The bleak picture portrayed by Upton Sinclair is ripe for pragmatic analysis, and rife with examples of cathartic narration. Pragmatically, Sinclair approaches the novel in an interesting way, beginning with what common assumptions about America, capitalism, the American dream, etc. that were held by, for example, a foreign immigrant like Jurgis. He comes America, full of hope and wonder, married to his bride Ona, young and inexperienced. At the beginning and throughout a large part of the novel, Jurgis represents the contemporary belief that through hard work, one could overcome any misfortune or unfortunate circumstance. To refute this claim, much as Crane had done in the anti-sentimentalism of his Maggie, he takes the situation to the extreme. Sinclair makes work itself unbearable, like when Jurgis works with fertilizer and the stench is "half an inch deep in his skin" (Ch. 13, paragraph 12), and prevents the dream from possibly being fulfilled (providing for one's family by becoming a successful worker and moving up the proverbial social ladder) by destroying his family, with Jurgis eventually leaving them. Jurgis himself is essentially destroyed in the process, losing his job and family as he is jailed. After his release, as he is lost and confused, he stumbles upon a socialist rally at which he (and we, the reader) finds a glimmer of hope and unity after all that had been done to him.
Through Jurgis' experience, we the readers are to tear down our assumptions of the American dream, workers and their rights, and the role of the family. We are taken on the same journey as Jurgis in a systematic fashion, experiencing his pain with him, sympathizing and empathizing with him and those in similar positions. We are brought down emotionally and forced to reexamine the foundations of our society (especially the role of the worker, and the unlikelihood of the fulfillment of the American dream). Sinclair's purpose is then pragmatic: we are meant to rebuild our ideas in a pragmatically social way (i.e. based on what we know from the text, and Jurgis' experience, we know that the dream fails, the unbalanced hierarchy breeds inequality, etc.) towards what Sinclair views as a better foundation. Though we are brought down with, releasing emotions like confusion, defeat, resignation, or depression, Sinclair gives us a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel in socialism, a whiff of some food he hopes we will make.
Ishmael does the same thing overall, just focusing on a different topic. It starts out with a man who wanted to save the world when he was young and an the advertisement looking for someone with "an earnest desire to save the world". Then it goes downhill and we are told how mankind is basically destroying the planet. At the end there is also a glimmer of hope in Ishmael's last message to the narrator saying that "With man gone will there be hope for gorilla, with gorilla gone will there be hope for man?" showing us that we are interconnected to the environment not at war with it. Quinn tries to breakdown and reassemble our views on environmentalism much as Sinclair does in terms of our social structure.
ReplyDeleteI truly see The Jungle as a cathartic novel because it really appeals to the emotions of the reader. Like Jason mentioned, the characters in Sinclair's novel start out with the idea of living an extravagant and wealthy life in America and then are quickly let down when they realize the hardship of the work and living conditions. This extreme change in emotion really applies to catharsis and the way it is portrayed in literature. Jurgis goes from being very hopeful at the beginning to being completely let down and then back to being hopeful again at the end while he is involved with socialism. This fluctuation between emotion is very cathartic and really addresses the reader emotionally.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this does not mean that Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is not a cathartic novel. In fact, I believe there are a lot of aspects of catharsis being illustrated, it is just more difficult to relate to the reader since Ishmael is actually a gorilla and the book is predominantly portrayed through the use of socratic dialogue. Although, the changes of emotion are not as drastic as those found in The Jungle, it is still evident that there is some. The novel begins with hope and ends with hope, while in the middle there is a lot of negativity and despair in relation to mankind.
I too see The Jungle as a cathartic piece of literature. I see the catharsis coming in a slightly different form than you proposed Jason. I think the catharsis of the audience may differ from that of the characters in the book. I believe Jurgis's hope to achieve the American dream is slowly diminished over time as tragedy after tragedy happens to he and his family. The loss of Jurgis's job, the death and destruction of family members, unfair treatment at work, the horrific working conditions, equally awful living conditions, unemployment, more death, homelessness, and all the other misfortunes that made their way to Jurgis and his family build up extremely strong emotions of fear, doubt of the future, and anger at the system. Over time, Jurgis finds no hope in the system; what he thought to be the land of opportunity seems only to be a trap to keep his people down and oppress them. Jurgis becomes more and more angered at the situation and acts out in various ways such as assaulting the man who treated his wife so cruelly, and giving up hope entirely and bumming around the land for a period of time, just to name a few. Jurgis has been repressing his fear, anger, and frustration for so long holding out any ounce of hope he has in his body that he can turn his situation around and achieve the American dream.
ReplyDeleteOnce all hope Jurgis has runs out, he experiences a catharsis when he encounters the ideas of socialism. Jurgis gives in to his anger and frustration and lets all of those emotions out. These emotions have become so extreme and have been repressed so long that his catharsis is one of epic proportions. Jurgis lets them all out when he comes along socialism at the rallies. These emotions are purged from his system. Jurgis lets go of the anger and frustration. The emotions are set free from his being and he clings to a new glimmer of hope entirely in the form of socialism. His mind is freed from the once hopeful thoughts of the American dream that turned into shackles that depressed him deeply. He lets go of the idea that the system works and brings on emotions filled with thoughts of change and the overthrow of the system that oppressed him and destroyed his family. In my opinion this is the most dramatic piece of cathartic literature we have read thus far in class...