Book Reports / The Jungle Sinclair - paper based on the book [4]

Hi! I have to write a 6-7 page paper on if I think the book "the jungle" merits any criticism. I can't seem to expand on it further. I think it does merit criticism because the people, the animals and the racism involved was brought to light in the book but I can't seem to expand on it. HELP! PLEASE...

Publishers criticized sinclair's book and many didn't publish it due to the content, so the question asked is---Do you think there is any merit to this criticism? Sorry I misunderstood it. Surely I think publishers have a right but sinclair was only bringing out truths about reality. Now I can't expand further than this, HELP! Can you also help with grammer, this is what I've written so far. Thanks!

Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" is a novel created by a complex author and merits nothing less than respectable and noble admiration due to its vivid content and believable characters on their human suffering. It was a movement if you will, on the changes that needed to evolve sooner rather than later. It depicts a time in America that was without question horrifying for those that worked in Packingtown. Clearly there was injustice in that time directly impacting impoverished Lithuanian immigrant men, women and children. Many critics have disclosed their share of negative criticism and I believe it is simply due to the fact that they have utterly missed the point. Sinclair's "The Jungle" was the voice of the exploited working class and the novel exceeded his role as a socialist to bring forth the much needed change through his works of literature. I do not consider this novel to be in any way misleading, perhaps at times somewhat exaggerated but it depicts a time where reform was at the top of the agenda and eventually took its course of action thus leading us to The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Sinclair was so moved by his investigations of the meat packing industry that he willingly financed with his own money the publication of this novel. For that he deserves outstanding merit for his work.

While the characters are fictitious, these horrific acts of inhumanity did in fact occur to many immigrant workers in the meat packing industry. Many lost their lives due to the deplorable state of the factories and lack of safety standards that were not on anyone's agenda. "It seemed that he was working in the room where the men prepared the beef for canning, and the beef had lain in vats full of chemicals, and men with great forks speared it out and dumped it into trucks, to be taken to the canning- room. When they had speared out all they could reach, they emptied the vat on the floor, and then with shovels scraped up the balance and dumped it into the truck; this floor was filthy with manure tracked in from the streets, and with spit, and the accumulated dirt of years..." (p. 52). Despondently this was the callous realism that came with industrialization, capitalism and a system unwilling to lend mercy. The conditions of the environment in which workers are expected to perform their duties are beyond ones comprehension. Plainly put, they are horrifying. They undergo extremes in cold weather, heat exhaustion, overtiredness, and disease. Yet the people are appreciative to be employed because otherwise they will starve and die.

Furthermore, "The Jungle" is a moving novel that is hard to identify, unless you have been directly impacted by some form. It can heave on politically, however, it by and large allows the reader to step aside from all of this and see the great impact it caused. It changed our lives forever and is a great piece of American history. It helped bring about reform for the meat packing industry that would otherwise have continued killing people with the diseased meat that was processed there. While reading the book I often asked myself, why didn't anyone take action sooner? Capitalism was created and not parted at the expense of human beings that were treated just as the slaughter in "The Jungle" only slightly different.

The personal hardships along with economic struggles, the characters are exposed to, mainly Jurgis are with out any consideration and leaves no room for optimism on a brighter tomorrow. There are no plans for the future. Jurgis strives to achieve the best he can and the best he can is not ever adequate. He endures a distressing life filled with deceitfulness, drug abuse, and transgression to name a few. Jurgis' moral principles are challenged time and time again. "BUT A big man cannot stay drunk very long on three dollars. That was Sunday morning, and Monday night Jurgis came home, sober and sick, realizing that he had spent every cent the family owned, and had not bought a single instant's forgetfulness with it"(p.175). The fundamental values of family and hard work are in strain and lack in providing social advancement for Jurgis. They serve no straightforward purpose thus he goes faltering through out his life. At home he struggles with his faith, family bonds and heritage. His Christian faith offered very little in times of despair and does nothing in terms of hope for Jurgis.

Writing Feedback / "Women of Their Time"; Mrs. Mallard and Calixta - Thesis (essay) The Storm and The story of an hour [13]

I want to write an essay on both of these and compare them. I can't come up with a good thesis for both. I just have to write an essay for one but I thought if I compared the two it might be better. Here's what I have.

"Women of Their Time"

Mrs. Mallard and Calixta are two very different women created by a very intricate author. Mrs. Mallard is overly dramatized at the news of her deceased husband and Calixta, to contrast, is an immoral housewife waiting out a storm.

In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" Mrs. Mallard is first perceived as a wife who would not possibly be able to fathom the news of the loss of her husband. Her sister Josephine is concerned for her health when she tells her the news, fearing for heart failure since she previously had heart problems. The author suggests she is a wife who has lived in repression yet loved her husband. However, this facade is soon unmasked by Chopin when Mrs. Mallard's grief turns to joyous victory, if you will, of her husband's death. She is struck with utter confusion and in a very odd manner tries to cope with feelings of love and hate all at the same time. "She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial." (11)

The love Mrs. Mallard has for her husband seemed to exhaust her yet it seemed sincere in nature, to a degree. She seemed to be an oppressed wife living under the tyranny of her husband. The author implies this when shortly after the news of her now deceased husband is told to her she quietly whispers "Free, free, free!" (10). In line 7, "She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength." This shows her character as one that bares distressing thoughts and memories that she is now free from since her husband is dead. Mrs. Mallard struggles with the idea of moving on with her life without her husband than the news of his death in itself. Almost as if having become a widow came with rights that she had never before experienced. She now had the freedom she was waiting for. As the story develops the author gives us insight on what might have possibly been a very troubled marriage for Mrs. Mallard. The death of her husband turns out to be a time of emotional celebration in that she now is freed from him. But from what? From her marriage to a man that perhaps she felt tied to for too long. The grief quickly turned to joy and then her sudden death. Was her joy so great that it killed her? "When the doctors came they said that she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills" (22). Perhaps she was better off dead than alive since her husband was not involved in an accident after all.

In "The Storm" the wife Calixta is portrayed as a devout housewife but behaves immorally. Calixta gets involved in a very amorous moment with an old fling while her family is out at Friedheimer's store waiting out the storm. She seems like a much happier housewife resigned to a lifestyle typical of the women of her time, at home sewing and doing house chores. She seems to be more outwardly loving and shows deep concern for her husband and child out in the storm but uses the storm to escape for a while. She gets caught up in an up close and personal heated moment with Alcee, an old boyfriend. Was the storm used momentarily to attain freedom for sparks that were never put out?

Apparently both of these women victims of their times, willing to escape their reality even if it killed them. Stuck in marriages with husbands they did not love. The ironic twist of circumstances leads me to think they were never truly in love with the men in their lives. Mrs. Mallard is thrilled at having lost her husband and now faces a freedom that she cannot handle and dies. Calixta manages to sneak a cheap thrill why her family is out in a vigorous storm and will apparently continue to do so since Alcee will be free from his wife for sometime. Both of these stories appear to be about a freedom which women in the Victorian era did not possess.

I need to add more and can't think of more points or a good thesis. HELP!