The Jungle

During the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, the major urban centers of America, like New York and Chicago, were heavily populated by a wide variety of different ethnicities.   Life for the vast majority of immigrants in such urban centers was difficult, cruel and unfair. It is through Upton Sinclair’s novel, ‘The Jungle’ that one is able to read a first-hand account of immigrant life in Chicago.   ‘The Jungle’ illustrates a seldom seen image of turn of the century Chicago, by vividly detailing the massive corruption of capitalism and the unsanitary conditions forced upon the meatpacking industry.   Throughout the novel, Sinclair touches upon the immigrant working class and certain aspects of immigrant culture.   ‘The Jungle’ tells the story of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family as they travel to America and experience the life of the immigrant working class in early 20th century Chicago.   Through Jurgis and his family, Sinclair shows the reader the trend of immigration during that time period in the United States, by detailing how the allure of the American Dream and its promises of success through hard work would lead an innumerable amount of immigrants to the shores of America only to be oppressed by the greedy nature of a capitalist society.   Sinclair also shows the cultural divide between immigrants and American society through Jurgis and his family’s struggle against the predatory nature of capitalism.  
The beginning of ‘The Jungle’ is a great example of the loss of, or the changing of immigrant culture and traditions from one generation to the next.   The novel opens up with the veselija, the traditional Lithuanian wedding feast, of Jurgis and his bride Ona.   This opening scene details both the harshness of life for an immigrant as well as the native culture amongst the Lithuanian immigrants being shown with contempt by other immigrants.   With the enormous price of the feast, as well as the certainty of many of the men having to report to...