The Jungle Essay Research Paper The JungleUpton

The Jungle Essay, Research Paper The Jungle Upton Sinclair s novel The Jungle was a great influence over the countries decision to take notice into the food safety administration. Sinclair used a brilliant picture of the 1900 s. A somewhat frightful perception is used for the meat packing industry, political corruption, and fraud. The Jungle was one of the most discussed novels of the early twentieth century. The Jungle opens with the wedding of a mighty shouldered, giant handed, individual by the name Jurgis Rudkus and his wife a mere child, Ona Lukoszaite. Ona s cousin Marija Berczynska, an orphan, who is a young woman of immense energy and a seemingly powerful body, along with Elzbieta Lukoszaite, Ona s stepmother, took care of the, veselija, or wedding feast. Marija paid

a trio of fiddlers to play at the wedding reception. Tamoszius Kuszleika, an amateur violinist who eventually falls in love with Marija, led the trio of fiddlers. The trio played songs requested by the guests and they also serenade the bride. The main event of the evening, the acziavimas, is an event where each man dances with the bride and gives a gift of money to help pay for the feast. The older people meet the requests but the younger people however were not donating. Ona becomes sick with worry the expenses would not be met. The expenses were from the renting of the church, musicians, and the purchase of beer. While people continue to dance, Ona and Jurgis eventually leave, knowing they must go to work in the morning. The next scene is a flashback of Jurgis s life in

Lithuania and his meeting of Ona. Jurgis had little hope of marrying Ona because of her families wealth, but Ona s father dies and the family does not have much to support them. The family decides to move to Chicago when they had word the one of Jonas friends had moved there and had gotten rich. Once they arrived they met Jonas s friend, who operates a delicatessen. He found them a dirty four-room apartment to stay in. Jurgis easily got a job at Brown s, a meat packing industry, with his size and strength. He was standing in a crowd waiting to be picked to receive one of the job openings. His size stood out in the crowd. They gave him the job of cutting the carcass open and tearing out the meat or basically just shoveling guts. Jurgis is satisfied with his new job. The family

decides they have saved enough money to try to buy a house. Jurgis did not get to go look at the new house because of work. The women of the family along with Jokubus went to look the house over. Elzbieta goes through with the sale, this angers Jurgis and he goes to talk to a lawyer himself. They later learn the house is not new, but five families had lived their before. Jurgis became optimistic with his job. Jurgis learned of what was in the meat that they packed. As long as the owners were making money they did not care how contaminated the meat was. The meat was contaminated with everything from rats and insects to human parts. This was of no concern to Jurgis because he had a family to care for. One day the steer broke loose and everyone was running for their life to get out

of the way. Jurgis jumped out of the way and landed badly on his ankle. He had a sharp pain, but he continued to work. When the workday was over he went to see a doctor where he found out he had pulled a tendon and would be out of work for three months. When his ankle was finally healed he returned to work at Brown s to find out his job had been taken. After looking for a job he had to turn to his last option and accept a job at Durhan s Fertilizer Plant. During his hired time at this job he learns of some of the corruption of the great country. Ona had not been coming home every night. Her excuse was that she just could not make it home. He did not believe her. He eventually found out that she had been at her boss s house pleasing him in order to keep her job. Jurgis was