The American Dream - The Jungle Essay

The American Dream in The Jungle by Sinclair Upton

The phrase “American Dream” meant the same thing when Sinclair Upton penned Jungle as it does today. It meant having a family, a home of one’s own, and making an honest living by working diligently. The American ideal gave the people of America and their neighbors hope that anything was possible in this country. It was the free and brave country. In America, males were given equal rights. Anyone can succeed here if they put in the necessary effort and pursue their goals, regardless of where they are from, their ethnicity, or their gender. However as Jurgis, the main character in the book, would soon find out, this was all fallacy. It was just a distant mirage that poor immigrants died following, never to reach it. This paper looks at the meaning of the term ’American Dream’ according to the Jungle by Sinclair and the various people who ruined it for Jurgis and his family.

The Illusion of the American Dream

When Jurgis and his family first moved To America, they had all kind of hopes and dreams. Jurgis thought that this was the place where all their dreams were going to come true. The plan was to get a good job, educate his children, buy a house and live happily ever after. However, this was not to pass. Instead, Jurgis learnt the hard way that America was not anything like what he had heard off. It was not the land of the free. All men were not equal. Far from it. There were some people like rich businessmen and politicians who could do whatever they want and get away with it. They did not care for anyone or anything but making profits. They were willing to sacrifice the health and safety of their workers for a dollar.

The Exploitation of Laborers

Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant, and his family settled in Chicago in the twentieth century. He got his first job working at the killing floor in Durham’s packing plant. He was very excited at first oblivious of the workload and working conditions that awaited him. When he reported oto work, he was greeted by a dirty and unsafe working environment. The supervisors were very insensitive. They made them work long hours with no rests. They forced and demanded them to execute machine-like routines with perfect precision. Those who protested were quickly replaced. There was always a huge number of people waiting for an opportunity to work at the floor for even lower wages. This enabled the bosses to exploit them. Jurgis’ salary was a mere one dollar and a few cents per month. Moreover, the killing floor was always full of blood sometimes rising up to a feet high. The whole place was always smelly. The wastes were also carelessly dumped and they formed a breeding place for diseases causing organisms and pests. Tuberculosis was the number one killer in those areas. There were also numerous injuries at the floor. Jurgis himself once sprained his uncle and found himself unemployed. The organization did not take any responsibilities for any form of injuries sustained by laborers while working. Instead, the company lawyers took the first opportunity they had to trick the injured into poor settlements. For example, in the book, the author talks of a worker who had been crushed by an elevator while going about his duties. Before he died, the company lawyers came and tricked him into signing away his claims for a mere twenty-five dollars. Since Jurgis could not work while he was injured, his children were forced to leave school and find jobs so that they could help in taking care of the family.

The Deceptive Real Estate Deal

Immediately after moving to Chicago, Jurgis and his family had bought a house. When Jurgis was at work, the women in his life had gone out to check out a house they were interested in. They first saw the house on an advertisement flier. Sinclair describes the flier as quite a work of art. It was printed on a calendar paper that stretched two feet long. It was decorated with a mixture of so many colors, which according to Sinclair, were too bright that they shone even in the moonlight. At the center of the flier was the house, brilliantly painted. It looked new and dazzling with a purple roof. The house was then trimmed in gold. The door and windows were red in color. It was generally beautiful to look at. On the flier was a statement written in three languages; German, Lithuanian, and Polish. It was meant to persuade anyone that it was better to buy your own house than pay rent. According to the flier, the reader could buy a house for less than the rent they were paying. The real estate company, through the flier, informed the reader that they had built thousands of homes that were now occupied by happy families. This persuaded Jurgis and his family to buy it. The company gave them a good financing deal where they were allowed to occupy the house after paying a down payment of three hundred dollars. The remaining amount was to be paid in monthly installments of only twelve dollars.

It was not until they occupied the house that they noticed that it wasn’t new. It had just been repainted and sold to them. They had also not been told about the high interest and tax rates that they were required to pay. On page seventy-seven on the book, Jurgis reflects on the trouble that they had gone through to live in that house. He says that the three hundred dollars they had used to pay the down payment was all that they had. In fact, he says that it was all that stood between them and utter starvation. He also recalled the extra effort they had put just to raise the monthly twelve dollars rent. He reflected on the numerous repairs they had done on the house and painfully regretted buying it in the first place. When they could not pay the high interest and taxes, they were kicked out of the house. Once again they found themselves homeless. They had lived the dream for a short while and then lost it. All because of sale agents who intentionally did not disclose all the other hidden charges that came with owning a house. This marked the beginning of the end of Jurgis family. From there onwards, misfortune followed Jurgis consistently. He ended up in jail and Ona passed on during childbirth. Her death symbolized the death of the family’s hopes and dreams.

The Corrupt Justice System

In the book, Jurgis also comes face to face with the corrupt justice system that was being administered at the time. This was before Ona died. At one point, her boss raped her and threatened to fire her whole family if she did not comply. When Jurgis learnt of it, he went and punched him and ended up in jail. When he was arraigned in court, he was incarcerated without any defense. It was then that he realized that the rich businessmen, politicians, and judges were in cahoots to deny the poor justice. The judges danced to the tune of the highest bidder. This marked a turning point in Jurgis’ life.

The Fallacy of the American Dream

In conclusion, Jurgis and his family moved to America in pursuit of the American dream. They hoped to get employment, work hard, buy a house, and live happily ever after. Instead, they got poor wages, poor working conditions, and oppression from the business owners. He also finds corruption and denial of justice. He learns that he can make a lot of money through corruption and bribery than through hard work. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that the American Dream is a huge lie, a fallacy of thinking, and a fantasy.

Bibliography

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Dover Publications, 2001.

“American Dream” The Jungle. https://sites.google.com/site/14mcallahan/american-dream (Accessed Nov 28 2017)