Social Issues In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

The book “The Jungle” talks about the struggles in the early 1900s in the city of Packington in Chicago. The main characters in the story are Jurgis Rudkus and his family who recently immigrated from Luthiana in search for a better life than what they use to have. During this time period the United States was in the struggles of its industrialization. Many immigrants had limited employment choices but with terrible harsh working conditions. Multiple social issues are shown throughout this novel. This story goes deep into the struggles and sacrifices a man and his family had to go through to try and survive and live the “American Dream”. During the early 1900s a great amount of immigrants encountered a lack of jobs. It was extremely challenging for them since they had to struggle to survive each and every day. The lucky ones who were able to find employment were employed in factories, steel mills, or in a neat packing industry. Jurgis Rudkus a character in the novel was one of these immigrants, he first found himself a job as a sweeper in a slaughter house. He as well as many other workers experienced the horrible working conditions. These conditions included working for nominal wages, inflexible and long hours, and in a filthy workplace where the safety and health of the worker didn’t matter.

In this novel the author described multiple social issues but they are all centered on capitalism. The issues included worker safety and health, food safety, the immigrant experience, child labor and sexual harassment. For example, the child labor was used in these meatpacking companies although children weren’t always physically capable and were at higher risk for injuries. In addition to the poor worker health and safety, workers didn’t have any social security which meant they couldn’t count on the government or the company if they got injured or sick. For example in the story when Jurgis suffered an injury and wasn’t capable of working he was just fired.

Jurgis and his family went through many struggles and sacrifices together to try and survive and live a better life that they hope they would get by coming to America. Many families like this left their country with a high hope of living the America Dream. Most of their dreams were crushed when they got here and saw it wasn’t as easy. For example, Jurgis and his family couldn’t speak or understand English so they depended on others and their kindness to help them. Another example is like many other families this family was poor and had to accept whatever work they could. The Jungle is one of the many most important pieces of literature in history. It brings light to those who do not understand the struggles and scarified immigrants had to make to try and survive in America in the early 1900s as well it shows all the terrible and harsh conditions they were working in to make a living. Not only is it about the immigrants’ struggles but also the unfair way laborers were getting treated by the boss. Upton Sinclair was fortunate to have had the ability to bring toward an incredible even that helped changed America.