Rating: 
Summary: Still remember
Review: How many of you remember the books you HAD to read in High School? The Jungle was a requirement for my Freshman English class and I still remember it over 20 years later. What better recommendation can I give? I love the book I will encourage my children to read it when they are old enough to understand.
Rating: 
Summary: Questionably Accurate and Definitely Tendentious
Review: The uninformed reader is not told to what extent the working conditions described in this book actually reflected reality. The socialist solution does not jibe with reality either. Some of the factories in the (former) Soviet Union were just as bad if not worse than Durham's meat-packing plant so graphically dramatized by Sinclair. So socialism is not the answer: respect for one's fellow man is.
Rating: 
Summary: As much fiction as fact
Review: The author E.L. Doctorow once opined that fiction is very often truer than fact. Doctorow, himself a writer of historical fiction who has made it his business to restore the voices of the suppressed through fiction, thus lends readers a way of looking into works such as The Jungle and the wider canon of Upton Sinclair. The Jungle is the tale of the Rudkuses, a family recently migrated from Lithuania to America in search of prosperity and financial independence. They are quickly introduced to the ills of modern capitalism when their 'dream home', a poorly made shack which has been given a superficial paint job to make it appear livable, reveals its inadequacies. Throughout the novel, the surface sheen of turn-of-the-century America gradually wears away and exposes its malignancies in much the same manner. The Rudkuses spiral into poverty, forcing their father, Jurgis, to find new work, however demeaning the conditions, and quickly. The most famous image of the novel comes from a slaughterhouse, where Jurgis watches pigs being butchered and transported upon conveyor belts. This image is a perversely impressive testament to modern industry. It's powerful precisely because it's humanised; the Rudkuses become like these pigs - victims of an oppresive sociopolitical system that disingenuously asserts itself as working towards the common good, yet actually favours an elite few. I leave it to other readers to dissect the intricacies of Sinclair's socialist leanings. But I'd like briefly to touch upon what is for me the central force of The Jungle, which I've already alluded to in the title above. For all its expositions of social injustice, The Jungle is a work of fiction. As Jurgis fights for his family's and his own survival by forging personal political connections, the novel swiftly moves from naturalism (a style of writing which, insofar as this example is concerned, imitates investigative journalism through its representation of the bare facts of poverty) to epic. Sinclair is too canny an author to reduce his text to bland statements of documentary-like truths; his novel achieves greatness through its fictional treatment of Jurgis's transformation from a social archetype of the common man into an epic hero. In simple yet forceful language, Sinclair manages to contain yet also refine his evident cynicism about certain inequities in America. We read The Jungle and learn some frightening facts. But we appreciate The Jungle - that is, we enjoy reading it and take pleasure from it - because it is, afterall, a grand work of elaborate fiction(s).
Rating:
Summary: Take this book for what it is
Review: When reading this novel, the reader must take it for what it is, a propaganda novel. Its purpose was to show the American people the injustices of capitalism, and some possible solutions, (socialism). The story itself is extremely far-fetched, but the reader should be aware of that going in. There are many things that happens to the main character that would simply not happen to anyone. What is great about this story, is how it touches on multiple aspects of the problems/realities of American Society during this time period. This is a great read for any student of American History. It shows the problems of political corruption, poverty, alcoholism, working conditions of the time period and other important aspects of American life. Most of this book is interesting, and the characters may be poorly developed or lack significant dialogue, but you have to take them for what they are. -remember, Sinclair was a socialist, and he has a message in this book.
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Summary: The brutal truth of capitalism and the industrial revolution
Review: I learned in histroy class of the deplorable conditions of turn of the century America and its workers. Upton Sinclair delivers this lesson through the Jungle. We see an average immigrant family, in this case Lithuanians, embark on a trip to the US. Once here, they realize the reality of the decision they have made. Via the Rudkus family we're told about the meat packing industry. How everything is so corrupt, that if a man were to slip, and be ground up, he himself would end up in a can of meat. Nobody is alowed to have their own opinnion in the work place, if your wife is forced into sexual relations with a boss, do nothing. The only reason you should vote for a candidate is to recieve a dollar in return. Trust NO one. Not the man trying to sell you a house, nor the man that gave you a job. Turn of the century America was a tough place. This is the first book I've read that actually tells how tought it was.
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Summary: Corruption and greed in 1900 Chicago meat-packing industry
Review: Upton Sinclair tackels a powerful industry when he exposes unsanitary conditions in the Chicago meat-packing houses. Corruption and greed run rampant, profits are the only goal, workers are exploited and anyone rocking the boat is "eliminated". -- Shortly after this book was published (and became an instant best seller) many of the concerns it raised were found justified, and reforms were put into place. With "the Jungle" Sinclair not only made a major contribution to literature, but he has paved the way for more fairness in labor practices and high standards in food processing. I recommend this classic to students in high school and to adults!
Rating:
Summary: An easy to read classic
Review: Of all the classic novels that I have read, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is by far the easiest to read and understand. The book is written plainly yet incredibly. There's a lot of detail about the feelings of workers during the turn of the century. Socialism is praised. Eugene V. Debs is mentioned several times, not surprisingly. A must read for anyone taking AP US History.
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Summary: It tried to be something, but it became a big joke.
Review: I am a junior in high school and I have read many books throughout my school years. I have read very praiseworthy works by Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, and Arthur Miller. This book, "The Jungle", is my least favorite of all. It did not develop as well as a real great classic of literature, for many reasons. First, the beginning of the book was poorly developed. A Lithuanian family decides to go to America, they come to America, and that's it. No interesting story to their journey. This is quite a disappointment for someone who has read many accounts of an immigrant's journey. The poor narration kept switching from past tense to present tense, and leaves you under the immpression that you are not really reading a story, but someone is telling you the story. There also is too little dialogue in in the start, which doesn't make the characters seem real. The characters start out not very well developed and seem more like puppets than a people of a story. Then, the worst part of the book is the whole plot. At first, the plot goes on too quickly in the beginning, but as the story goes on, so does the poor plot. The plot kept going on and on and on and on. It dragged on too long with too many events. The story also becomes too sad and depressing. As the plot drags on, the story grows more and more depressing, with more and more miseries occuring. It gets so miserable that you wish the story would end! But it doesn't end and after a while the story only focuses itself on Jurgis and it has Jurgis so much that you change from being sympathetic to him, to being sick of him. For more than 300 hundred pages, the story goes on as if it will never end with too many sad events, annoying characters, and there is no entertainment in reading it. There are a few good qualities in this book. It has good tone and diction, which does well in developing the setting and emotions in the book. But it did not help develop the story. In class, we did many analysises of tone, diction, and emotions, but there was nothing we could analize in the characters and plot structure. Perhaps what caused this story to be so badly damaged was it's political spectrum. It talks about Democrats vs. Republicans, capitalists vs. socialists, and big companies that were engaged in politics. This is not what books are all about. Literature is supposed to deal with human nature, emotions, good and evil, and philosophy, not who you will vote for on election day. In the end, this book became a jounalist's work. Not a dipiction of life, but author Sinclair's opinion. You can read a jounalist's opinion on politics in the newspaper, but it is ridiculous to think you can talk about opinions in literature. It became too silly in the end,how this book so poorly developed itself and then made itself so preachy in the ending. Preachy is another bad quality in the book that should not be in books. Reading this bad book hasgiven me the idea to do reviews for more good books I have read. You can click on my name if you wish to find something really good to read.
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Summary: devestating indictment of predatory capitalism
Review: "The Jungle" is a devestating indictment of predatory capitalism. In it, Sinclair portrays the "lower echelons of the industrial world (Packingtown in Chicago) as the scene of a naked struggle of survival, where workers are not only forced to compete with each other but, if they falter, are hard-pressed to keep starvation from their door and a roof over their heads." Sinclair has succinctly and lucidly illustrated the failings of capitalism: at best a Hobbesian war of each against all; at worst a society based on social Darwinism (euphamistically called laissez-faire capitalism by free-market apologists). As Sinclair so vividly states, the hierarchical packing plant where the protagonist works is but a reflection of capitalist society as a whole: "all the men of the same rank were pitted against each other; the accounts of each were kept seperately, and every man lived in terror of losing his job, if another made a better record than he. So from top to bottom the place was simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds." After the protagonist has lost everything dear to him in his troubled life so far, he ruminates about capitalist society: "He saw the world of civilization more plainly than he had ever seen it before; a world in which nothing counted but brutal might, an order devised by those who possessed it for the subjugation of those who did not." Truer words have never been spoken. Sinclair's masterpiece, "The Jungle" has as much social significance today as the day when it was first published.
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Summary: Shows the details of Meat Packing as well as Socialism.
Review: This book basically disgustes you with the real and harsh details of the Meat-packing industry. Although it might have been a little exaggerated, it shows you the reality in which the immigrants had to face during the American Industrial revolution. With all the difficults Jurgis (the main character) had to face, later he finds out about Socialism. Basically Upton Sinclair's purpose, as a mugraker, was to show the great parts of Socialism. The last few chapters are detailed about the great socialsm. And, like most stories, ends with a happy ending.
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