The Jungle Essay

The Jungle

Imagine a Darwin-esque world where ultra-competitiveness and amorality reign supreme. A world where the adage ‘survival of the fittest’ is no longer just a metaphor, but a chilling reality; where a person might literally perish if they are not able to find work, beg, or fight their way to shelter.   This was a very real place for thousands of people at the turn of the last century, exemplified best in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.   Jurgis Rudkus, Ona, and their family of ten more emigrate from Lithuania to Chicago in search of the American Dream.   Unfortunately, they get swept up in the all-encompassing packing machine that is Packingtown only to have everything they’ve ever hoped for crushed. Their fate was that of countless other immigrants, who were cast away in the shadows by society and government.   Big business corrupted big government which in turn made American society ignorant, leading to individual life being taken for granted.
In the first place, big business was the core of the corruption.   The corruption was largely facilitated by trusts, more specifically the Beef Trust.   Trusts were created by monstrous companies to monopolize industries. Although it appeared that several packing companies existed they were all under one trust that set both prices and wages, allowing for the manipulation of the worker and consumer.   The packers’ opportunity for corruption was aided by an extreme surplus of unskilled laborers, which permitted slaughterhouses to treat their workers with reckless abandon.   If one was to wear down, grow old, get hurt, or even die he was just as replaceable as every hog that was killed there; they would use everything but the squeal from both hog and man.   Twice Jurgis looses his job due to injury, and is not compensated in the least.   Dede Antanas is literally worked to death in the basement pickling room of Durham’s, a job which he was only able to obtain by giving a boss 1/3 of his wages.   Aside from paying and treating...