For years I have heard this book referenced in my history and English classes. I guess it just took one more mentioning for me to drive to Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy. It has taken me a while to get through it, but that is only due to my constantly busy schedule. I probably could have finished it in about 5 hours, uninterrupted, if that.
I was expecting a nasty, blood-curdling scene every time I flipped the page. There were some points in the book that made my skin crawl, but it really wasn't too bad. I ended up marking each time that I was really shocked by a post-it and I ended up with about 10. The Junglewas a very good read and I recommend it to anyone who thinks they can read the 357 page book. It is enlightening and engaging. Upton Sinclair takes the reader on a journey from Lithuania to the US packingtown of Chicago. The reader shadows a young man by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, one of the overworked, underpaid, and exhausted millions that went through the town of Chicago in the late nineteenth century into the very early twentieth century. This book specifically takes place, as far as I can tell, from about 1900 to 1904.
Jurgis brings his father and another family over to the US in the search for the land of opportunity. They speak no English except for the word "Chicago" when they first arrive, and end up getting cheated out of nearly everything they own. Jurgis immediately goes to the meat-packing factory and begins working for pennies on the hour. At first he is optimistic and happy that he was selected out of the throng of men begging to work, but after a few months of having one day off a week and working from sun up to sun down on the other six days in dangerous working conditions, he becomes bitter towards the management and the owners of the company. Sinclair illustrates how terribly stressful life is for this family. He shows just how much their lives are left to chance and extortion.
Near the end, Jurgis realizes how much he had in common with the hogs he slaughtered while he worked in the packinghouses. When he first saw the hogs going through the process of being killed and butchered with only a mind for efficiency, he said he was glad not to be a hog. He finds out at the end that the management didn't see humans as much more than expendable cogs in their machine, to be worked until every last dollar was gotten out of them and then to be cast aside without having a second thought for how they will survive.
The last few pages of the book did descend into politics, though, and the story almost completely disintegrated, which is pretty much the only downside to the book.
The Jungle was extremely engaging because it dwelled on one story, one life. It illustrated how full of hope the large family was when they came over, how overjoyed Jurgis was when he could finally marry Ona, a young woman of about 17 from the family he travelled with, and the struggles they endured as the family tried to stay afloat. Tragedy struck again and again until finally, as young Ona is giving birth to her second child, she dies from complications. Jurgis is left with one son, as the other also died in the birth that killed Ona, and works to save the family from starvation. Suddenly, this child dies, after less than 2 years of life, and Jurgis couldn't take it anymore. He left the shattered remains of the family to hobo around the country. He felt clean and happy for the first time since he came to America, but was drawn back to Chicago in the winter, because then there was no work to be done for farmers. I will not give away all of the storyline, but I will say that this story is something that will stay in my mind for a long time. It is no wonder that it had such a huge impact on the US when it was published and that it has become a classic and stayed a popular read for over 100 years.
