Underappreciate The American Dream In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Topic Sentence 1: The American Dream lured immigrants with false promises of hard work resulting in material success. Seen in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Jurgis, the protagonist and victim of the evils of capitalism came to Packingtown, Chicago to work and earn money like a friend he knew. Jurgis’s idealism and optimism steered him down a miserable path. He lost his family, son, wife, money, and his morals. “Their home! They had lost it! Grief, despair, rage, overwhelmed him… [and the] crushing

His boss Hinds is into socialism, Jurgis is willing to speak about his experience in the meatpacking factories. I like how the author made Jurgis excited to be part of a socialists group after everything that has occurred to him in the past. The author does a well job in developing who Jurgis really is not the person that society has turned him into. Jurgis seems to be doing just fine now; he is in a better environment than

Jurgis is happy with his job, though he never thought of the meat and blood side of it until he works on the killing floor. The speed of the workers is very fast, and Jurgis sees how the bosses hire men that can speed up the pace of the other workers and place those men in crucial positions along the killing lines. This process is speeding up the competition and anyone who cannot keep pace loses his job. Jurgis is discouraged to learn that not like him, most men in the factory hate their jobs.

As we start to separate the two characters, Jurgis didn’t get to see his family much because he was always working hard either getting the money to get to America or working hard in the stockyards trying to keep his family afloat. “ It was arranged that they should leave the following spring, and meantime Jurgis sold himself to a contractor for a certain time, and tramped nearly four hundred miles from home with a gang of men to work upon the railroad in Smolensk” (Sinclair 28). James was also a very hard working man, but his family was always there to support him and spend time with him in the evenings. At some point, they both suffer life-changing injuries either for the better or for the worse. Jurgis rolled his ankle in a stampede, which caused him to lose his job.

First, Jurgis caused his own distress by not listening to other workers. These workers had been at Packingtown far longer that Jurgis, and they knew the truth. They knew about the debt and loss that comes after working in Packingtown, and they tried to tell Jurgis his was going to come crashing down at some point. But still Jurgis did not listen. It was after his first day at work that he began to realize, with a sinking feeling, that perhaps the other workers were right, saying “When he came home that night he was in a very sombre mood, having begun to see at last how those might be right who had laughed at him for his faith in America” (Sinclair 72). Jurgis was beginning to see that the others were right, and yet he still didn’t listen, and kept going with job. Shortly after, he gets pulled into debt and can no longer escape. Jurgis was his own enemy, taking the bait of the trap, even when everyone told him not to.

The deeper that Jurgis and his family go into the jungle, the more it takes from them. After the death of his son and a second round of prison, Jurgis loses contact with his remaining family. Packingtown comes to be less of a struggle and more of a battle ground as Jurgis becomes involved with crime and the politics of the city. Through his prison cellmate, Jack, Jurgis slowly becomes sucked into the darkness of corruption and soaks in the wealth of being a union patsy. When he again attacks Phil Connors, he loses his set up within the

Unfortunately, as time goes by his work ethics does not pay off, for he experiences new challenging adversities. Soon he reaches his breaking point when taught that his beloved wife, Ona is being threated and attacked by her boss. Jurgis breaks out in a rage and acts as he has never done before. As Sinclair states, “In a flash he had bent down and sunk his teeth into the man’s cheek (pg. 110).” Jurgis attacks the boss of Ona, and is portrayed as a vicious

Upton SInclair’s novel, The Jungle, is a novel based on the “Gilded Age” in american history. It is the life of a working man named Jurgis Rudkus and as the story progresses, it shows the corruption and dishonesty of the people during this time period, as well as their reasoning behind their actions. Also as the novel continued, it showed the author's inspiration for the title of this novel. Throughout the book, Upton Sinclair had scattered metaphors as to why Capitalism is corrupt and why Socialism is better. With subtle hints to social classes and how Jurgis progresses through them through corruption.

The only dormant thing that was unveiled was his contempt for his family. He hated having so much to worry about and no money for himself. He calls himself a slave to marriage because he longs to be free from responsibility. No talents or abilities came from this misfortune, and the family is never able to pay off the house. One by one, most of his loved ones die because Jurgis is no longer strong enough to support them.

While the use of characterization takes place with numerous characters in the novel, it resonates most obviously with Jurgis. At the beginning of the novel Jurgis is portrayed as a very masculine, hardworking figure, as he speaks his famous quote “I will work harder.” As he begins to experience harsh work conditions, injury, and sickness, his optimistic nature slowly wears down. Eventually his pessimistic personality overrides the sanguine behavior he exhibited in earlier times, specifically with the death of his wife and the drowning of his son. All the treacherous occurrences in Jurgis’s life cause him to become a frequent visitor of saloons, as he craves even just a drop of alcohol. Though he did not have a large sum of money previously,

In Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair beautifully exploits the harsh reality of immigrants in early 20th-century America. In “The Jungle,” the portrayal of immigrants' expectations of the American lifestyle emphasizes the clear contrast between their anticipation and the tough reality they face when trying to adapt to the American lifestyle. Through unveiling the disappointment and struggles that came with attempting to meet the goal of the American Dream, it showed the reality of the average American trying to survive in such a harsh environment. The portrayal of immigrants' expectations of the American lifestyle emphasizes the clear contrast between their anticipation and the tough reality they face when trying to adapt to

Jurgis and his family were faced with many predicaments related to these poor surroundings and circumstances. The family hastily saw that they must enter the competition forced upon them in a social Darwinist fashion. When he first arrived in Packingtown, Jurgis found work quickly in the meat packing industry because of his strong, young stature. As the years went by, however, and he grew plagued with injuries and financial troubles, Jurgis found work to be evermore difficult to obtain and hold. The social system cracked down on the family and offered nowhere for the Rudkus' to turn for help.

America is known as the golden opportunity to live a better life, have freedom, and liberty. Immigrants believe that America could improve their quality of life. Immigrants encountered extreme poverty in their countries and affording a family was impossible. However, the reality is much more horrendous and the true successors in the labor force are the wealthy business owners. The Jungle is a fictional novel by Upton Sinclair, reveals the real reality of working in the labor force in America and the dehumanizing of capitalism. The capitalist class took advantage of the working class by having them under their thumb and took away labor rights, threatening their freedom of speech, and abusing them physically and mentally. The working

“The American Dream” is a phrase that affects the lives of many. Old or young, rich or poor, everyone has a wish that they hope to pursue. Often called the American dream, the longing for a life of happiness and success is an ideal that America is supposed to offer. In the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, immigrants travel to the United States on the desire that their American Dream can one day be fulfilled in the prospering new world. They believe anything can be better than their horrible lives in poverty stricken Europe. The novel follows the life of a man named Jurgis and his family. There dream is to just be able to have a sustainable life. Although many associate the term American Dream to immigrants it can also

Another form of exploitation that doesn’t allow Jurgis and his family to achieve their American dream is the long hours of labor they must work in order to maintain the family alive. These unhealthy long hours of labor that they must work brings the family physical and mental pain. When Jurgis starts to work in the meat packing plant he is exited and happy to have a job, soon after he discovers that he is engaged in unfair labor activities as well as unsafe food handling. In chapter 11 Jurgis suffers from a terrible accident at work. The company doctor tells him that he'll be laid up for months with a severe ankle and foot injury. The accident poses a terrible problem for the family. Without Jurgis' wages, they might starve. “It was dreadful that an accident of this sort, that no man can help, should have meant such suffering. The bitterness of it was the