The Jungle Paper

The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair was a very touching and motivating story. Sinclair aimed for our hearts, but instead, he hit our stomachs. The Jungle is a story of hardships and trouble, some successes and many failures as a family tries to achieve the “American Dream.” In this book, “The Jurgis Ruckus’ myth of failure is the other side of the Horatio Alger’s myth of success.” (xxvi)

Although this book was written about the hardships of a family, it was not just a story for one to read and feel sympathy for the family, but it had many “real-life” reasons behind the events that went on and happened. Sinclair wanted to open the eyes of people and make them aware of what was going on, and ultimately, wanted to start a revolution to change the political system from capitalism to socialism.

The time period was about 1905-06. Immigrants, such as Jurgis and his family, came over to America in hopes of creating a new life and to live out the “American Dream.” Little did they know what they were up against, and just how hard this “American Dream” life was. Families came to find new lives, decent jobs, save up money, live in a great house, have food on the table and yet, many things hindered them from that. According to Horatio Alger the “America Dream” was a dream of going from rags to riches. One could only achieve it with lots of hard work and motivation and self determination, and in the end, Alger’s theory of the “American Dream” is proved to be wrong, as shown in many ways.

The life of Jurgis and his family shows in many ways how much of a struggle it was to fulfill the “American Dream.” There were many, many immigrant families that flocked over to America, and the first thing they did was try and find jobs; only, it was not as easy as it seemed, and when one finally did find a job, the working conditions were way over bearing and lead people to work themselves to death at times.

(Jurgis looking for a job) “He stood in the doorway, looking mournfully on, seeing