LITERATURE ANALYSIS #2

1.  I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.  In The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Jurgis and his family are a group of Lithuanian immigrants who travel to America in the early 1900's to fulfill the American Dream, only to find...
just the opposite of that dream in the industrial and bustling city of Chicago.  This filthy and miserable city changes their views as they uncover the dirty secrets of the meatpacking industry as well as the competitive dog-eat-dog world of getting a job as a wage laborer and keeping it.  Jurgis himself experiences the variety of ways to earn money in that time period as he goes from working at various wage labor jobs in factories to working for wealthy and corrupt politicians to making a living through crime.  In the end, he finally lands himself a job as a porter in a hotel and becomes a strong supporter of the socialist party. This book also illustrates the risks and deadly consequences intertwined with life in this time period.  Jurgis's wife dies from childbirth since she is weak from the damp working conditions at her factory.  His son dies from drowning in mud on streets with unsafe sidewalks, and his father works himself to death with the fast-paced work demanded at the factories.  Eventually, the children find work selling newspapers, and near the end, Jurgis's cousin, Marija, becomes a prostitute to help pay the bills.  Throughout all this, the family is tricked into buying a house which they soon find they can't afford because of interest and hidden costs, they are “blacklisted” so no superintendent wants them as employees, and Jurgis twice resorts to alcohol to drown his sorrows and misery, as many men of that time did.  The book also details how poor the majority of the city's community is as thousands of unemployed wait outside the gates of factories day after day, hoping for a job opening.

2.  The theme is that at that time, the American dream was just that: a dream, and American society is judgmental and corrupt.  Immigrants during that time were expecting to make a new life in America, and ended up stuck between a rock and a hard place until death brought them release from their miserable lives.

3.  Upton Sinclair's tone in the novel is critical and hopeless.  This is apparent from excerpts like, "It seemed strange, even terrible, when you came to find out the universality of the sentiment; but it was certainly the fact - they hated their work...Women and little children would fall to cursing about it; it was rotten, rotten as hell - everything was rotten," (Page 48) and "now, however, since they had come to the new country, all this was changing; it seemed as if there must be some subtle poison in the air that one breathed here." (Page 12)

4.  Foreshadowing - The biggest hint is given to Jurgis's family of their fate in America from other immigrants that have already lived in America for a number of years.
"When Jurgis would ask them what they meant, they would begin to get suspicious, and content themselves with saying, ' Never mind, you stay here and see for yourself.' " (Page 48)
Simile - Describing Jurgis's fast and frantic attitude through his running
"He ran like one possessed, blindly, furiously, looking neither to the right nor left." (Page 126)
Rhetorical Questions - Used persuasively by Sinclair to evoke empathy in the reader against the cruel slaughter of hogs
"And now was one to believe the there was nowhere a god of hogs, to whom this hog personality was precious, to whom these hog squeals and agonies had a meaning?  Who would take this hog into his arms and comfort him, reward him for his work well done, and show him the meaning for his sacrifice?" (Page 30)
Symbolism - The description of the cattle being led to the slaughter is a symbol for the family slowing being lead to a figurative slaughter, where they are trapped in the city with a miserable life.
"There were groups of cattle being driven to the chutes, which were roadways about fifteen feet wide, raised high above the pens.  In these chutes the stream of animals was continuous; it was quite uncanny to watch them, pressing on to their fate, all unsuspicious - a very river of death.  Our friends were not poetical , and the sight suggested to them no metaphors of human destiny; they thought only of the wonderful efficiency of it all." (Page 27)
Idiom - The words feel to Jurgis like he is being stabbed with a knife, but he is not actually being stabbed.
"And every word of it...stabbed him like a knife." (Page 184)
Parallelism - Used in this sentence to produce a flowing description of the hogs, a symbol for the immigrant families.
"And yet somehow the most matter-of-fact person could not help thinking of the hogs; they were so innocent, they came so very trustingly; and they were so very human in their protests - and so perfectly within their rights!" (Page 29)
Imagery - This is a vivid description of what visitors to a meat-packing factory would see and hear.
"At the same instant the car was assailed by a most terrifying shriek...The shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing...until there was a double line of them, each dangling by a foot and kicking in frenzy - and squealing.  The uproar was appalling, perilous to the eardrums...There were high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax." (Page 29)

CHARACTERIZATION

1.  Direct characterization - "Marija was one of those hungry souls who cling with desperation to the skirts of the retreating muse." (Describing Marija's determination) (Page 11)
"She wore a muslin dress, conspicuously white, and a stiff little veil coming to her shoulders...Ona was blue-eyed and fair." (Describing Ona's appearance on her wedding day)
Indirect characterization - "She works in a canning factory, and allday long she handles cans of beef that weigh fourteen pounds."  (Describing Marija's both inner and outer strength) (Page 6)
Upton Sinclair mainly uses direct characterization because his main focus is the conditions and lives of the people, so he is very blunt about what they look like and what their general personality is every time a new character is introduced.

2.  No, my author stays fairly steady with his syntax and diction patterns, much like a reporter telling the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the individuals as facts needed to be made clear to the general public. For example, in the excerpt, "When in the end Tamoszius Kuszleika has reached her side, and is waving his magic wand above her, Ona's cheeks are scarlet, and she looks as if she would have to get up and run away.  In this crisis, however, she is saved by Marija Berczynskas, whom the muses suddenly visit," (Page 6) Upton Sinclair keeps constant with his style.

3.  Jurgis, the protagonist, is a dynamic character because the throughout the book, he has more and more experiences that disillusion him from the American dream and life that he thought he would be living, changing his perspective of life and his opinion of America.  Jurgis is a round character.  The reader is able to experience his emotions and his motives for his actions.  The reader also knows his background and his general personality enough to not be surprised with how he handles some of the heartbreaking or discouraging events in the book.

4.  Even though Jurgis is a round and dynamic character, after reading the book, I still felt like I had only read a character.  I think part of this is because Sinclair only intended for the reader to connect to the character enough to sympathize with them when they faced the harsh conditions of the American society of the time period.  Sinclair's main purpose was to inform the reader of those harsh conditions in a hope to activate a call for change in the large cities of the Industrial Revolution.