The Jungle​ by Upton Sinclair PDF

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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair The book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, exposed the living conditions during the Progressive Era such as harsh working conditions and poverty. Sinclair was a Muckraking journalist, whose purpose was to expose social and political abuse of power by illustrating the horrible conditions immigrant workers faced. The purpose of the novel was to characterize the era of the late 19th century and early 20th century by the troubles of immigrants in America faced in the workforce, and the empty promises of the American Dream. Sinclair revealed the hypocrisy of the idea that working hard will lead to success and happiness by exposing the exploitation of immigrants in the workforce. This is explored through Jurgis’ family, who came to America with faith in the American Dream, which includes higher wages and a happier lifestyle. Additionally, the book The Jungle seems to indicate Sinclair's purpose,“I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident hit its stomach”, which he intended to gain the publics’ sympathy for immigrant laborers who worked in the poor unsanitary conditions during the Progressive Era. The novel begins when Jurgis Rudkus met Ona Lukoszaite at a horse fair and fell in love. However, due to economic problems the couple and some relatives migrated to Chicago seeking a better life. The couple arrived in an area of immigrants called Packingtow, which was the center of the meatpacking industry in Chicago and center of immigration. Inspired by their social standings, Jurgis promised to work hard to obtain money and improve their living conditions. After most relatives find a job, the family decides to sign a contract and buy a house. However, the contract was a scam because the house was in poor conditions and the contract had many hidden costs. This caused the family’s expenses to increase, which forced Ona and the children to join the workforce in Packingtown. With the increase of immigrants in Packingtown, crime and corruption also increased. This was shown in Jurgis being required to work at a higher pace for longer hours for a low salary, Jurgis’s father having to give one-third of his paycheck to the person who helped him obtain the job and Ona not being allowed to take holidays off work. Sinclair intended to expose the bad conditions immigrants faced as they tried to survive in Chicago's Meat-Packing District.The first few chapters of The Jungle show how people feared unfair labor. For example, if a worker was a minute late, then they would lose their job. This showed that no worker was essential, everyone could be replaced. Furthermore, getting another job was even more complicated. On many occasions, workers must stand at the plant entrance for long hours with faith to be selected as a laborer. However, the workers’ problems also involved the abuse of power and the unfair treatment. For instance, the employee was harshly penalized for lateness, the punishment ranged from losing hours pay to losing their jobs. In the book,

Jurgis realized one of the company’s scams was to not pay any laborer working part of an hour. Moreover, if an employee was injured while performing a task, the company would take no responsibility and the worker’s recovery time would be unpaid. For example, Jurgis saw men who carried 100 pound hunks of men on their backs, if those workers were to get injured they would just be replaced. This shows how employers view workers as valueless replaceable parts of a machine rather than human beings. Nevertheless, the workers' dilemmas did not end there, what was truly horrifying was the work environment. The company had an assembly line which ensured that every worker achieved their highest capacity of labor produced. In the book Jurgis recalls seeing workers with skin diseases, workers with missing fingers and workers with tuberculosis coughing and spitting blood on the floor. Additionally, the unsanitary conditions described were meat processed workers not properly cleaning their hands, in some areas of the plant workers urinated in corners due to the absence of toilets, and workers were to eat where they worked. Therefore, men who worked with meat were likely to catch a disease because they never handled the meat properly. Sinclair also wrote that there were stacks of uncanned meat on the floor surrounded by rat poison, dead rats and even body fluid, such as spit and urine. However, what was truly frightening was “when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting, sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard!”. This describes the meat-packing horrors of men who fell into streaming lard vats and how the employers overlooked the corpses. But during the progressive era, the only way to survive was by working to feed themselves and their families with that being said workers priority was to work and make money, regardless of their working environment and the unhealthy conditions they were exposed to. Furthermore, The Jungle raises the awareness of the workplace safety and conditions of workers in the meatpacking industry in Chicago in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Sinclair reveals that conditions of work were terrible because employees worked for twelve or fourteen hours. In fact, employers recruited employees at a lower price, even if workers were not trained to work in the meatpacking industry. This demonstrates the employers only cared about the money being processed and not the safety or lives of their workers. In addition, Sinclair raised awareness of the lack of social security. An example of this is the poor workplace safety and employers having no particular interest in the lives and health of their workers. For instance, when Jurgis suffered an injury and spend three months recovering, the factory just fired Jurgis. In spite of the injury occurring in the factory during working hours, the employer did not offer compensation nor will they give him his job back when he recovered. This shows his employer viewed Jurgis as a tool to make himself rich. The factory owner’s objective was only to increase his own wealth regardless of how the lives of their laborers were affected or the struggles they

faced to survive.Therefore, having no social security means that workers did not have support from the movement, if they suffered injuries. Sinclair reveals the poor protection of employees’ rights. Even more, in the early 20th century employment was distinguished by the poor protection of employees’ rights. At this point, it is worth expressing in the reality that workers were in a disadvantaged position in all industries. For example, when Jurgis worked on a farm, he found out that farm workers had no chance for a stable and good life based on high income because farmers need them as long as they need their labor, and this is the case of all industries. Furthermore, the state cares about the employers and supports their interests instead of employees. When Jurgis’ wife was raped by Phil Connor her boss. Jurgis confronts and attacks Phil and he is immediately arrested. That being said, the police did not care about the crime Phil committed; instead they only took into account the crime the Jurgis committed due to their social status. This shows the corruption of the police only reacted fast when the life of a rich person was on the verge, but when the life of employees were at the stake, they did not do anything. This demonstrated the privilege of the richer than to the poor people. Also, this shows evidence of socioeconomic injustice. Sinclair brought light to the issue on injustice and sexual harassment in the early 20 centuries. When Ona was sexually abused by her boss Jurgis could not do anything , the only way to move up the social ladder and get some justice was to obtain wealth but conditions were set for workers to not succeed. In conclusion, Sinclair revealed the social injustice that remained in the US in the early 20th century. On the other hand, Sinclair expressed many issues, which are still applicable today, such as the workplace safety, employees’ rights, government policies in relation to labor relations, sexual harassment, social security and injustice and other significant issues. Sinclair really expressed the struggles of the working immigrant class. While he believes the change to socialism could be the solution to the problem of social injustice. Additionally, the point is that the problems raised by Sinclair are significant and affect many people. The way Upton Sinclair exposed the conditions that immigrants faced was influential to reform a change in America....