Men of Power in “The Jungle”

A Summary and Review of Upton Sinclairs The Jungle Uptons Sinclairs book portrayed a wide variety of characters to convey his messages. Only one character deal be considered a study character, Jurgis Rudkus. The book revolves around Jurgis bearing in Packingtown. The supporting characters, transitioned in and bring out of the story with great frequency. When Jurgis ab initio arrives in Packingtown from his native Australian Lithuania he can best be described as being striking and powerful. He believes in the work ethic to a point of naivete.His sole answer to any turnabout I will work harder. Eventu every(prenominal)y Jurgis learns that no laborer can fetch enough to be the sole provider for his family. His only recourse is to send his wife and children out to work. Soon Jurgis begins to discover legitimate injustices that the join packers employ to exploit their doers. Workers be worn out by a speed-up system, they are non compensated for illnesses or injury incurred from their work, and they are literally paid by the mo, anything less than a hour does not get compensated.Jurgis, frustrated with the current conditions in the meat packing industry, that calls the men the same authority they use swine (every part), joins a Union, as does Marjia, and various other members of his family. Investing money into a home and conduct into his affair gets a Jurgis no where. Positions of power tend to go only to the corrupted characters. Bribes and kickbacks come as commonly as unemployment and job insecurity. He finally realizes that even a physically infrangible spell, instinctive to work hard, can be beaten by the system indeed, the system must defeat and shun him as part of its progress through exploitation of people for profits.Eventually his component part runs out and Jurgis is injure upon his the killing beds at the meat packing plant. His foot swells and he has no other recourse hardly to lay in bed and wait until his foot heals. Ironical ly, he is free to enjoy the company of his male child only when he is laid off from work. In just a few years after(prenominal) immigrating to the country, he is brutalized by circumstances to the point of ruin. His once mighty stature has been reduced to rubble, and looks seedy and wretched. He acts dull and beats young Stanislovas into going to work.After two months of waiting, with accountings pilling up, Jurgis goes back to work to breakthrough his job filled by another man. Due to his large house payment and the need to eat, Jurgis takes the worst executable job in Packing town, the Glue factory. By this time he has taken to the bottle and has started to incite father and farther away from his family. The children have all been put to work, as well as his wife, Ona and his Grandfather-in- righteousness Deda Antonias. To make matters even worse, Jurgis finds out that Ona has been forced have sex with her Boss.This totally enrages Jurgis, he runs to the Packing house to fin d the boss, Connor, and then beats him savagely. After his arrest he must serve on month in jail. During his stay in jail he meets Jack Duane, and becomes aroundwhat good friends with him. Within the month his family is in shambles. The children now, for the most part, live on their own, various family member are dead, Ona is about to drive home a child, everyone has confounded their jobs, and the house that they struggled so hard for has vanished away. By the time he finds Ona she is in mid child get and in need of medical assistance.Due to his current lack of funds, Jurgis finds a Dutch lady to rescue his child for $1. 25. Even with the help of the Dutch lady Ona and the child dies. After Onas death in ill-timed childbirth, their sons dies in an accidental drowning while his father is at work. Jurgis then takes to the country as a tramp. done his journey in the country he gets somewhat rejuvenated, and returns to his old stature. He works when he call for to, and travels a nd sleeps when he wants. By winter it becomes obvious to him that he can not survive out in the country for the duration of the winter, and is forced to seek work in the city he left behind.He becomes a bum, and drinks extremely heavily. While begging and wandering through the streets he, falls into a bit of luck and meets a young man named Frederick (Freddie) Jones. Freddie, being the son of rich Old Man Jones, takes Jurgis back to his home, with child(p) Jurgis $100 and the privilege of dining and drinking with him. Eventually when the young man falls asleep, the butler throws Jurgis out. With the degree Celsius dollars firmly in his possession Jurgis decides that the only place he could probably get change for the bill would be at a bar.Jurgis goes into the bar when no one is looking, and asks the barman to give him change for the bill. The bar attendee makes him buy a drink, and then hands him a handful of change. Jurgis becomes enraged, and pounces on the man. Jurgis gets ar rested again for battery and lands in jail. With the assistance of Jack Duane he drifts into horror and the corrupt world of politics. Jurgis make himself available now as an assistant to a robber or to a political boss rigging elections. Ironically, under these fell conditions, he discovers a new confidence and a talent for management.With a bit of luck and some help from newly acquired acquaintances Jurgis gets a cushy job in the meat packing factory. To keep this job, all Jurgis had to do was get the Democratic ticket elected, making the common man think that it was the best choice. During the 1904 meat packers strike, he gets a golden opportunity to become a scab and then a normal boss, driving his workers and taking boons. A chance encounter with Connor proves to be Jurgis moralistic salvation. Jurgis gets arrested again for furiously whipstitch his wifes seducer and realizes that he must jump bail.He has proven himself capable once more of moral fury, and he realizes bit terly which side he is really on. Cold and looking for a place to sleep, Jurgis stumbles into a Socialist meeting. He is profoundly moved by an orator who describes the life of the working class and how workers can take active measures to improve society. It dawns on Jurgis that he is entitled to join this movement. A new man had been born. He is no longer an isolated victim of circumstances he would have friends and allies. Finally Jurgis reunites with Marjia, a doped up prostitute supporting the remains of his family.They have definitely become two contrastive types of people. Her the victim, and him the fighter, still struggling for justice. With the idea, that he might be able to once again support his family Jurgis goes out in search of a job. Apparently by luck, he finds a job in a hotel, run by neighborlyists. By the end of the book Upton Sinclair, through Jurgis and various other characters, makes various speeches, and arguments for the use of collectivism with oppositi on to capitalism. Personal contrast was not the key theme of this book, but rather social conflict within the corporate structures. There is, however, some conflict among various characters.The most notable congresswoman occurs when Jurgis batters his wifes Boss Connor, upon two occasions. This is his way to release his rage and anger at the man who abused, seduced, and molested his wife. Jurgis also has a conflicting view on how he looked at the people in the factories. He saw them as weak and lazy people, complaining because they could not handle their jobs. After the death of his wife and child, Jurgis goes on as self-destructive rampage through the city and the country. Not only does Jurgis conflict with others he finds himself in conflict with the legal system, and the factory system.This causes him to make a mental shift to socialism. This also brings up the conflicting types of establishment, Socialism vs. Capitalism, in a obviously biased portrayal. The most important mes sage of conflict that Upton Sinclair wanted to deliver was his idea that the individual is constantly conflicting with the trusts and work machines that enslave him. The Jungle contains numerous themes which create the pure(a) atmosphere for Upton Sinclairs tragic book. In 1900 1904, industrialized America is a hobo camp. The only real law is the law of the jungle might makes right.The main problem is that the frugal system fosters greed and ruthless competition as a way of life. Greed prompts people to sell spoiled meat, engage in false advertising, pollute, bribe and be bribed. In such a system, the hired worker lives at a distinct disadvantage. He is trapped, exploited, and cheated by employers who, in competition with other employers, must consider profits more important than people. The worker in early twentieth-century America is brutalized and stultified. Only that part of his personality needed to perform a compressed task is kept alive the rest is crushed.Under these co nditions, love is reduced to mere bestiality the tender aspects of marriage and the raising of children are harshly overshadowed by the agonies of the economic struggle and indeed, marriage itself becomes an economic trap. tough Business has complete control of, but no responsibility for, the well-being of the masses. Big Business ultimately, deviously, controls government and the courts for its own benefit. In order to foster its corruption of politics, Big Business needs and thrives on crime and ultimately works in alliance with the criminal world.Capitalist democracy is therefore a fraud, a contradiction in terms. There can be no true democracy in a society controlled by one class with hereditary economic power. Turn-of-the-century immigrants to America were lured into a trap. They were attracted by promises of economic well-being and political equality instead, they were sacrificed on the altar of progress, the generation that built industrial society for its native owners. Her e, precisely as in Russia 1904 . . . rich men owned everything. American greatness is due to exploitation. If we are the greatest nation the sun has ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to spur wage earners to a pitch of frenzy. By using the characters in the meat-packing industry, Upton Sinclair is able to portray his Socialistic messages. In the end, Jurgis life is turned around because the character finds true freedom and happiness in Socialism. The entire book is a large piece of propaganda supporting Socialism. To say that it was only meant to be a piece of propaganda would be ignorant, and impolitic upon any readers part.Through his characters, Mr. Sinclair exposes a corrupt and brutal system in which on the law of the jungle reigns true. This belief is maintained by every single character in the piece. The author obvious had strong beliefs and motives for writing this book. Mr. Sinclair used his beliefs on socialism to provided an answer to how America trusts could be broken up. This book, (from American chronicle Class) aided the common man to understand the horrid conditions of the meat packing industry, as did books like Uncle Toms confine by Harriet Beacher Stowe, ironically a white woman fighting for the freedom of slaves in the 19th century.