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Title: The Jungle (Modern Library Classics) by Upton Sinclair, Jane Jacobs ISBN: 0375759506 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 12 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.85
Rating: 5
Summary: The Horrors of Meatpacking
Comment: I read The Jungle about 15 years ago as a sophomore in high school. And yet, flashes of the book still come to me. The horrible story of how sausage was made, the way the meatpackers dealt with spoiled meat by taking out the bone, where the meat was most spoiled and using the rest of the meat anyway, etc.
Sinclair wrote this book as a socialist parable to reveal the horrors of American capitalism. He thought that describing the meatpacking industry, an industry that Americans would really care about, would do the trick. As a result, Sinclair researched the industry for a relatively short while and then wrote his book. Perhaps he picked an industry that was too important to Americans because the book touched off a firestorm of reform about meatpacking, but no one was really interested in his socialist theories (with good reason, of course).
The book tells the story of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis and his family. Jurgis is a strong capable man who instantly gets a job in the meatpacking industry upon arriving in Chicago. There, he sees first hand the unsanitary and cruel meatpacking industry. This part of the book most grips the reader. In order to show that socialism is for everybody, Sinclair takes Jurgis away from this job, gives him an even lowlier job, then makes him a hobo, the puts him in management, etc. None of this works as well as the first part.
Of course, some of the horror stories apart from the story of meatpacking itself also give chills. But the main reason to read this book is for the compelling story of the meat industry in early 20th Century America.
Rating: 5
Summary: How the Other Half Lives
Comment: Millions of immigrants from around the world came to the US between the years 1870 and 1920¡¯s with a promise of a better life, a taste of the ¡®American Dream¡¯. These immigrants had come to America, yearning to be free and comfortable but were soon forced into waged slavery and slums. Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, wanted to ¡°expose the social, political, and economic problems¡± that a typical immigrant family faces, ¡°¡¦how the other half lives,¡± Upton Sinclair exclaimed. In this novel, a family of nine, like the million others, came from their homeland to take a stab at prosperity in the states in vain.
For this reason, Sinclair wanted society to feel a little remorse for the hundreds of immigrants dying for the progress of this country. His style of writing is very powerful and is a very enduring read, evoking pity and sympathy into the readers¡¯ hearts. Sinclair¡¯s descriptive and sanguinary writing lets the reader take a peak into the factories, showing us what wasn't supposed to be seen. Upton Sinclair gave social economic change an initial push. After reading Sinclair¡¯s book, President Teddy Roosevelt issued the Pure Food Act and labors were given a sanitary work environment.
In contrary with our history books, Sinclair focused on only one, out of a million, family¡¯s struggle to exist in this merciless society. In history class I¡¯ve leaned about these immigrants¡¯ struggles, but when I read this book, I realized that textbooks only touched the surface of the strife and obstacles the limited immigrants went through. I do recommend this book because I have enjoyed it immensely myself.
Rating: 4
Summary: important book in american history
Comment: This book is a very interesting look at the life of the immigrants in the early 1900's. This book had a huge a impact on society and is considered one the most influenial books in American history. It gives very detailed accounts of the stockyards, slums, unions and general city life for the poor of Chicago. I do not feel that Sinclair is a particularly great writer in the sense that his writing isn't very poetic and the characters' run into almost too much bad luck to seem realistic, but the book is very informative. By the end Sinclair writes a bunch of socialist propaganda, trumping it as the only hope for the common man due to the oppressions of capitalism. The book had more impact on factory life and food than on the politics of America. This is definitely a must read for anyone interested in American History or politics or labor or socialism or overthrowing capitalism.
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Title: The Jungle (Cliffs Notes) by Richard P. Wasowski ISBN: 0764586750 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Alfred Kazin ISBN: 0553212184 Publisher: Bantam Classics Pub. Date: 01 January, 1983 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck Centennial Edition (1902-2002) by John Steinbeck ISBN: 0142000663 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne ISBN: 0553210092 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1981 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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