The Jungle is a documentary about the unfair treatment of workers and the unsanitary conditions of a meat packing plant. The facilities that are described in Upton Sinclairs The Jungle showed the attitude of the people who lived in Packingtown. Jurgis Rudkus was the main character in The Jungle. The house, the meat packing plant, and the saloon all had significant meanings in the book. All three of the establishments affected the family of Jurgis and the people of Packingtown in ways that would change their lives.
Jurgis was affected the most of any characters by the establishments. Jurgis was affected by all three of the settings. Jurgis was a Lithuanian immigrant who came to Chicago looking for the American dream. Jurgis was engaged when he came to America, he married a young woman by the name of Ona shortly after he moved to America. The wedding is the beginning and the reason for the rough life of the family. The wedding of Jurgis and Ona puts them into a deep debt. It is customary in Lithuania for family, friends, and guest of the wedding to donate to help pay for the cost. The guest of the wedding didnt do this and it left Jurgis and Ona with a debt of more than a hundred dollars. This is the reason that Jurgis, Ona and the rest of their immediate family work so hard throughout the story.
Jurgis and Ona worked many jobs to try to pay the off the debt of the wedding. Jurgis and Ona both worked hard to pay the debt, thats one of the reasons why a strain is put on their family life. Jurgis and his family are a part of the working class under capitalism in Packingtown. Capitalism is when a few control the bulk of the money. It is very hard for anyone who doesnt have money to prosper under capitalism.
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In Upton Sinclairs book all of the buildings where anything of significance took place also had symbolic meaning. The facilities play a critical role in the lives of the people in The Jungle. An example of this is the saloon that the family held the wedding in. If Jurgis wasnt in debt from the wedding he and his family wouldnt have to work so hard to pay off the saloon keeper. Another profound impact was that of the house. The house was the great example in showing the reader how people in Packingtown were being swindled.
The saloon represented hope and peace of mind in The Jungle. It also represented the small community where the concentration of most Lithuanian immigrants lived. The back of the saloon was 30 square feet by 30 square feet. It was a small area just like Packingtown. The small size of the saloon setting represented the small community in which they lived
The white washed walls represented hope and peace of mind. White is symbolic of peace. Peace is what Jurgis and Ona felt when they came to the new country and when they got married. They came to America with hope for the future. Most immigrants come to America looking for a peaceful place to live, raise a family, and build on a future. When people think of America they think of freedom and opportunity. Jurgis came to America looking for the dream that people had talked about. Freedom and equal opportunity is what Jurgis looked for, but it is not what he found.
The house was symbolic of the familys life and how it is falling apart. Jurgis and his family were swindled into buying the house. The house was beautiful in the pictures that were shown to the family. The house that was nice on the pictures and on first arrival slowly began falling apart. The paint began peeling. This symbolized the lives of Jurgis and his family falling apart.
The paint had many layers each of which was from other families who had been swindled out of the house. The layers of paint also represented the layers of corruption that existed in Packingtown. The people in position of power were for the most part corrupt. For instance, the Landlord knew that it wasnt new or in good condition, but he told the Jurgis and his family that the house was newly built. This also showed that the word of a man wasnt worth very much in Packingtown. dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The cans of rotten meat are representative of the houses. The cans are shiny and nice, but on the inside the meat isnt fit for human consumption. The same thing applied to the houses. The houses were shiny on the outside, but were unfit for human living. The houses had peeling paint, leaking pipes, and a bad roof.
As things in the house began to crumble like the peeling paint, so do their lives. As time went on the house began to fall apart. This was symbolic of the lives of Jurgis and his family falling apart. This was also symbolic of the family being swindled with the house as well as with their wages. Just as the family found out that they were being swindled out of the house such as the small rooms, it only being one story, and having to pay interest, they also find out that they were being swindled out of their wages.
The Meat packing plant or the Slaughter House was symbolic of the horrors the immigrants went through. The animals in the pen of the Slaughter House where representative of the working class immigrants who worked in the Slaughter House. The Slaughter House was symbolic of the end. Once the immigrants came to the Slaughter House it was the beginning of the end. Similar to the animals that were brought into the Slaughter House they no longer had control of their fate. After they were wore down and were of no good anymore a new wave of immigrants were brought in just like the animals. The Slaughter House was mainly symbolic of a life coming to and end.
