The Jungle Book Review

Book Review: The Jungle
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Book Review: The Jungle
Capitalism and corruption are two of the main themes of the novel The Jungle. The main character, Jurgis Rudkus, and his partner, Ona Rudkus, experiences hard times as soon as they arrive in Packingtown. Jurgis faces corruption and immorality, facilitated by the lack of law and order, greed from the politicians, and exploitative employers. The author focuses on corruption as a social ill that is fuelled by the Capitalist economic system. At the beginning, few cases of corruption occur but towards the finish, Jurgis becomes involved in corruption himself. Their family was swindled when they wanted to purchase a house, which can be blamed on the capitalist market’s environment. The author documents a number of incidences where outright corruption directly affects the lives of the characters. In attempt to fight corruption, Jurgis joins a union, after he is fired from his workplace. Corruption seems to affect every aspect of Jurgis’ life, soon turning to affect his family members and those close to him. While capitalism in its raw form does not represents any social evil, an additional ingredient of corruption tends to wipe away of the benefits that this social system may bring to the society. This paper looks at corruption in capitalism as a social ill affecting the society, by making reference to Jurgis Rudkus’ character in the book: The Jungle.
On arrival to Packingtown, Jurgis and Ona plan a wedding. Their relatives come to Chicago to witness the wedding. The expectations they have regarding how people perceive weddings in Chicago is quite different. At some point, Jurgis decided to buy his family a house. The agreement was a swindle as the house was under poor conditions. Also, there were hidden costs regarding the house. This made expenses for the family of Jurgis increase. In Chicago, employment is characterized by poor working conditions. Especially during winter, the environment at the workplace is harsh. The rooms are not heated, making it a problem for the employees.
The bosses also are not interested in the welfare of the society. Spoilt meat is often canned to make more sales. Rotten rats at times are added to meat to increase the tonnage of meat meant for sale. Due to the excess supply of labor, the factories employ a lot of laborers with the intention to fasten production. Retaining a job becomes harder as there are laborers who are more than willing to replace the laid-off, workers. Due to the corrupt nature of politicians, the poor working conditions and practices cannot be done away with. Due to this, Jurgis joins the union with his counterpart Marija. Later, Marija’s factory is made to close and Jurgis begins to encounter more hardships with his family. Jurgis father, Antanas dies from tough conditions at work.
Life becomes difficult to Jurgis’ family. Ona, h...