The Jungle
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Image:Jungle cover.jpg The Jungle (1906) is the most famous novel written by the American author Upton Sinclair. It describes the life of a family of Lithuanian immigrants working in Chicago's Union Stock Yards at the end of the 19th century. Depicting, in drastic tones, poverty, the complete absence of social security, the scandalous living and working conditions, the lack of hygiene, and generally the utter hopelessness prevalent among the have-nots, which is contrasted with the deeply-rooted corruption on the part of the haves, The Jungle is a major critique of capitalism and an important example of the "muckraking" tradition begun by journalists such as Jacob Riis. The book's underlying message is that socialism is the only effective tool with which to fight unfettered capitalism and the only true remedy available to America's poor masses.
The unedited version of this novel came to light in the mid-1980s and has since been published. The book is one-third longer than the originally published release, and expands out beyond the meat packing industry into such directions as steelworking and organized crime, as well as restoring controversial details that might have harmed its chances of publication.
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Public and federal response
Image:Chicago meat inspection swift co 1906.jpg Sinclair’s account of workers falling into meat processing tanks and being ground, with animals parts, into “Durham's Pure Leaf Lard” gripped public attention. Foreign sales of American meat fell by one half. In order to calm public opinion and demonstrate the cleanliness of their meat, the major meat packers lobbied the Federal government to pass legislation paying for additional inspection and certification of meat packaged in the United States.Template:Ref Their efforts, coupled with the public outcry, led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which established the Food and Drug Administration.
Sinclair actually opposed this legislation, seeing it as an unjustified boon to large meatpackers.Template:Ref He famously noted the effect of his book in leading to meat packing regulations—but its failure to lead to popular support for socialism—by stating that "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
Plot outline
Image:Beef industry panorama 1900 loc.jpg
Lured away from their poor backward nation Lithuania by promises of the good life, the Rudkus family arrive in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois at the end of the 19th century, only to find out that their dreams of a decent life are not likely ever to come true. Right from the start they have to make compromises and concessions in order to be able to survive. They fall prey to the con men who cheat them out of their house so that they have to move to unbearable lodgings. Contrary to their original plan, each member of the family—whether very old or very young, even if they are suffering from a serious illness—has to get a job and contribute to the meager family income. They are faced with a cruel world of work in the Chicago stockyards, where everyone has their price, where everyone in a position of power, including government inspectors, the police and the judges, "takes graft," and where blacklisting is common. A series of unfortunate events—accidents at work, a number of deaths in the family that under normal circumstances could have been prevented—more and more lead in the direction of catastrophe. Jurgis Rudkus, the book's main character, is young and strong, but also naive and illiterate; this erstwhile Lithuanian farmboy is no match for the powerful forces of American industrial capitalism, and he gradually loses all hope of ever succeeding in the New World. His brief episode as a hobo in rural America after having left his family teaches him only that there is really no escape, not even outside the city slum where he has been living. Image:Chicago stockyards cattle pens men 1909.jpg Towards the end of the novel, Jurgis happens to meet some socialist orators and agitators and can finally be convinced by them that socialism, together with strong labor unions, is the only answer to all the evils he, his family and all their fellow sufferers have had to endure. Because the reader never learns if Jurgis Rudkus does eventually succeed--he abruptly disappears from the story once an orator begins delivering the long speech that closes the novel--Sinclair was criticized for the apparent lack of a proper ending to the novel. Template:Endspoiler
Notes
- Template:Note Page 340: Template:Cite book
- Template:NoteU.S. Congress, House, Committee on Agriculture, Hearings on the So-called "Beveridge Amendment" to the Agriculture Appropriation Bill, 59th Congress, 1st Session, 1906, p. 194.
- Template:NoteU.S. Congress, House, Committee on Agriculture, Hearings on the So-called "Beveridge Amendment" to the Agriculture Appropriation Bill, 59th Congress, 1st Session, 1906, p. 194.
- Template:Note "Of Meat and Myth," Lawrence W. Reed, The Freeman, November 1994
- Template:Note Upton Sinclair, "The Condemned-Meat Industry: A Reply to Mr. J. Ogden Armour," "Everybody's Magazine," XIV, 1906, pp. 612-613