Sample Essay 2: History or Literature, Exercises of History

Download Sample Essay 2: History or Literature and more Exercises History in PDF only on Docsity! Sample Essay 2: History or Literature Grade and comment on this paper, which is a final draft of an essay examining a theme found in the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The student chose the theme and developed it in consultation with you and with classmates. In your comments, focus on 1) which elements of the paper support the grade it was given, 2) the development and support of the student’s chosen theme, 3) the use and integration of quotations as support, and 4) issues in grammar and usage. Dehumanization in Laissez-Faire Capitalist World In Upton Sinclair's turn-of-the-century novel, The Jungle, human lives parallel with animals and commodities. Sinclair uses vivid descriptions and metaphor to create a space in which people are driven by laissez-faire capitalism to compete for survival. Sinclair uses various types of metaphor to dehumanize the working class people and develop a ruthless Darwinism world in order to promote his belief-Socialism. The poor working people use every bit of strength in order to carry on; however, their effort is not always responded. By describing the depressing life of Jurgis, the protagonist of this novel, and his family, Sinclair reveals the ugly side of capitalism. According to Darwin's theory, "survival of the fittest" is the principle of animal evolution. In The Jungle, these working-class people associate with animals for they endlessly compete and fight for living. Their living and working conditions, in the readers' eyes, are considered awful; they work slavishly like animals, yet are even unable to achieve what they dream of. Living appears to be a luxury for these poor workers; their American dream is deformed. To make the capitalist society into a competitive and ruthless Darwinism jungle, the most often used metaphor in The Jungle is animal. Sinclair parallels the workers with weak creatures or rough beasts to dehumanize them and make the readers treat them with extra sympathy. "… … he [Jurgis] lived like a dumb beast of burden, knowing only the moment in which he was"(140). "Then Jurgis fought like a wild beast … …"(202). "Jurgis lifted up his head and began to sniff the air like a startled animal-scenting the far-off odor of home"(174). By associating Jurgis with beast, Sinclair takes away humanity from this character and makes Jurgis become merely a struggling creature that uses its primitive instincts to live. On the other hand, dehumanization functions to show these poor people's struggling and persistence in this merciless world. Elzbieta was one of the primitive creatures: like the angleworm, which goes on living though cut in half; like a hen, which, deprived of her chickens one by one, will mother the last that is left her. She did this because it was her nature-she asked no questions about the justice of it, nor the worthwhileness of life in which destruction and death ran riot(193). Elzbieta survives and persists like an angleworm or a hen that accepts the torturous reality without questioning the meaning of life nor speaking for her dignity. Sinclair associates these characters with inhuman activities; here, he shows a depressed aspect of their lives that the only element left is the hope to carry on. In addition to being like animals, these characters are sometimes even lower than ordinary animals as Sinclair describes. "And now here he [Old Antanas] was, worn out in soul and body, and with no more place in the world than a sick dog"(58). By comparing Old Antanas, Jurgis' father, with a sick dog, Sinclair portrays a scene of a pathetic old man with no strength and ability who has merely the value of a sick dog in this capitalist system. Over and above being nonhuman, these people are trapped, and preys of strong and powerful ones in the capitalist society. "They were like rats in a trap, that was the truth; and more of them were piling in every day"(66). Immigrating to the United States, these people believe in American dream; nevertheless, by coming here, they on the contrary become trapped and helpless in this capitalist nation. "All of these things had worked together for the company that had marked them for its prey and was waiting for its chance"(178). Wild animals in the jungle probably have more rights and opportunities than the characters in The Jungle; these poor working people are trapped, unable to move, and waiting for the predators to consume them. Their situation is even inferior to the wild animals' for the workers are not capable to govern their own lives and be the masters of themselves. Sinclair portrays a merciless meat-packing industry for both the slaughtered animals and people working there. Similar to the animals killed and sale in Packingtown, the people working there have no control