Classic Review - The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is a book written by Upton Sinclair in 1906.

It is an excellent book that I would recommend reading if you love classics! If you are not partial to really sad stories or political messages then you can pass it up for a different classic, however I feel like it is worth the read.

The Jungle was written originally in order to try to further the idea of Socialism in America but instead lead to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. I had wanted to read the book just on the basis that it helped create the FDA!

If you are interested in reading the effects that the Jungle had on this country, be sure to read the
Wikipedia entry.

Scott, if you are reading this, the spoiler is about to start. So even though I finished before you, keep reading!

To all other readers: if you are interested in reading The Jungle do not read the rest of the post. Please enjoy the novel first and then come back to this.

If you find yourself without a copy, feel free to download it for reading from Project Gutenberg.

**** SPOILER ****

The first part of this book is the saddest piece of fiction that I've ever read. In the beginning we meet Jurgis and Ona, a Lithuanian couple who have just immigrated from Lithuania with their family and a few close friends. They arrive in Chicago looking for jobs and head towards "Packingtown".

Why is the book so sad?

Well, to run down a quick list:

Antanas, a grandfather gets a job in a packing plant where he has to stand in blood up to his ankles. His foot gets an infection and he loses his job and gets sick. While he sick he only gets worse and eventually dies.

Ona has a baby and that is fine but when she has her 2nd baby, the 2nd baby tries to come at the end of her 2nd trimester and she ends up dying and so does the baby.

Jurgis' first child is out playing in front of his house on the sidewalk, when the wooden sidewalk gives way. The boy falls into water and drowns.

The family gets a house that they are told is new. It is not. They are also told one payment of $7 per month for rent however they do not understand this is only interest and doesn't include taxes or any other fees associated with the house. There is a constant struggle to keep jobs in order to pay for this after their agreement so that they do not loose the house. However even after sending out three children under 12 years old into Chicago to sell newspapers in order to contribute to the family fund they still loose the house.

How do they loose the house? Jurgis finds out that Ona is being "taken advantage of" by an Irish boss named Connor. He goes and finds Connor and attacks him in a Packingtown Plant. It looks as if he has attacked him unprovoked. As Connor has some ties with corrupt politicians and judges, Jurgis is sent to jail.

Jurgis goes to jail another time and is eventually swindled out of his entire savings.

All of those sad things happen not necessarilly in the order that I gave them, but they do all happen. There seems to be a stream of worsening conditions of sadness through the first part of the book.

The book though can ultimately be broken into three separate sections: family, solitude, and socialism.

The first third/half of the book is Ona, Jurgis, and family trying to make an honest living. They do make a great effort at it but the system is set against them based on their honesty.

The second part of the book is after Ona and both babies die. Jurgis becomes a tramp and also decides to become a criminal. He has lost all ties that would keep him an honest moral man. He abandons his former life in order to survive and with crimes to then thrive.

The final part of the book is about Socialism. He suffers the loss of all of his savings by being swindled by another crook. Jurgis had attacked Connor again in a drunken rage and although he could have avoided jail with a much lower amount than $300, he is in such a panic that he is lead to believe that this is the amount that will allow him to avoid jail.

Without money he finds a hall where there are speeches about Socialism and after a few nights he finally decides to listen. When he finally hears what the man on the stage is talking about he starts to buy into the "wage slavery" that the man is trying to fight. We find that Jurgis becomes a convert to Socialism and gets lucky in finding a job and board in a hotel.

**** End of SPOILER ****

I found 2/3 of the book to be very satisfying and the last 1/3 to be bland and more of a political statement (of which really was the reason that Upton Sinclair wrote the book). Overall I believe it was a really good novel, but longer than it needed to be.

There is an excellent article I encourage you to read on Slate by Karen Olsson titled Welcome to the Jungle. Does Upton Sinclair's Famous Novel Hold Up?.

If you have read it, what did you think?

If you have decided to skip it, why?

I'd like to hear your thoughts and comments about it.