The Jungle of Capitalist America

The Jungle of Capitalist America

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a story that deals with labor abuse in the meat packing district of Chicago. A, poor immigrant, family seeking to achieve the American dream only brushes into the realities of what it takes to be truly free. Labor laws that exist now is a direct response to creating legal rights and laws to protect the wage laborers in the industrial job market. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle in order to illustrate the exploitation of wage laborers. The evil capitalist of America oppressed immigrants and in turn created sociological abnormal conditions at the work place. One must look further to see how American capitalism affects wage laborers.

Welcome to the meat packing city of Chicago where survival of the fittest is a prerequisite for survival. During the 1900's, the industrial job market was the perfect place to earn a wage. Jurgis Rudkus was a hard work man that remained loyal to his family. One can only imagine the pain he had to endure during an era where the Jim Crow laws were in effect. According to the Jim Crow laws blacks and whites would be segregated. Such law was another tool used by American capitalist low income wage earners in the industrial job market.

Low income wage earners in the meat packing manufacturing plants where immigrants. In the Jungle immigrant, workers are no different from the animals in the slaughter house. The only difference between animals in a meatpacking warehouse is that there abuse ends with death. The abuse inflicted on a migrant worker causes a pain that must be endured until one either quits or dies. In the Jungle Mr. Rudkus trouble begins the moment he decided to work in the meatpacking industries. Carefully observing the scene he was able to witness firsthand American capitalism.

The advancement of Capitalism during the progressive era was crucial. Democracy was blinded by capitalism media that was unfair. In an online book review, one person wrote: "With the ostensible voice of the public in the hands of the editors and news writers of the capitalist press, Sinclair saw that he and the movements for social justice could never expect a fair deal." (McChesney). Clearly Upton Sinclair's goal was to write The Jungle in an attempt to win the attention of American democracy, so that immigrant workers can get a fair deal. It is sad to see how the media sometimes blinds the truth due to politics or capitalism.

An individual position can be measured by his capital gains. In the progressive era, the ones with the most capital gain where the puppeteers that control agricultural industries. In the mist of capitalist greed, there was no attention paid to labor conditions. The Jungle describes various scenarios in which workers would often get physically hurt. Work place injuries are a serious matter that diminishes productivity. According to The Jungle, wage earners where