Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
Consider Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle as a window into working-class immigrant life at the turn of the twentieth century. In your view, given the evidence Sinclair presents and the broader materials encountered in class and at lecture, how useful is this novel as a way of understanding the travails of immigrants and industrial laborers at this stage in american history?
Students might want to consider: What are the key themes that Sinclair analyzes? What facets of the immigrant experience and of the gilded age industrial relations ring true to you, given the historical record of these issues studied in class? How does Sinclair's novel illustrate the intersection of immigration/ethnicity and industrial labor/economic class? And, how does this book provide readers with the insight into the spirit of reformism that infused American culture and politics in the early twentieth century?
It would be useful to explore how Sinclair uses at least three or four of the following issues to build his story, and to weigh how the author's treatment of such issues squarese with the historical understanding we have crafted in class:
-Immigration and the Economy
-Ethnic community institutions/culture
-Housing
-Urban politics/machines
-Gender Relations
-Working conditions
-Deskilling, unskilled labor, the commodification of laborers
-Labor relations
-Health care
-Radicalism
CITATIONS: USE SHORT-FORM FOOTNOTES FROM THE BOOK AS REFERENCES. NO OUTSIDE SOURCES!
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