The novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, focuses on the Progressive Movement in the United States in a journey through the life of the main character Jurgis Rudkus who came America from Lithuania in search of the American Dream of freedom and fortune. After arriving in America, Jurgis and Ona go to Packingtown, an area of Chicago, to find work. Once at Jurgis begins work, he is quickly subjected to horrible working conditions and very low wages that are very often swindled away by those in power. Ona and her second child both died during labor, and Jurgis son Antanas die shortly after.
Jurgis spends time in jail on several occasions for fighting, one his second sentence he meets an experienced criminal, Jack Duane, in prison and upon his release he takes up a life of crime. During this time he beings to understand the connection between crime, law enforcement, politics, and business. Jurgis begins to get involved in politics until his violent temper once again causes him to get in a fight with Phil Connor; though this time he is not sentenced to jail, he instead looses all of his current power and means of obtaining money because of Connor s political connections. Jurgis ends up back on the streets until one day when he attends a Socialist meeting as a means of getting out of the cold. Jurgis is impressed by the ideas and concepts of the Socialist Ideal, and he quickly joins and becomes an active member of he Socialist Party. He is convinced that Socialism is the only solution to everyone s problems, and that Capitalism is the cause of most problems in the world. The end of the book goes on to glorify and support the ideals of Socialism.
The Essay on Labour Party Socialist Time Class
Account For The Emergence Of The Labour Party And Discuss Its Fluctuating Fortunes Upto 1914 It is an oversimplification to talk about the rise of the Labour Party as if it were a single homogeneous body. In fact it was an amalgamation of three different socialist groups - the Social Democrat Federation, the Fabian Society, and the Independent Labour Party - with some trade unions. Although these ...
Upton Sinclair s novel The Jungle is a good example of big business and the lack of concern for their workers ad the rest of society. Many of the concepts in this book back up what was discussed in lecture. In The Jungle the main goal of the Socialist party was to end the corruption of the Beef Trust. One quote that describes the power that big business had during this time period was, In the national capital it had the power to falsify government reports; it violated the rebate laws, and when an investigation was threatened it burned its books and sent its criminal agents across the country. (312) During this time period there was not a great deal of government regulation on businesses, and big business was able to take advantage of not only the workers, but also the American public. Much of the meat that was sold to the public was sub par, in the worlds of the tour guide who gave Jurgis a tour of the plant in Packingtown, They use everything about the hot except the squeal. (38)
The Jungle also provides a commentary on the poor working conditions that took place during the early part of industrialization. During Jurgis time working at the meat packing plant he was injured and quickly replaced, however the meat plant was far less dangerous than Jurgis next job, at the fertilizer plant. Jurgis Rudkus provides an insight into the dangers of working at fertilizer plant through the following passage:
Worst of any, however were the fertilizer-men, and those who served in the cooking rooms. These people could not be shown to the visitor, for the odor of the fertilizer-man would scare any ordinary visitor at a hundred yards; and for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting-sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham s Pure Leaf Lard! (120)
The Term Paper on American Labor Workers Unions Work
American Labor Movement: Development Of Unions Essay, American Labor Movement: Development Of Unions The American Labor Movement of the nineteenth century developed as a result of the city-wide organizations that unhappy workers were establishing. These men and women were determined to receive the rights and privileges they deserved as citizens of a free country. They refused to be treated like ...
The preceding passage demonstrates the lack of on the job safety, or even any concern at all about the workers. As long as employers could get away with mistreatment of workers, they would exploit them to the fullest extend. While working at the meat packing plant Jurgis was making only 17 + cents per hour, and nobody is paid for part of an hour s work (anything short of being a full hour is not counted).
Because of these conditions and poor wages Jurgis, who was quite skeptical of unions at first, decides to join a union. After joining he is quickly convinced that the union is good for the workers, and becomes a very active member in the union. The formation of unions was important to fight the powers of the big businesses and to preserve some of the workers rights to safety and wages. These early unions were not as effective as modern day unions, but still provided the worker with more security than not belonging to one at all. Much of the problem with the unions was the lack of support. One early union that still remains today is the American Federation of Labor. In the early 1900 s only 10% of the nation s workers were enrolled in the AFL, so the power of the group was not overwhelming. During the early 1900s the American Federation of Labor grew exponentially to 1.7 million members in 1904 from under 500,000 in 1897. The Jungle took place around the same time that the union movement was going on, and Jurgis represented one of many workers who joined during that time period.
In the meatpacking factory there were substantial injuries to Jurgis fellow workers. There were many trends, such as those who use knives having their thumbs cut a lot, the people who worked in the chilling rooms getting rheumatism, and the workers who plucked wool lost fingers from the acid used to loosen the wool on the sheep. The businesses had no concerns at all about the safety or well-being of their workers what so ever. The main concern of the businesses was to make as much profit as possible, to produce as much product as cheaply as possible. No measures were taken to try and improve worker safety, such as using protective equipment or anything else that would help to preserve the health and lives of those who worked in the meat packing plant.
The Business plan on Work Order Business Insurance Cleaning
Today's workers and families are overworked and stressed. After working through a 9-to-5 job, feeding and putting the children to bed, the last thing anyone wants to worry about is cleaning the house. Weekends are spent running errands and spending quality time with friends and family members. Therefore, many families are looking for outside assistance with housekeeping. In the past, housekeepers ...
Within the businesses there was also a great deal of corruption, not just among the top executives. Many of the foremen were the most corrupt and dishonest people within the organization. Phil Connor, a foreman, pressured Jurgis wife Ona into having sexual relations with him on repeated occasions through threats of not allowing her or her family to work in Packingtown through his connections. Ona does not want to be with him, however she feels that she has no choice because her family needs the work to survive, so she is forced to give in to the advances by Phil Connor even though it upsets her. Another example was the forelady of the canning factory that Ona worked at who ran a brothel. She and a male friend who was the boss of a loading gang often fired regular girls to give the jobs to the prostitutes who worked at her brothel. Many hard working honest women lost their jobs to less than respectable women due to this corruption, and were forced to find new jobs, often times for less pay.
The Jungle has a continuing theme of the power and corruption big business and the way the workers and consumers were exploited by them. The main focus of the book was the powerful Beef Trust, which was later brought down due to investigations after The Jungle was published. This book exposed the public to the behind the scenes actions that took place at the meat packing facilities in Chicago. This created a public outcry, and investigations into the Beef Trust, which eventually brought upon and end to this once powerful entity. Upton Sinclair s insight and experience that he put into The Jungle was extremely significant and helped to bring about a great deal of change.
