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The Jungle
Upton Sinclair Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Jungle
"A family of Lithuanian immigrants come to America to start their new lives, but they discover that only the strong can survive."
Emily, Resident Scholar

"The Jungle chronicles the lives of a Lithuanian immigrant family that moves to industrial Chicago in the early 1900's. Living in “Packingtown,” the slums of the city, by night, and working in its monstrous meat processing factories by day, the family members toil arduously to survive, but are ultimately crushed by the weight of corrupt and greedy capitalist America. The spirit of the protagonists is challenged by the realization that the American Dream is a hollow institution."
Patrick Fisher, Resident Scholar

"This book describes in extreme detail how life was like in the early industrial age. A family moves to Chicago in hopes for a better life, but get beaten down instead with many unfortunate events. They work all day and live in a horrible shack at night. Many characters die because of how bad the conditions are. Most of the time my face was twisted in horror with how descriptive their pains were. Through writing this book, Upton Sinclair caused many food laws to be passed. His main reason for writing the book though was to encourage socialism as the best form of government. He later wrote "People care more about their stomachs, then human rights"."
Melissa Pett, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Jungle
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - 1900-1920's
Political/social activism Yes
Plotlet: - union leaders fighting for labor rights
Life of a profession: - blue collar worker
Poverty, surviving Yes
Kind of living: - general poverty story
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - unemployed
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - Eastern European
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - bulging muscles

Main Adversary
Identity: - society

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
City? Yes
City: - dirty, grimy (like New York) - dangerous - rude people - Chicago
Misc setting - prison

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
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The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers


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Upton Sinclair Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Melissa Pett  

SCHOLARS:
Patrick Fisher  Emily  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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