Immigrating Into The Jungle

Jason Camacho

Introduction to American History

Immigrating into the Jungle

The Industrial Revolution assisted with a number of technological advancements and dramatically changed the way the United States views the workplace today. However, one cannot mention the Industrial Revolution without the mention of the role immigration played on it during that time. In Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, he attempts to persuade the American public of 1906 to relate and sympathize with the immigrants that compose the lower working class and push towards a more socialist society. Within the book, images of unsafe working conditions, long frustrating periods of unemployment, language barriers, and the signs of political corruption come together to paint a not-so-ideal view of what many immigrants entered into as they pursued the legendary “American Dream”. Yet, Sinclair manages to uncover many such issues within the telling of the story of one Lithuanian family that was torn apart for the sake of surviving in, what Sinclair argues, a corrupt Capitalist society. In turn, the popularity of the book played a pivotal role in effecting the standards of the food manufacturing industry and improving the quality of life of immigrant workers. Thus, in reading Sinclair’s book, one is moved to experience a very grueling lifestyle that more closely resembled a nightmare of constantly struggling like wild animals to survive.

It can be said that the industrial revolution was fueled by unskilled workers that came from European countries. Between 1820 and 1920 over 33 million people entered the ports of the United States. While there may have been a number of skilled workers that had arrived to the United States, it is widely believed that factories substituted skilled artisans with the division of labor of unskilled workers who specialized in a limited number of tasks (Kim, 2007). Thus, it seems logical that, during the time that Sinclair wrote his book, unskilled immigrant laborers were the dominant factory manufacturing labor force. In the early period of industrialization between 1820 and 1840, the pace of immigration was modest and most of the immigrants were skilled artisans and were considered relatively wealthy. In the transition period between the early to late industrialization, the rate of immigration rose dramatically and a great majority of immigrants were unskilled farmers, laborers and servants. Although the pace of immigration fluctuated and the sources of immigrants shifted from northwestern to central and southeastern Europe by the second industrial revolution, a majority of immigrants remained unskilled workers (Kim, 2007).

Within the book, Jurgis and his family travel from Lithuania to Chicago in the hopes of making a better life for themselves. He finds a new position working in the meatpacking factories within Chicago. His job is to sweep the entrails of the slaughtered animals through the trapdoor. However, Jurgis finds that his new experience working in the United States is not quite ideal. He is exposed to very dirty and unsanitary working conditions, despite the signs that supposedly assist in enforcing the sanitation rules of the facility. Sinclair graphically describes Jurgis’ observations as the meat of infected animal carcases are recycled and placed into sausage or mixed with healthy meat contained and sold in neatly disguised canned packages to the American public. Including member of his family, the working class immigrants often caught illness and died due to the unhealthy conditions they were exposed to within these factories. To further worsen the issue, many such workers who caught illnesses at the workplace were not permitted to take days off to recover, which further promoted the spread of disease amongst the workers and the products they were selling to the general public (Sinclair, 1906). Sinclair made certain to emphasize this point so that Americans would understand that, regardless of their political standpoints, they are also being affected by these working conditions.

In addition, Sinclair highlights the way in which the Jurgis and the family coped with earning extremely low wages for their hard labor. The progression of the story in reference to how much Jurgis earns and what he does to earn his living relates directly to his hold on ethics and morality. At first, Jurgis is very excited to gain his first position in such poor working conditions for two dollars a week. However, Jurgis eventually loses his job and through a series of unfortunate events, finds himself not able to find another job. His morale in this environment is eventually worn down and Jurgis grows bitter. This worsens with the death of his wife, Ona, and his son, Antanas. For both his wife and son, Jurgis finds hope for a better life only to be taken away once again. He becomes corrupted, abandons his family and eventually adapts the “dog-eat-dog” philosophy that is at the core of Social Darwinism. He socializes with thieves and begins mugging strangers. However, a dramatic increase in his income results when he “earns” fifty five dollars after his first mugging. (Sinclair, 1906). In resolving to maintain his existence in thisway, Jurgis begins taking part in the vote-buying schemes. He works in the stockyards again and joins a union so he can sway the votes towards a republican candidate. Now, he earns his wages at the stockyards and additional money from political graft. As a result of helping the republican candidate win the election, Jurgis gains three hundred dollars, which is ironically the amount of money his wedding reception cost, the amount placed down on his family’s house and the amount of money it cost to bail him out of jail after attacking Phil Connor for the first time. However, in the act of attacking Connor during his second encounter (symbolic of a lingering sense of justice towards the rape of his deceased wife), he loses a majority of his money and is found poor once again (Sinclair, 1906).

Sinclair creates the pattern of monetary gain with corruption with the purpose of proving his point that, within a capitalist society, the corrupt minority profit while the naÐ"Їve majority of immigrant workers are exploited. Within the city of Chicago, thousands of immigrants line up to work in such hazardous conditions willing to work for very low wages to survive. The demand for labor fluctuates from season to season and the workers lower their standards in order to obtain and maintain a steady job. This increases the amount of competition for inexpensive, unskilled labor. Therefore, in the act of desperate workers lowering their standards for decent wages, it promotes the act of factory