The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

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The JungleBy Upton Sinclair

• Power Point By Jessica P

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Upton Sinclair

• He was born September 20, 1878 in Baltimore MD
  and died November 25, 1968 in a nursing home in
  NJ when he was 90 years old.
• Wrote about 90 works including
• The Jungle (1906)
• The Lanny Bud Series, which was comprised of 11
  books (1940-1953)
• Sylvia(1913)
• The Spy (1920)
• The Wet Parade (1931)
• Time magazine called him a man with every gift
  except humor and silence.
• In 1904 he spent 7 weeks in disguise, working
  undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants doing
  research

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Major Characters

• Jurgis- the main character, young, strong, and
  family devoted. Has a few spouts that go against
  his beliefs and is married to Ona.
• Ona- married to Jurgis and is young and
  beautiful. She is the opposite of Jurgis, fragile
  and weak minded and very feminine. She dies while
  giving birth to their second child at the age of
  18.
• Antanas- The son of Jurgis and Ona. He keeps
  Jurgis alive through a tough part in their lives
  by giving him something to live for. He then dies
  about a month after his mother by drowning in the
  street.
• Jack Duane- a man that Jurgis met while in prison
  and got Jurgis into crime and politics
• Phil Connor- The boss at Onas first job and the
  man that rapes Ona, and sends Jurgis to jail for
  the first and third time.
• Teta Elizabieta- Onas step mother that travels to
  America with the family. She has six living
  children that she brings with her and keeps the
  family together. She is the matriarch
• Marija- A cousin of Onas that eventually comes to
  work in a whore house and tries to help Jurgis
  back to his feet after he returns to Chicago.

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Literary Elements

• Theme the immigrant experience and the pursuit
  of the American dream
• Tone The working class deserves more and the
  oppressing bosses are in the wrong
• Period written in early 1900s (1905-1906)
• Language English

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Setting

• Time early 1900s (1906)
• Place Packingtown, the meat packing section of
  Chicago. Then moves to the countryside outside of
  Chicago then back to Packingtown.

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The Story.

• Onas family decides to move to America after
  the death of her father. Jurgis and his father,
  Dede Antanas come along because Jurgis loves Ona.
  Once in America, Ona and Jurgis get married and
  search for work. Jurigs got a job working in the
  killing beds and Marija got a job too as well as
  Jonas who is Marijas brother. The family signs an
  agreement to buy a house and uses all of their
  money from their savings to pay the down payment.
  They then find out about all of the hidden costs
  within the lease and realize that Ona and two of
  the children will have to get jobs too. Dede
  Antanas finds a job a short while later working
  in a pickling room but it kills him quickly. The
  seasons change and its now winter, which in
  their poorly built, but expensive, house they are
  freezing. Marijas factory that she works in
  closes down and she is forced into a depression.

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• Jurgis was worried about the well being of
  his family so he joined a union. While in the
  union he started to learn some of the politics of
  Packingtown and all the corruption in it. He
  decided to learn English because he wanted to
  understand more of what is being said and
  believes it will help him in the working world.
  Marijas factory opens back up but she is quickly
  fired because she complained about the pay. Ona
  becomes pregnant and with good timing because
  Miss Henderson, Onas boss, controls a
  prostitution ring and wanted her to join. Once
  the baby boy is born they named him Antanas after
  Jurgis father and Ona must return to work a week
  later. Jurgis gets hurt on the job right after
  Antanas was born and is bed ridden for 3 months
  during which time he was replaced at work. Jonas
  abandons the family in this time although some
  believe he was killed while at work. Jurgis heals
  after his accident but the factory would not give
  his job back to him and after a long search gets
  a job in the fertilizer mill the worst place to
  work in Packingtown.

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• Ona becomes pregnant again and was raped by
  Phil Connor. When Jurgis finds out he beats
  Connor almost to death. Jurgis is arrested and
  sent to jail for a month. He makes a friend in
  prison named Jack Duane who knows all about the
  corruption and politics in Packingtown. When
  Jurgis gets out of prison he goes back to his
  home to find that his family was evicted and is
  renting a room in a very run down boarding house.
  When he gets to the boarding house he finds Ona
  in labor, 2 months premature, and leaves to find
  a doctor. When he returns, Ona is barely alive
  and dies in his arms, the unborn baby dies too.
  He goes on a drinking binge and then gets a job
  to support his son. He is doing well until one
  day he returns home to find the family crying and
  Antanas dead. Jurgis abandons the family and
  wanders into the countryside and lives off of his
  last 15 for the remainder of the season. Winter
  comes around again and he was forced to return to
  Chicago for shelter. He got another job, but
  again was hurt on the job and put into the
  hospital like before they wouldnt give him his
  job back and Jurgis becomes a beggar.

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• One night a wealthy man walks by and brings
  Jurgis home with him. He gives him a good meal
  and a 100 bill. Jurgis goes to a bartender who
  cheats him and only gives him 95 cents back as
  change for a 5 cent drink. He goes to jail again
  for fighting the bartender and meets Jack Duane
  in jail for a second time. They both get out at
  about the same time and Jack introduces Jurgis to
  the life of crime and politics. While on a binge
  one night Jurgis again sees Phil Connor and beats
  him. He goes to jail and when he gets out runs
  into an old family friend who tells him where to
  find Marija. Marija is working in a whorehouse
  and is addicted to morphine. One night Jurgis
  wanders into a socialist rally and believes what
  the orator is preaching. Jurgis joins the
  socialist party and gets a job at hotel as a
  porter. He is then reunited with Teta Elzbieta
  and the remaining children. He attends another
  socialist rally and the orator ends by saying if
  more people convert to socialism, the speaker
  declares, then Chicago will be ours!

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My Thoughts

• It was a good book and I would recommend it to
  other people. The book was a bit graphic about
  how things were being done in the meat factories
  but it was necessary to show the hardships and
  the terrible working conditions that the
  immigrants had to deal with.
• P.S. The Jungle hit the national public so hard
  that it inspired the Pure Food And Drug Act of
  1906