History Literature / TheJungle

* PromisedLand: Chicago. Of Cynical Flavour B.

->"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
-->-Upton Sinclair.

* InfantImmortality: Averted ''hard''

* ArtisticLicenseHistory-Many of the claims (especially the infamous "workers falling in, being ground up and sold with the meat" have no evidence of actually happening. This is a political tract, not an unbiased presentation of facts.

* JesusIsWayCool: In an argument between two advocates of socialism about whether or not Christianity is benefit or a detriment to society, Schliemann (the anti-Christianity debater) admits that he has no problem with Jesus himself.

* SexSlave- Ona is a victim of this, and marija has seen others get ofrced into prostitution.

* SexualSlavery- Ona is a victim of this, and marija has seen others get ofrced into prostitution.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Dryly summed up in the page quote above by Upton Sinclair himself. He meant to expose the horrors of a life of poverty to the public and most readers focused on the fact that questionable things were ending up in their food.

* [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy Someone To Remember Her By]]: [[spoiler:Little Antanas, for Jurgis, but not for long.]]

* TraumaCongaLine: Oh, Lord, where do we start with the one Jurgis experiences? [[spoiler:His father dies and then they have to quickly come up with money to pay for his funeral. The children all have to be pulled out of school to work to support the family, one by one, in spite of their hopes that they would get a decent education. Then Jurgis finds out that his wife Ona has been repeatedly submitting to rape by one of her former bosses to ensure financial security for the family and is now pregnant as well. Jurgis punches out the boss in revenge and goes to jail for it. When he finally gets out, he finds out that his family has been evicted from their house and are now living in a garret. To make matters worse, he can't find work and when Ona is in labor, he goes to find a midwife, who charges a fee that Jurgis can't afford. A short while after the midwife gets there, she tells them that there's nothing she can do and both Ona and her child die. A short while after that, Jurgis's child, the only thing he has left of Ona, drowns when he plays in the street. Jurgis leaves for a while from the stress he's gone through and to look for work and when he gets back, he finds out that Marija has become a prostitute and little Stanislovas is dead.]]

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The whole reason Upton Sinclair wrote this book. He meant to expose the horrors that workers had to go through because the businessmen and the capitalists had power over them and they were abusing it. However, people were more preoccupied by the fact that EW! someone's finger might have been ground up in their food!

* NoOSHACompliance: Ditto. TruthInTelevision, real factory conditions like this were a big part of the reason OSHA was created.

* IronWoobie: Jurgis.

* DeusAngstMachina: All manner of misfortune befalls Jurgis and his family, such as [[spoiler:the death of his father, his baby, his wife and numerous family members]].

* TooDumbToLive: Jurgis and family throughout the whole story.
** More like too poor, uneducated and powerless to live. Literally, in some cases.

Several members of the family die over the years [[spoiler:including Jurgis' wife and son]]. Jurgis, by this point, has had enough, so he leaves town and spends some time wandering the surrounding countryside as a hobo. He eventually returns to Chicago as an itinerant laborer, and for a time, works for the corrupt political machine of the city. When he finally reunites with the family, he finds Marija working as a prostitute to support them. Jurgis eventually joins the Socialist party intended to do something about the plight of the city's workers; the novel ends with a speech that ends with "CHICAGO WILL BE OURS!"

* DeusAngstMachina: And ''how!'' All manner of misfortune befalls Jurgis and his family, such as [[spoiler:the death of his father, his baby, his wife and numerous family members]].

The vast majority of the readers didn't care about the political aspect of the book. Fellow socialists understood what Sinclair was trying to say, but most Americans focused on the part about what goes into food. The readers didn't care a damn of the occupational conditions or the precarious life of the working class; but they did care about eating tuberculotic meat.

[[caption-width-right:327:"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." ]]

The vast majority of the readers [[CompletelyMissingThePoint didn't care about the political aspect of the book. Fellow socialists understood what Sinclair was trying to say, but most Americans focused on the part about what goes into food]]. The readers didn't care a damn of the occupational conditions or the precarious life of the working class; but they did care about eating tuberculotic meat.