Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

The Jungle Questions 1. Upton Sinclair depicts the lives of Jurgis Rudkus and his family to closely resemble the true lives of the working-class of America during this time period. The word bitter best describes the challenges faced Jurgis’s family. For instance, mostly whenever anything happens to Jurgis’s family mostly everything has a negative outlook on their lives. First, a large portion of Jurgis’s family has to undergo the cumbersome working conditions Packingtown has to offer. Ona, Grandpa Antanas, and little Stanislovas acquire work in order to bring more money to the table, but the working conditions they get exposed to in Packingtown lead to their literal demise. Due to these conditions, every single one of these people eventually
The government should assume some responsibility for caring for the working class of America because the working class made up a large part of American society and their hardships were not attempted at being fixed or addressed. First off, the government should assume responsibility for those trapped in poverty because the working class had to theoretically die just to bring food to the table everyday. Jurgis’s family has anyone who can working in Packingtown in order to help with the financial situation of the family. Even the little children, Little Antanas and Stanislovas are stripped of their childhoods and forced to work in factories all in the case of bring money to the table. Even with all these people working in the Rudkus household, they hardly made enough money to sustain themselves. The government should at least provide some type of relief benefit of extra money or food because many people of the working class were dying from lack of food and other live essentials. Another reason the government should assume responsibility of caring for those in poverty because of the schemes and unfairness in which the working class is treated. For instance, the real estate agents were to out to get the working class by putting loopholes within the housing contracts, making it practically impossible for the average working class family to obtain a home. Furthermore, even in court decisions the officials were always going to go with the people who bribed them better or had a higher status in society. This can be seen in the court case between Jurgis and the bartender, where the bribe brought the bartender to victory in court. Also, with Phil Connor, Jurgis lost because of Phil’s higher status and many connections in society. Even in a place meant to be fair for both sides, a courthouse, the government lacks in giving the working class a fair trial. Hence, all this evidence put together paints a vivid picture of why the government should assume responsibility in