Upton Sinclair described the terrible working conditions he saw facing those working in the meat-packing industry at the turn of the century in his novel The Jungle, with the immigrant Jurgis following the American dream and finding working conditions inhuman. The work ethic is shown to be strong in this society, causing many of the workers to accept their lot as if this were just the way things have to be.
The characters in The Jungle are the immigrants who flocked to America in search of a better life and more opportunity, and part of the poignancy of the novel is in the way they are disappointed at the reality that confronts them. Part of the optimistic American myth is that American business is a benign institution that offers opportunity to workers and that is a positive value in American life. What the immigrants in this novel find is an American business community that is dedicated to greed, to exploitation, and to self-serving goals. Jurgis and Ona are immigrants newly arrived in Chicago. They see America as a land of opportunity and are rewarded when Jurgis gets a job easily. Jurgis starts his work with high hopes and enthusiasm, but he is quickly disillusioned by the nature of the work and by the terrible conditions in the plants. When Jurgis sprains his ankle and can no longer work, he is ignored, left to his sense of despair.
In the beginning, Jurgis accepts the work and has a view of the packing plant in Packingtown as a wondrous place he describes as "a wonderful poem" (67). He is energized by the many workers, the different processes, and the sense of many people working hard in one place that he finds in the plant. This is all quite new to him. He is hired in the first place because he is large and strong. How people are hired suggests the corruption that marks much of the workplace. Antanas is offered a job, but he must pay one-third of his wages in order to get it. The workplace corruption exte...