Brett+L



"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach."-Upton Sinclair  media type="youtube" key="eX7Z6fJicx0?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center"

Memorable Quotes from "The Jungle":  "﻿There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where things are behind bars, and the man is outside." (pg. 337)

"Only think that he had been a countryman all his life; and for three long years he had never seen a country sight nor heard a country sound!" (pg. 254)  "They are trying to save their souls-and who but a fool could fail to see that all that is the matter with their souls is that they have not been able to get a decent existence for their bodies?" (pg. 273)

What Others Have Said About the Book: "Of the numerous editions of "The Jungle" that are in print, this version is reasonably good and presented in a scholarly form. However, this version of The Jungle is not the original form. It has been drastically cut in length, with much of the slaughterhouse gore removed and the ethnic material cut way back. it would be best for readers to get the "Uncensored" verion of the novel put out by See Sharp Press." -Will Hancock.

"A social message wrapped in a pretty good story..." -G. Burnett

"Upton Sinclair's, "The Jungle," is the most shocking piece of literature that I have ever read. This almost compares with literature I have read about the Holocaust death camps, except that the immigrants are not murdered directly by their brutal slave drivers, instead they die from the poverty, disease, and starvation that envelopes them because of their low-wage jobs or unemployment. The novel is easy to understand and follow with many metaphors and straight forward writing that makes the story all the more horrifying." -Trudy Schneider

"Upton Sinclair takes us into a realm beyond our imagination. "The Jungle", which takes place in the Chicago stockyards in the early 1900s, shows the cruel treatment of immigrants and poor working and living conditions of the atmosphere in that era. Descriptive passages on the preparation and lack of meat in the stockyards will undoubtably make your stomach churn. The novel made me laugh and cry, and it is indeed a great classic to be enjoyed and reflected upon for decades to come." -Hope Georgia  One Last Video...

media type="youtube" key="kHF_BWfSPik?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center" Why I Chose the Previous Quotes and Videos:

Quote 1: This quote, in my mind, says a lot. When a man is in jail, he can't get out. He loves everything outside, where he wishes he could be because he is sick of being restricted behind bars. In this book, the main character, Jurgis, goes to jail for attacking anoter guy named Connor. Connor had forced adultery on Ona, Jurgis's wife, so Jurgis blindly attacks him, and is charged for the assault. This would go on through the book. When it says "there is another kind of prison where things are behind bars, and the man is outside," it means the man is restricted from his belongings. Quote 2: I chose this quote because it is explaining the changes in Jurgis's life from dispersing from Lithuania to Chicago. To be specific, Jurgis and his family moved to New York City when he was 10 years of age. He and his family may have lived in a different, less rural area before the time, so he was used to it. Since moving to New York, then Lithuania, then to Chicago, he has missed seeing the country surroundings. It's crazy in such big cities like those. Now, being in Chicago, he received a harsh job working in the fertilizer plant, and even shared a bed with his roomate, which is rather disturbing.

Quote 3: I chose this quote because it is saying that Jurgis and his family are throwing themselves into heavy working areas, where they could hurt themselves. But they have to do it because they are poor. They haven't given themselves an opportunity to let something good happen in their lives, so their souls don't really exist. I like the way the author uses this saying in these such words, because he grew up with a poor family, and a dad that had a bad drinking problem, so his dad was basically worthless. But, Sinclair managed to make nothing out of a successful life, spending his life with his rich grandparents. He went on to write his first novel, "Mannasses", which was about socialism- Sinclair was a Socialist.

Video 1: I chose this video because it showed the life and childhood of the author, Upton Sinclair. It explains he grew up around Socialists, then became one himself. It also shows how Sinclair went on to write his novel, "The Jungle."

Video 2: I chose this video because it shows the hopes, dreams, and desires that Jurgis had. It explained the working conditions in a sort of way, and you could see the "veselija", or wedding feast between him and his wike, Ona. It showed us how Jurgis and his family left Lithuania to go to America. They came to Chicago, which turned into a life-changing experience, and how a whole new world layed upon them.