As you should know,
"The Jungle," by
Upton Sinclair, is set in the meatpacking district of Chicago. Jurgis and his
family leave for Chicago to find “the American Dream.” Most of them failed at
finding a job and encountered many family problems. Eventually, Jurgis changes from honest, hard-working life
for a life of crime. Sinclair writes, "All of these agencies of corruption
were banded together, and leagued in blood brotherhood with the politician and
the police; more often than not they were one and the same person,--the police
captain would own the brothel he pretended to raid, and the politician would
open his headquarters in his saloon” (Sinclair 303). Since Jurigs and the rest of the family were immigrants, they thought that America would bring them happiness. They thought because of
capitalism, it would make them successful. Obviously, as you see later in the book, that was not the case.
Irony “turns standard meanings and
expectations upside down. It often involves saying one thing and meaning
another” (Killingsworth 131). In this situation, Jurgis believes in
capitalism and the happiness it could bring him and his family. What's ironic, is in reality, what he expected of the government was
essentially the complete opposite of what was foreseen. For Jurgis to survive, he was forced into
the dishonesty of politics. Sinclair was then able to present the levels of
corruption in the government through his use of irony. This then allows for the
audience to see the true side of the political parties at the time.
I completely agree! The fact that Jurgis has such pure intentions in the beginning makes his fall into the world of crime all the worse. Using irony to depict this situation really emphasizes it, too. Yes it is sad when passing hopes and small dreams are crushed, but they are not fatal. However, when one has a very precise idea about the world and works with all their might within that system, the fallacy of the initial idea is too great to live with (and therefore impacts the audience very heavily). Sinclair does this often, first with Jurgs's idealistic view of capitalism, next with the family's "sure-proof" plan for paying off the house, and then also in the crime against Ona by the hands of the boss who she expected to give her justice from the forelady. This sad state of affairs is continuously augmented by the fact that noting they expect to be good is good. In fact, the "criminals" they first had no intention of becoming end up being the only souls who are compassionate towards them (such as Jurgis's prison-mate or other very poor people). I suppose Sinclair would want his audience to take away the idea that assuming ideals are exactly what they seem to be is a complete fallacy. Just like the ideal that everything will get better, when in all reality, things just get worse.
ReplyDelete**by "other very poor people," I mean like the instance when Ona is giving birth for the second time too early and the neighbors all give Jergis whatever money they have left to go find an experienced midwife or doctor.
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