The Jungle:Plot Summary

The Jungle:Plot Summary

Upton Sinclair uses Jurgis Rudkus as the main character in his novel, “The Jungle.” Jurgis is portrayed as a Lithuanian immigrant who tries all possible ways to ensure that ends meet in Chicago. He lives near stockyards together with his family. Jurgis takes up a job at a slaughterhouse. He had high hopes of being offered more freedom by the United States and found himself in harsh working conditions. Jurgis and his young wife get into huge debts as they struggle to survive. The two could not afford a house, even the substandard home in the slum since they exhausted all their savings. The family and relatives started to decay both physically and morally with their chances of survival becoming slimmer. Jurgis’ father dies due to the catastrophic working environment they were put through. One of their children dies, too, due to food poisoning. Jurgis ended up getting fired from his job due to injuries at his work station in the meat processing plant and later takes up responsibility at a fertilizer plant. Jonas disappears and is never heard from again. Ona decided to trade over regular favors to her boss in the form of sex to keep her job. It makes Jurgis attack Connor in revenge and gets himself arrested and imprisoned.

Jurgis finds that his family has been removed from their house. Jurgis’ family is staying at a boarding house after finishing his sentence in prison. It is at this boarding house that Ona labored her second child and dies from the labor blood loss at age eighteen. Jurgis resorts to drinking after leaving the city. He traces his way back to Chicago, where he works as a con man. In Chicago, he finds Ona’s cousin- Marija is a prostitute and addicted to morphine altogether. Marija does this to support her family. It came a night where Jurgis got into a socialist orator’s lecture, a point where he finds purpose and community. He finds employment by a fellow socialist and finally resumes to supporting the family of his wife. The novel ends with a socialist rally with political victories in succession.

Theme

Socialism as a solution to the evils that come with capitalism

It is the main idea of the novel, the evil nature of capitalism. For every event that is shown in the book, especially when it comes to the first chapters of the story, it is picked to depict the failure of capitalism in some way. In Upton’s view, the act of capitalism is destructive, inhuman, unjust, violent, and brutal. Jurgis and his family in the novel, pass through the arms of a social system that is cruel with prejudiced system of the economy. It therefore demonstrates the impact that come as a result of capitalism on the group of people termed as a working class. The immigrants in the novel showed a lot of faith in the slogan, ‘the American Dream.’ The American Dream that they had was blown away by the effects of capitalism. The people had nothing to hold on to but to survive. Capitalism in the society is brought out clearly as a real evil that resulted from the greedy nature of the privileged in the book. Some had the guts of selling meat that is diseased to the people and which saw the death of Jurgis family member due to food poisoning. It was not an accident, they sold the meat deliberately due to greed. Sinclair’s book gives a glimpse of the ugly nature of capitalism that exists in society and which is present even to date. The cure for all the problems of capitalism in the community is socialism. The point where Jurgis opts for socialist politics in the 28th Chapter brings out a clear understanding to the reader on the importance of socialism alternative to capitalism. Socialism as portrayed in the novel works at best and impacts many people positively while capitalism works for the well being of a handful of individuals in the society. A socialist state has morals in the community that rebukes evil against humanity. Every aspect of Sinclair’s novel The Jungle works in a way to discredit the system of capitalism in the political view in society. The book illustrates how the blossoming community could be restored by embracing socialism other than capitalism.

The forgotten myth of the American Dream

The family that the main character, Jurgis, belonged to was used by Sinclair to demonstrate the plight of immigrants. It also depicted the struggles of the working class of people in that era. The families are of Lithuanian descent, and they showed up in America as a result of being promised that they will earn high wages and good life altogether, which they could not get in their country of origin. Sinclair portrays the hypocrisy in society and which is contrary to the promised good experience and high wages. The families find instead a place full of prejudice and exploitation that saw them suffer to appoint that some of them became prostitutes. The hard work the families put in their work did not bear any fruition at all; it only brought them problems that they could not handle.

Style

Point of view

The novel The Jungle by Sinclair is produced from the third party point of view. It is written with a voice that is authoritative and mainly focuses on the main character, Jurgis. The author does not enter the mind of any character in the book. He gives the story as an outsider. The point of view provides the reader with a lot of valuable information that they may otherwise not had received. The author, therefore, has the opportunity to report all the other aspects of the novel. The report is in a manner that does not, in any way, need emotional responses from characters, in this case, the main character. The third-person point of view works at its best with the plot of the novel.

Symbol

The Jungle

The title of the book, The Jungle, symbolizes the nature of competition that is aroused by capitalism. Packingtown is like a wild jungle. It is where there is a struggle to survive. The people who fight are the ones who survive the test of time. The title justifies the nature of abuses by the wealthy capitalists. Here, the strongest are rewarded while the weak continue to struggle for survival. Capitalists are the worst of humankind and very corrupt.

The Stockyards and Packingtown

The primary and important symbol in the book is the slaughterhouse and the animal pens of Packingtown. The two represent the plight of the working class in that era. Just like animals are drugged into the slaughterhouses and killed without mercy and full of impunity, and so are the hopeless Lithuanian immigrants. Just like the animals are given no choice when being taken into the slaughterhouse, the immigrants were given no opportunity but were forced to participate in a slaved labor and left to suffer. The scene created by Sinclair in this part of the story portrays the nature of capitalism. It is clearly brought out in the story.

Cans of Meat that is Rotten

Sinclair uses cans with rotten meat that is unhealthy for human use to portray the central theme of the novel, Capitalism. Sinclair describes the cans as shiny from outside but carrying content that is detrimental to human beings. In the same manner, the capitalists in America showed their beautiful nature from outside to the immigrants. Still, in the real sense, the America that they had a dream to work in is full of capitalists that comprised of wealthy individuals that did not even care about humanity.

Characterization

Sinclair uses three main characters to pass his point of view to the readers. The characters include Jurgis, Ona, and Teta Who Sinclair creatively develops to bring out the main ideas of the story.

Jurgis

Jurgis is the main character in the story as the main idea of the story revolves around him. He is the central representative figure of the immigrant working class. Jurgis does not possess any noticeable character flaw and is used by Sinclair to garner admiration and sympathy. He acts immorally in the circumstances that the reader can understand not to be his real traits. Jurgi is slowly grounded into some kind of oblivion by the adverse condition he goes through as a result of capitalism. Sinclair uses Jurgi to provide the remedy for capitalism and its benefits to the marginalized in society.

Ona

Sinclair develops Ona as a feminine that is appealing and in contrast to the masculine nature of Jurgi. Ona is a character in the story that is easily frightened and fragile. She demonstrates loyalty and trust in her family. She is raped by her boss Phil, and it is used to portray the corrupt nature of the society that has embraced capitalism. Ona, a loving wife to Jurgi, is repeatedly exposed to the forces of capitalism that are destructive.

Teta Elzbieta

Teta is a mother of six children that are living, and she is aging in the story. Sinclair uses Teta to show the strength of family and all forms of traditions. Sinclair develops Teta throughout the novel as one of its most potent and vital in the book. Despite all the tormenting experiences and loss of loved ones, Jonas and Ona, she remains healthy. Regardless of her age, she is willing to work in any case the family needs her.

Foreshadowing

The horrors and adversities experienced in Packingtown by the immigrants give a fore-shadow that the families will fall apart and fail in life generally. The kind of conversation with Majauszkiene, a Grandmother and another one of the Lithuanians that resided near their slum house about corruption in housing, gives a foreshadow. It is about the family having inadequate money and, in the end, being evicted from their home. After Jurgis finished his jail sentence, he returned and found out that his family was evicted from their family house.