A Family Forced Apart

I had only ever heard about the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, but never thought much of it. However, after reading through the assigned chapters, fourteen through twenty, I was extremely shocked, but not only that. I was extremely depressed. I could not imagine the feelings that Jurgis had to go through while he attempted to protect his family. It felt so unjust to see how his wife had basically been forced into having sex with her boss over and over again for months. It was sad because it reminded me of the story by Rigoberta Menchu Tum where she mentioned that her friend was asked to become the boss's mistress and when she refused, she was quickly "taken care of."

It was so unjust as well to see how Jurgis was taken out of his job and punished by being sent to jail while Connor - Ona's boss - was able to carry on as though nothing happened. I actually felt hatred for Connor after the fact that he raped Ona but even more so after he was ruining Jurgis and his family's life by keeping them out of jobs. I only then understood the meaning of the title since it really was a jungle that they were living in. Everyone was acting like animals but more like predators, looking for things to devour for their own personal gain.

I initially was expecting to see more of the struggles at the meat industry, but I was drawn more to the portion about Jurgis and his family. It was upsetting to see how the immigrants were treated after they came in search for something more, something better than what they had before. However, as we can easily see, they only got worse. I was especially upset after seeing that Ona died after giving birth, the baby dying as well. I can understand why Jurgis would drink then but I was still thinking that he probably should have saved the few dollars that were made from working instead of spending them on liquor...