Brief Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair was born on September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland, where his family had once belonged to the southern upper class but, at Sinclair’s birth, the family floated near poverty. Sinclair graduated from high school early and enrolled in the City College of New York at the age of fourteen, during his college years, Sinclair encountered socialist philosophy, and became an avid supporter of the Socialist Party. Sinclair published five books, he spent weeks in the city’s meatpacking plants, learning everything about the work itself, the lives of workers, and the business. The Jungle a biography, was then brought up from this research the first few publishers whom Sinclair approached told him that his book was too terrible, and so
Jurgis and Ona, have recently immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania, hold their wedding party at a bar in Chicago or Packingtown. The couple and other family members like Marjia, Ona’s, and Jonas the brother of Ona’s stepmother, Teta. They have come to Chicago for a better way of life, but Packingtown, is the center of Chicago’s meatpacking industry. After the wedding celebration, Jurgis and Ona notice that they are a couple hundred dollars short to the saloonkeeper. Jurgis feeling ashamed of having no money especially living in America, has great faith in the American Dream, promises that he will work hard and make money. The family ends up looking to buy a house and finds one and agrees to the terms, which ends up being a rip off, the house is in horrible condition and is badly maintained, and is full of hidden costs. As the family’s living expenses increase, Ona and some of the family children, are forced to look for jobs. Jobs in Packingtown are very hard working labor, conducted in unsafe conditions with no interest for employees. The immigrant community is soon to be stuffed with crime and corruption. Jurgis’s dad, Dede finds a job only after agreeing to pay another man a third of his wages for helping him obtain the job. But the job is too difficult for the old man, and it quickly kills him. The winter season is the most gruesome season, and even Jurgis is forced to work in an unheated slaughterhouse risking his life by going to work and has trouble seeing there. Worried about the conditions of his family members’ lives, Jurgis joins a union and begins to understand political corruption and bribery around Packingtown. Marija regains her job, but is fired when she complains about being cheated out of some of her pay. Ona is now pregnant, and her job has become very