The Role Of Corruption In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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.

Immigrants battled famine,
poverty, and rationing in their homelands, hoping America fed their hunger along with their desires. Immigrants developed a sense of American life through relatives’ letters, movies, and writings produced in the 20th century before arriving (citation). The immigrants hoped for an easy and hunger-free life but unfortunately for them, this could not have been farther from the actual truth. In reality, the life of an American worker was a tough one.
The appeal for American life displayed an attractive appearance to immigrants but when they arrived all that was found was corruption, meager conditions and rotten food. Similarly on the outside, the cans of food that were produced had the appealing surface for consumption but contained the diseased and poisoned meat from the slaughterhouses. In some instances, poisoned rats, droppings from animals, and other tidbits were also shoveled in with the meat from both lack of care from the workers and the conditions of the job (citation). Deaths from food poisoning, illnesses or simply being overworked in the plants were not uncommon because of these repulsive practices. Diseases were easily spread when workers, through poor conditions, even washed their hands in the same water that the meats were prepared in (citation). Even though the workers had perpetuated the corruption and disease, the owners encouraged the loopholes and contaminated conditions in an effort to pocket more money out of the meat packing process. Meat workers were even sold the diseased meat at inflated price since there was a law in place that contaminated meat was not allowed to be sold out of the state but did not limit its sale inside the state. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was put into law in instant response to the findings of disgusting food conditions.
The meat-packing industries and other big businesses showed a lack of concern for its workers and society by taking advantage of the immigrants both in wealth and working conditions. The dreadful working conditions of industrialization would convert countless immigrants from ambitious new citizens into new recruits for financial and political corruption. Examples of the hardships that were bestowed upon them consisted of insignificant wages, harsh working and living conditions, poor sanitation, and no worker's compensation. These would quickly demean the workers and left them feeling as nothing more than the animals they butchered at work. Uneducated and unskilled immigrant men did the dangerous jobs, straining in rooms that were dark and unventilated, that were also unbearably hot in summer and frigid in the winter (citation). Many stood all day barefoot on floors covered with blood, meat scraps, and dirty puddles of water, wielding the heavy machinery and tools. If someone was injured on the job, not only would pay be suspended during the absence but the inability to show up to work would typically cause the job to be passed to the next immigrant. The pay was also very low even for the turn of the century and working through known perils were required during many of these jobs. The hazardous working conditions arising from these jobs drove laborers to organize into unions. However at this time many unions were not successful, because the current work force could be easily replaced by the next influx of immigrants or newly freed slaves.
Big businesses had the power to fabricate government reports as it also violated the rebate laws, and when an investigation was threatened it burned its books and sent its criminal agents across the country. During this time period there was not a great deal of government regulation on businesses, and businesses was able to take advantage of not only the workers, but also the American public. Much of the meat that was sold to the public was below standards, in the words of the tour guide who gave Jurgis a tour of the plant in Packingtown, “they use everything about the hot except the squeal” (citation).
Corruption shared a parallel growth with both the early 20th Century and during the book, The Jungle.

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

poverty.
Sinclair writes that immigrants were "dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers” (citation). With being paid pennies on the hour, most immigrants had no real capability to break out of the depressing economic cycles that kept them symbolically and literally shackled to their jobs. This never-ending process of legal slavery and poverty was maintained by the capitalist owners of the packing plants that were also in association with corrupt politicians of local government. The wages would be purposefully kept low in order to keep people in poverty. Since the immigrant populations kept rising, the demand for work kept wages even lower. This caused desperation to get any job at any wage rate. In some cases to get even just an unsafe job, one had to agree to pay a portion of the earned salary, already losing what little money received. On the political side, the capitalists and local politicians collaborated to offer scams and poor quality products to the unwary new populace. This would take what little wages that the immigrants had left and refilled the scammer’s pockets. Real estate agents even marketed some immigrants and sold small apartments on credit, knowing that not many would be able to keep up with the payments due to the constant injuries, low wages and cutting of jobs (citation). When an immigrant fell behind or failed to pay, the mortgage owner would foreclose, repair, and proceed to sell the house to another unsuspecting immigrant family. Thus, due to economic conditions they could not control, immigrants were fundamentally cheaply paid slaves.
Capitalism, in its base terms can be defined by people who want to excel will excel and those who do not wish to would not succeed (citation).

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

other family members also lose their jobs. The family is powerless to support itself, and therefore it struggles to endure. The once optimistic Lithuanian family becomes pawns in the unyielding meat grinder of capitalism. Their contributions and attempts are seen as futile; their lives are seen as worthless.
An atmosphere similar to survival of the fittest is created simply by the title of the book “The Jungle”. Both the predators and the prey were both easily represented and contrasted. The criminals symbolize as predators and the prey being the majority of immigrants or Jurgis’ family in this case. This prey, being exploited by the capitalist society, shows how the cities and the country were turned into an actual jungle of survival. The comparison between animals of the jungle and people of the cities showed how society can be so greedy that we would need to use other human beings as prey to build us up, like food supplies nutrients for an animal. This concept can be linked with the ideas of animals in the jungle because they must be merciless when they are pursuing their next meal in order to survive. Thus, this abstracts the true notion that the “American Dream” is nowhere to be seen.