Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Anti-Sentimentalism in The Jungle
Obviously there is a lot of anti-sentimentalism in The Jungle. Graphic scenes are described in a very unemotional way. I feel like the scenes in chapter 3 that describe the actual work in the factory are described much as you would describe the weather. I think someone mentioned in class that the unsentimental nature actual caused them to feel even more emotion because they were shocked at the lack of emotion within the text. I think that part of the reason that Sinclair described these scenes in such a way was to show that this was an everyday experience for these workers and that they didn't have time to be emotional about it. By expressing these events as common and normal for the workers Sinclair invokes more motion in the reader by leaving them shocked at the environment of these factory workers and shocked at the lack of emotion in the writing.
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I agree with you that anti-sementalism is very prominent in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. However I do believe there is some emotion depicted, like when Teta loses her son for example, she shows a lot of emotion by crying and showing grief. This does not mean that the Jungle cannot portray anti-sementalism because it actually has a lot of scenes where it does especially in relation to the animals.
ReplyDeleteAll of the pigs and other animals in the meat factories are treated very poorly and the only thing the workers are worried about is getting their money and making sure they are not cheated on their paycheck. They have no intentions on making sure the animals are treated well or making sure they are healthy. In fact, they even sell meat that contains infection and can harm other humans. Hence, illustrating how there is a lack of emotion, they do not feel bad by doing this even though they know by eating some of the meat it can actually kill someone like Teta's son for example.
Additionally, when it comes to the book as a whole the working conditions are very poor. This is why the title is actually named the Jungle because it is constantly exemplifying the common phrase of "survival of the fittest", everyone has to fight in order to survive in this environment. Many of the times they do not have heat in their houses during the winter and they work long hours in order to only get very little pay. Even when Jurgis's wife Ona gets pregnant, she only gets a week off a work which is absurd so it is evident that the employers have no sympathy for their workers.
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