get frostbite (which he eventually did). Another theme is about society and class in early 20th century Chicago. Jurgis' family comes to America because they think that if they come to America and work hard, then they will get money and succeed. It is as if they think that

there are no obstacles but themselves, and no social classes that they have to work up into. They later realize that there are tons of obstacles that you have to overcome, but even then you might grow up to be a thief. Sinclair makes it pretty clear that capitalism is bad and that we all should be against it. He also makes it clear that socialism is key for success in our society, and he shows this by having Jurgis be a big supporter of it. This is something that helps Jurgis to get out of his rut and find hope.

In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair shows us the struggles of capitalism and poverty through a family of immigrants from Lithuania. The issues he addresses are not just ones that the family faces, as even today these themes are big in our society. The Jungle teaches us lessons that we should never forget.