The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 1906: I am definitely feeling better about my own life

I'm reading this novel on my boyfriend's Ipad* and am about 1/4 of the way through. The opening scene of the novel is a long description of a Lithuanian immigrant wedding celebration. I was intrigued by the imagery of these obviously poor and over worked people and their complete joy of celebrating as they would have in the old country. Without knowing much about these people I felt a bit like an intruder witnessing the personal emotions of these strangers. This lack of knowledge about our characters creates the feeling that what I was witnessing was a common, universal experience amongst immigrants in the early 20^th century. I think that was Sinclair's reasoning for beginning his story this way. He wanted to show that the tale he was about to tell wasn't unique. It was just the way life was for those that found themselves looking for work in the Packing Industry in Chicago. The book continues on by going back before the wedding to tell how our new Lithuanian friends came to the United States. Jurgis, one of the main characters is my kind of guy. He is large, strong, confident and determined to make a better life for his sweetheart Ona.

There is a way too long and waaaaaay too graphic scene describing the disgusting and disturbing journey that pigs travel in order to become breakfast meat (among other things). Knowing that the reader's stomach is churning, Sinclair follows this up with the same story, but with cows. Nothing was left to the imagination of the reader. Not blood, entrails, hooks, knives nor bacteria are excluded from this lengthy encounter with the dark and dirty early 1900's meat packing industry. Peta should (if they haven't already) borrow a few passages to tout their propaganda. The hardships continue, the hope filled dreams of the young sweethearts remain dangling on the edge of tragedy and there are still nearly 300 pages left. It doesn't look good for our friends.

The reason I chose to read this book was because of an allusion to it in another book I am reading, Margaret Sanger's autobiography. She had mentioned that light was beginning to be shed on the wretchedness that defined the lives of laborers because of publications such as The Jungle. I wanted to get to know that time period a little better in order to better understand Sanger and her and her early Socialist views. I have noticed several passages that promote Margaret Sanger's main cause, which is birth control for the betterment of women and families:

"These bare places were grown up with dingy, yellow weeds, hiding innumerable tomato cans; innumerable children played upon them, chasing one another here and there, screaming and fighting. The most uncanny thing about this neighborhood was the number of children; you thought there must be a school just out, and it was only after long acquaintance that you were able to realize that there was no school, but that these were the children of the neighborhood—that there were so many children to the block in Packingtown that nowhere on its street could a horse and buggy move faster than a walk!" (p. 38-39).

"The German family had been a good sort. To be sure there was a great many of them, which was a common failing in Packingtown… Then there had been the Irish, and there had been lots of them, too; the husband drank and beat the children—the neighbors could hear them shrieking any night." (p. 93).

"the children would sleep all crowded into one bed, and yet even so they could not keep warm. The outside ones would be shivering and sobbing, crawling over the others and trying to get down into the center, and causing a fight." (p. 114).

One of Sanger's main ideas was that reducing the size of the family reduces the burden on the family. The language used promotes this idea that more children cause more poverty and more hard ship on families. Being able to choose when and if you want to have another baby was a luxury not available to women at that time. They could expect to be pregnant over and over as long as they were married with no way to stop the growth of their family. And with every new baby came the expense of another mouth to feed.

The Jungle reminds me a bit of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both novels use vivid imagery to shed light on institutions that needed to be questioned by society. Using fiction is a very powerful way to expose those parts of reality that only effect a marginalized group. By telling these stories readers become educated in the issues of their day; slavery in the case of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the mistreatment of laborers in The Jungle. These novels leave a strong taste of injustice in the mouth of the reader which helped lead to real social change.

*Page numbers are accurate when the Ipad is held vertically.