Sinclair's Expose of Meatpacking Industry in The Jungle
This is an excerpt from the paper...
This study will analyze Upton Sinclair's expose of the horrors of the meatpacking industry in Chicago in the first years of the twentieth century. Specifically, the study will focus on the impact of the labor unions and Progressive reform on the immigrant workers in Chicago's packinghouses, considering the political climate, social relations and labor conditions from the perspective of immigrants and their employers. The argument of the study will be that, in the context of the novel, labor unions and Progressive reform had little or no impact on improving the working conditions or general lot in life of any immigrant. Of course, it is vital that we keep in mind that Sinclair was arguing that capitalism---with or without unions or reform---would always be a hell for workers, and particularly for immigrant workers who were even lower on the socioeconomic ladder than native-born workers. Sinclair's novel is meant to entirely reject the capitalist system and to bring in its place a socialist system. In this critical portrait of capitalism and its exploitation of the immigrants and other workers, unions are in fact shown to be tools of the capitalist bosses, used as another means to control and mislead them. In Sinclair's novel about the broken dreams of Jurgis Rudkis and his fellow Lithuanian immigrants, unions are meant to be institutions which give false hope to the workers. They live in utterly dreadful circumstances and are exploited like animals by their capitalist overlor
. . .
he capitalist system. He sought instead to entirely replace capitalism with socialism.
The unions in the book are meant to serve as a means whereby Jurgis can begin to believe that he can make a difference in his life and in his working conditions. At first he accepts whatever exploitation comes his way, believing that America is a dream come true. But finally he is worn down and is ready to join with others in the union in order to effectively fight back:
One of the consequences of all these [exploitive acts on the part of the capitalist bosses] was that Jurgis was no longer perplexed when he heard men talk of fighting for their rights. He felt like fighting now himself, and when the Irish delegate of the butcher-helpers' union came to see him a second time, he received him in a far different spirit. A wonderful idea it seemed now to Jurgis, this of the men---that by combining they might be able to make a stand and conquer the packers! (91).
However, Sinclair does not waste any time in puncturing the bubble of Jurgis with respect to unions making any real difference. Marija stands up at a union meeting after her job was lost when a factory was shut down---with no effective union action. She rails passionately against the work
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Lithuania Sinclair, Upton Sinclair's, Jurgis Sinclair, Organize Organize, Socialism Sinclair, Jurgis Rudkis, American Dream, immigrant workers, capitalist bosses, York Signet, capitalist system, , american dream, labor unions progressive, labor unions, unions progressive, unions ineffective, progressive reform, sinclair's novel, unions progressive reform, help union,
Approximate Word count = 1611
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Sinclair Expose of Meatpacking Industry in The Jungle
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
