The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is the essence of an American experience for immigrants in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. It is portrayed as the constant struggle of the oppressed to achieve the 'American Dream', a uniting of people opposing the exploitation of workers under privileged by Capitalism and its few but nevertheless very powerful supporters in the early twentieth century of America.

The characters consist of a family from Lithuania, who move to America seeking the opportunities they've heard it has to offer. This includes Jurgis Rudkus, the main character, and his wife, Ona. The book begins with the couple, newly married, holding their wedding feast in a small area of Chicago named Packingtown.

With little money, every member of the family is forced to search for jobs. Many mishaps come upon them as they struggle to keep alive. A few fail, in the harsh conditions of the packing plants or factories they have found work at. With little food and medicine some of the family don't last through the winter.

By the end of the book, only half of the family is left, along with a child Jurgis and Ona have had. Jurgis joins a group of revolutionaries and beings to speak out about the exploitation of the workers. He also becomes involved in the revolutionaries new system of government, socialism. The ending sentence of the book is a speaker in a socialist rally shouting, "CHICAGO WILL BE OURS!"

The book is a tragedy, but the ending leaves one with a sense of hope. A sense that through the resistance of people like Jurgis who taught the masses to rise up and fight for their freedoms, he laid down the path that would lead to the independence and opportunities that we have in our job economy today.

I believe Sinclair wrote this book, that we might not forget the constant battle that men and women of our history and ancestry went through to achieve equality in our work system.