Honors Blog
The Jungle

The Jungle is a book by Upton Sinclair which tells a story about immigrants from Lithuania trying to survive in a capitalist society. Throughout the book many literary techniques are used to make the reader feel an emotion to make the book all the more powerful. Since there are so many I decided to focus on three literary devices that stood out to me that made the book all the more better. The author uses character, conflict, and foreshadowing to develop the theme that a capitalist society is an extremely difficult place to live in if you are part of the lower class. The first theme I found to be very important is character. Without characters in the story there would be no plot and no storyline, it is the characters where the story is based upon. Another aspect important to character is the characteristics of the character. When conflict arises it is important to know how the character's personality is in the first place so you can predict how the character will react to the conflict. An important character I found was Jurgis Rudkus. His personality in the beginning of the book is seen to an optimistic person who lives to make his family happy. In the end of chapter one it tells of how Jurgis is willing to work harder for more money rather then seeing his wife go to work. The exact text states:

"'No! No! I dare not! It will ruin us!' But he answers her again: 'Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money-I will work harder.'"

With his optimism and his drive to make his family happy Jurgis runs into conflicts throughout the book which changes his characteristics. When Jurgis runs into the conflict of spraining his ankle and not being able to go to work or get help you can see how his characteristic turns from happy and optimistic to more bitter and angry. In chapter twelve it states

"till Jurgis flew into a passion of nervous rage and swore like a madman, declaring that he would kill him if he did not stop."

Character and characteristics are important in a story but what makes the book interesting is conflict in the book. In "The Jungle" there is many conflicts much due with working conditions. An example would be with Ona. In chapter ten Ona has a baby and only a week after having him she already has to return back to work due to living conditions. Because of this Ona suffered.

"And so Ona went back to Brown's and saved her place and a week's wages; and so she gave herself some one of the thousand ailments that women group under the tiltes of "womb-trouble", and was never again a well person as long as she lived."

This also caused conflict for Ona because once this happend she satrted taking different medications. Foreshadowing is a important literary device used in the book. Events in the beginning of the book turn sour later on as you continue to read the story which makes the reader feel an emotion of remorse for the family struggling to live. One event that is foreshadowing that stood out to me was when the family buys a house but later finds that it may have been a bad move. In chapter six it states

"Cheap as the houses were, they were sold with the idea that the people who bought them would not be able to pay for them. When they failed-if it were only by a single month- they would lose the house and all that they had paid on it and then the company would sell it over again."

Later on in the book this event foreshadows and shows the effect of the living conditions that change within the family members. It states chapter fourteen

"They had played the game and lost. Six years more of toil they had to face before the could expect the least respite, the cessations of the payments upon the house; and how cruelly certain it was that they could never stand six years of such a life they were living!"

The foreshadowing event makes the family so that they have to keep working so that they can pay the rent. If they miss rent they would be evicted causing them not to be homeless.
I feel that Upton Sinclair did a great job using literary techniques to establish a theme. Not only was it used to establish a theme but it was also used to provoke feeling. When reading The Jungle you can't help but feel sorry for the family trying to survive in a capitalist society. I highly recommend this book because I feel it provides an example of how it used to be in earlier US history.