The Nymph Vs The Shepard Essay Research

The Nymph Vs. The Shepard Essay, Research Paper Capitalism: It’s a Jungle out there The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, is a disturbing tail about the darker side of America. In this book the reader is introduced to several characters from Lithuania who have dreams of rising from the depths of poverty, using the American dream to attain a life full of freedom, finical security, hope and happiness. Instead these characters are bombarded with slavery, manipulation, depression and hard realizations about “true American society”. These realizations lead one of the characters to Socialism, a system Sinclair seems to find more agreeable than capitalism. In the first chapter of this book the reader is introduced to Jurgis, a hard working, limited minded young man who is

about to wed a young lady named Ona. Jurgis’ big day is one of the only glimpses of hope that the reader sees in this book. It is the only time when the future of these people looks decent in any shape or form. The guests are dancing and the band plays while others drink themselves into a stupor. The general mood is one of contentment. However, even in this scene Upton Sinclair slowly begins to integrate the Lithuanian group into America’s harsh society. Teta Elzbieta noted this phenomenon while at the wedding: “A trouble was come upon them. The Veselija is a compact, a compact not expressed, but therefore only the more binding upon all. Every one’s share was different-and yet every one knew perfectly well what his share was, and strove to give a little more. Now,

however, since they had come to the new country, all this was changing; it seemed as if there must be some subtle poison in the air that one breathed here- it was affecting all the young men at once. They would come in crowds and fill themselves with a fine dinner, and then sneak off. One would throw another’s hat out of the window, and both would go out to get it and neither could be seen again. Or now and then half a dozen of them would get together and march out openly, staring at you and making fun of you to your face. Still others, worse yet, would crowd about the bar, and at the expense of the host drink themselves sodden, paying not the least attention to any one, and leaving it to be thought that either they had danced with the bride already, or meant to later on.” On

the whole, however, the wedding gave new hope for the future. Hope that Lithuanian traditions could survive in America and hope that diligence and hard work would allow this family to survive and prosper. Jurgis tells us this with his very attitude. He is ready to take on America because he believes that hard work is the only thing that matters in a capitalistic society. “Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money- I will work harder.” In the third chapter of the Jungle we are introduced to a meat packing plant where pigs are being slaughtered so that they can be turned into meat. In this portion of the book the description of the pigs are given human qualities and it seems very obvious that the reader is suppose to draw some form of symbolism from these

humanistic hogs: “One could not stand and watch very long without becoming philosophical, without beginning to deal in symbols and similes, and to hear the hog squeal of the universe. Was it permitted to believe that there was nowhere upon the earth, or above the earth, a heaven for hogs, where they were requited for all this suffering? Each one of these hogs was a separate creature. Some were white hogs, some were black; some were brown, some were spotted; some were old, some young; some were long and lean, some were monstrous. And each of them had an individuality of his own, a will of his own, a hope and a heart’s desire; each was full of self- confidence, of self importance, and a sense of dignity. And trusting and strong in faith he had gone about his business, the while