The Jungle

When most people think of The Jungle, they first say "oh, isn't that the book about the meat packing industry?" And that is if they know the book at all. While the first third of the book is a graphic look of the meat packing district as it was in the turn of the 20th century, the book deals with more issues than just the poor working conditions and severe health code violations that were rampant in the business.

On it's surface, the novel is about Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant who comes over with his fiancé, her step-mother, cousin and numerous half brothers and sisters. It chronicles their life, struggling to survive, keeping jobs, falling prey to con man and other issues that continue to arise. However, the family saga is just a back drop to the main story of real life corruption, poor working conditions, the plight of the immigrant families and the lack of safety nets. The author, Upton Sinclair, was in real life a Socialist, who went undercover for a Socialist newspaper in Chicago and actually worked in a meat packing factory for seven weeks to write this novel. It was a serialized piece, and didn't appear in novel form until later. Sinclair uses this story of the poor immigrant family to expose what was happening in these industries that the American public had no idea what was happening or how their meat was brought to the table. 

The opening of the novel begins with Jurgis and Ona's wedding feast. The wedding feast, back in the old country, is supposed to be a time for celebration. However, in this new American life, it is a constant source of worry and stress for our protagonist family. The wedding feast is an expensive one, but it is a tradition that Jurgis and Ona's step mother, Elzbieta, refuses to abandon. If they abandoned it "to do that would, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going"(pg. 7). Everyone attending the feast is poor, and everyone is expected to pay for themselves. This is called the veselija. A hat is passed around and the guests throw in what they can. Jurgis and Ona are depending on this money to pay the vendors and on a surplus to get them through. However, when they have passed the collections, they find there is not even enough money to cover the wedding costs. It is observed that people come in from the street where the eat and drink and leave before leaving any money. Elzbieta says it will ruin them, but typical Jurgis says "I will work harder".
Jurgis always says that he will "work harder" every time that a financial hardship arises. Unfortunately, Jurgis hasn't figured out that the system is working against him,  his family, and all of the workers. There is no social safety net, health benefits, or vacation time given. If you missed a day of work, not only were you unpaid, but you were at risk of losing your job. There were so many unemployed, that even if you were a good, hard worker, the company would not hesitate to find someone to replace you. They need bodies and if someone could perform the work marginally well, you were out of job. Now, if the boss liked you enough and disliked your replacement enough, you may be lucky enough to get your job back, at the expense of the person who replaced you. This was a vicious cycle, but everyone in the packing industry abided by it. You did not want to be the unlucky soul who got sick, hurt themselves on the production lines, or even worse, get black listed.
As you might have imagined, all of these happen to our immigrant family. As I have previously stated, Sinclair uses this family to rail against the work conditions, lack of the social safety net and lack of morals among the industry. Sinclair throws everything against this family. Could they really be that unlucky? This is where I think the story fails. If Sinclair wanted to write this investigative piece, he could have done that either using real names and people or actually make us care about these characters. Throughout the evolution of this "novel" (a term that I use loosely), my disdain for Jurgis grows. As much as I want to feel for him and his family, Sinclair makes me turn against them because to get more of the investigational journalism into the story, he makes these improbable events happen to Jurgis all the time. Then, to top it all off, he decides that Jurgis sees the light and socialism is the answer. He leaves a bunch of story lines open. I had a hard time concentrating at the end because it became less about the family and more about the savior that is the Socialist movement.
Overall, I think the novel is worth a read because it is an eye opener about what was really going on with our food and these immigrant workers. It shows the rise of the union and why they were such an important part of the labor movement. I just think that Sinclair's passion for Socialism and the need to expose every part of the industry and political corruption in one book to one family really muddles the novel. I give it three out of five stars.

Another book has been checked off the 1001 list. I am currently over 100 books from about 1290ish, so I have plenty of reading to do. My next book is The Nanny Diaries for my book club, which I am already half way done with so I am going to need to find my next 1001 book. I have the Forsyte Saga, but I am not sure if I want to tackle a long read this late in the year when I still have another 13 books to read towards my goal of 35 books read in 2014. I have so much going on and so little time. Any suggestions for my next read would be awesome! Just refer to the 1001 list and tell me what you think I should pick up next. If you say Charles Dickens, go home.

I am so glad to be writing in my blog again. I will definitely keep it up this time around (I did say this before). I promise!

Until next time,
Happy Reading