In the Jungle I see Ona portrayed as a typical female archetype at the beginning. She is loyal to Jurgis and committed foremost to her family. She is presented as an object to Jurgis: "he had set out to mkae his fortune in the world and earn his right to Ona" Ona is an object, but as the novel progresses and Ona gets raped she begins to become a stronger woman and less submissive. I think that Ona becomes a voice for women, or an agent.
After her rape, she struggles and
goes to great lengths to keep it a secret which is contrary to to her
normal submissive nature to Jurgis. She tries to keep it a secret to
keep her job and family intact, this shows a great deal of feminine
strength in her. Ona becomes a voice for working women and abused women. She ends up dying, which I think is a result of her weakening after going back to work only a week after giving birth. This shows the cruel reality for women in her position and she dies because of the circumstances. Ona is an agent for women in her social class, because she represents the trials of women and through her character flaws are exposed.
Although I do believe Ona, Jurgis's wife can be seen as an agent in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, there are also some aspects that stray away from the idea of her as an agent. Like you mentioned, she starts to become stronger and stronger as the novel progresses but not exactly strong enough. Agency is supposed to give power to a character and give voice, even though it is hard for her to keep a secret, she still does not end up saying anything and at the end when she dies it is almost as if she did not have enough strength to continue and be a representation for all feminine strength.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the author is striving to make Ona appear as an agent but she is not completely at that point yet. If she would have stood up for herself more when it came to work and her family, this would have shown the power that an agent possesses and it would have clearly depicted agency in The Jungle.