James Truslow Adams coined the term the “American Dream” in his book The Epic of America in 1931 (citation). These two simple words lured millions of people over various decades to America in search of greatness. Wealth, abundant resources, and increased freedoms were rumored to be waiting upon American soil. Upton Sinclair, an American novelist, seized the opportunity of mass immigration to expose America’s dirtiest secrets in his fifth novel The Jungle. The Jungle, published in 1906, depicts the dismal tale of protagonists Jurgis Rudkus, Ona Lukoszaite, and their Lithuanian family, who pursue the “American Dream.” Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle proves the “American Dream” an unobtainable feat.
The promise of food was exciting for new immigrants.
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In the beginning the book depicts light corruption as a few guests fail to donate or pay for the wedding and feast they attended (citation). Throughout the rest of the story, the main character becomes a thief, mugger, drunk, strikebreaker, and belongs to a political vote-buying scheme. The “American Dream” promised that, if the effort of hard work was there, a better life would be created for the immigrants and their families. Instead a land was found where only crime, moral corruption and dishonesty were dominant and only those who followed in these tainted footsteps tasted financial success. This supports the idea that as immigrants continued to be tools of the corrupt and fraudulent system until they had no choice but to join the schemes or never break out of the manacles of …show more content…
A more corrupted version of today’s capitalism also expanded the horrors that awaited immigrants. The capitalist forces of America worked against the immigrant belief. Capitalism in the early 20th century was a lie that brought in cheap labor through hopes and dreams. Immigrants, instead of obtaining a decent life, enter a life of cruelty in which they become a means of production in order to grow the wealth of an elite class. Burdened by the immoral capitalists, Jurgis is quickly transformed from his optimist self into a socialist. Jurgis’s battle with capitalism is prevalent in the pages of The Jungle, emptying the belief of the optimistic life in America that was seemingly in his grasp at first. A prime of example of how the clutches of capitalism can be seen is when Jurgis is sent to a jail because he assaults his wife’s attacker, Phil Connor (citation). The jail is described as a vile, foul place. Even though the conditions of the jail were terrible, the things necessary for survival; food and shelter were easily provided. Thus, another mockery in the “American Dream” lies in the fact that a criminal is protected and fed by the law, yet a moral hard-working family is left to scrounge for scraps. His family finds themselves in a worst predicament once the corrupt capitalist, Phil Conner, fires Ona. Along with Ona’s loss, the
The period of time running from the 1890’s through the early 1930’s is often referred to as the “Progressive Era.” It was a time where names such as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller stood for the progress of America and their great contributions to American industry and innovation. This chapter however, has a much darker side. Deplorable working conditions, rampant political corruption and power hungry monopolies and trusts threatened the working class of America and the steady influx of European immigrants hoping to make a better life for themselves and their families. What started as a grass-roots movement pushing for political reform at the local and municipal levels soon began to encompass
Upton Sinclair's Purpose in Writing The Jungle Upton Sinclair wrote this book for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, he tries to awaken the reader to the terrible. living conditions of immigrants in the cities around the turn of the century. Chicago has the most potent examples of these. conditions.
The United States of America is known as the land of opportunity and dreams. People dream of migrating to this nation for a chance of a better a life. This belief has been around for many years, ever since the birth of the United States; therefore it’s a factor in which motivate many people migrate to the United States. Upton Sinclair, author of the Jungle, narrates the life of a Lithuanian family and there struggles with work, crime, family loss, and survival in the city of Packingtown. Sinclair expresses her disgust as well as the unbelievable truth of life in the United States involving politics, corruption, and daily struggle that many suffered through in the 19th and 20th century.
Predators and Prey in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. & nbsp; & nbsp; Throughout Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the author demonstrates the greed of Capitalism and how it gives politicians and businessmen the ability to exploit the immigrant population. Sinclair's main purpose in naming the book, The Jungle, is to put the reader's focus on the heartless politics of capitalism. If he had named the book Stockyards or Packingtown, a person's concentration may be solely on these places. It is evident that capitalism does not equally distribute the industries ruling, but rather allows certain groups to dominate the workers.
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” gave the most in-depth description of the horrid truths about the way America’s food companies, “the only source of food for people living in the city,” are preparing the food they sell. “The Jungle” describes the terrible
“You don’t have to be satisfied with America as you find it. You can change it. I didn’t like the way I found America some sixty years ago, and I’ve been trying to change it ever since” (azquotes). The quote in the previous sentence reveals the structure by which Upton Sinclair lived his life. During his lifetime, he penned many novels, articles and stories that changes the way America functioned then, and the way America continues to function now. One novel created by Upton Sinclair was The Jungle. This story of pain, suffering and tragedy brought the dangers of the meat packing industry to the people of America. He was able to use his socialist views to inspire the novel The Jungle, which passed many laws and made meat-packing plants making
Discuss how Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tensions and historical processes at hand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
The novel is an exposé of the harsh and vicious reality of the American Dream'. George and Lennie are poor homeless migrant workers doomed to a life of wandering and toil. They will be abused and exploited; they are in fact a model for all the marginalized poor of the world. Injustice has become so much of their world that they rarely mention it. It is part of their psyche. They do not expect to be treated any different no matter where they go.
A mother drives her three kids to soccer practice in a Ford minivan while her husband stays at the office, rushing to finish a report. Meanwhile, a young woman prays her son makes his way home from the local grocery without getting held up at knife point by the local gang. Nearby, an immigrant finishes another 14-hour shift at the auto parts factory, trying to provide for his wife and child, struggling to make way in a new land. Later, a city girl hails a cab to meet her girlfriends at their favorite club to celebrate her new promotion over cosmopolitans. These people – the suburban soccer mom, the tired immigrant, the worried mother from the hood, and the successful city girl – each represent the different realities or fantasies that exist in the American society. They are all living or working towards what they believe to be the coveted American dream. Some of these people are similar to the Chinese immigrant, Ralph, in Gish Jen’s novel Typical American. However, all are confused as to what the American dream really is and whether or not the dream is real.
Since America has always held its entrepreneurs in the highest regard, one might expect Fitzgerald to glorify this heroic version of the American Dreamer in the pages of his novel. Instead, Fitzgerald suggests that the societal corruption which prevailed in the 1920s was uniquely inhospitable to dreamers; in fact, it was these men who led the most unfortunate lives of all...
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.
Even though monopolies are illegal, public corruption allows companies to form and continues to be a problem today. In an article published by the Los Angeles, Anh Do
Author Upton Sinclair published the novel The Jungle in 1906. In his novel, Sinclair wrote of a Lithuanian immigrant family who moved to Chicago in the early twentieth century, who was struggling to make ends meet. The author explained how immigrants in this time era experienced difficulties adapting to the new society of America, and its conditions. Sinclair’s novel described how immigrants’ lives, experiences, and choices were effected by social class, racism, and sexism. He produced very strong examples, some more significant than others, which illustrated how immigrants were effected.
Imagine going to work and being sprayed by a scorching splash of molten metal. Wouldn't that be just terrible? Unfortunately for the working-class Americans of the early 20th century (who worked in a steel-factory of sorts), this hellish scene was a reality for them (Sinclair 215). Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle, a ficticious yet all-the-more realistic novel about the Chicago meat packing industry (and just working/life conditions in general for city-dwelling Americans at the time), follows Jurgis Rudkus --- A Lithuanian immigrant trying to live the “American dream”. Unfortunately, that dream is crushed under the deepest and darkest aspects of Capitalism through terrible working conditions, appalling living situations, homelessness/unemployment, and unfair legal and political procedures. These obstacles make excellent examples as for why some rules and regulations are needed in our otherwise Capitalistic society.
The main character of the novel, Jurgis Rudkus and his family had immigrated to Chicago hoping to reach the “American dream.” However, they were unable to realize that only a few would reach that dream since industrial corporations exploited the skills of expendable immigrants. A majority of the immigrants fled from their countries to escape religious persecution, famine, crop failure, and industrial depression. The corporations and factories in Chicago took advantage of the immigrants by offering them lower