Impressions of the Jungle from a Social Work Perspective

Impressions of the Jungle from a Social Work Perspective

Walquidia Sierra

Lehman College- Social Work Department

SWK 639: Social Welfare Institutions and Programs

Professor Becca CadoffJanuary 12, 2022

Impressions of the Jungle from a Social Work Perspective

Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, explores the conditions endured by immigrants during the Progressive Era. Sinclair uses vivid imagery and metaphors to describe the injustices, inequality, lack of equity, lack of resources, and human exploitation at the hands of capitalism. This paper seeks to identify the unique issues and barriers new immigrant families confronted in America. The social factors contributed to their distinct set of circumstances and the impact on immigrants and their families. It will focus on examining the similarities sustained today that continue to propagate social stratification and make upward mobility inaccessible to those at the bottom.  

Social Problems and Social Determinants

The Jungle introduces its readers to a Lithuanian family that migrated to Chicago. This family came to the United States seeking to find better opportunities and improve the lives of their family. They journeyed with sheer determination and a desire to work hard to forge social-economic climbing. Much to their disillusion, this family soon discovered that the American dream is not readily available to everyone and is exclusionary. The benefits of health care, housing security, and a decent life is reserved for those at the top.

In contrast, immigrants are contrived to a perpetual state of meagerness and survival. The system of capitalism enables those at the top to adopt a mentality that promotes a false sense of superiority as they believe their ability to endure is a result of being inherently stronger. However, the truth behind capitalism is insidious as it creates a caste system of the haves and have-nots (deserving vs. undeserving). These mores are aliening as individuals are only working to obtain self-sustenance, and there is no room for self-actualization or creativity to be nurtured or flourish. Economic mobility is controlled by a small minority which is decapitating and forces the masses to lose their labor power; inconsequence causes disenfranchisement. 

Under this system, the family disintegrates, and essential values, unity, and respect are lost. 

Life in the United States brought on a host of social inequities stemming from the imbalance of wealth distribution and industrialization. Many of these families who worked in the meatpacking industry worked under the most dehumanizing and dire conditions while receiving low wages. Industrialization led to many social inequities, such as extreme poverty, hunger, homelessness, housing displacement, poor sanitary conditions- permitted diseases to spread rapidly. They were forced to work under poor and unsafe conditions, thus suffering severe health consequences and death because of no access to health care. 

Exposure to the city slums extreme levels of deprivation affected their mental health, pushing them to find refuge and escape drug use, alcoholism, and prostitution. They were victims of unjust imprisonments, harsh legal fines/bails, and police brutality. 

Character Analysis

Women were raped, preyed on, and forced into prostitution. Brothels became the escape and the prison simultaneously. Sinclair illustrated how a proud, hardworking, audacious, strong woman like Marija became dispirited and fell victim to sexual exploitation, drug addiction, and corruption. 

Her once assiduous and defiant spirit was annihilated as there was no safety for women like her. Ona (Jurgis’s wife), a timid, kind, loving young woman, was destroyed by sexual violence, impunity, and the disintegration of the family. 

She ultimately lost her life, as she did not have prenatal and postpartum care access. Unfortunately, the experiences of these women epitomize the norm and are not the exception for immigrant women in America. They fail victims of unabated abuse and suffer insurmountable pain-losses. 

Jurgis, the family patriarch, arrived in the United States with vigor to work hard and the faith that the American Dream rewards hard work. 

However, his reality was grim; the American Dream was the immigrant nightmare. He found himself taking on labor that only exploited him and compromised his health. 

To his dismay, he learned that hard work only benefits those at the top and allows those in positions of power and wealth to become wealthier, hence more powerful. 

As a result, of capitalism, he lost his ability to protect or provide for his family-becoming completely emasculated and abused. 

Despair took over, and he obtained some relief by engaging in risky sexual behaviors, criminality, and alcoholism. With capitalism, Jurgis lost his sense of self, values, and family. 

Jurgis’s set-of circumstances were not unique and represented the status quo as many immigrants shared the same experience.

Review of Social Problems

Sinclair demonstrated by exploring the Rudkus family American experience that unfair distribution of wealth is oppressing and marginalizing. 

Those micro acts of generosity, such as the one exhibited by the wealthy white lady that referred Jurgis for employment, provide no sustainable relief. Sustainability and inclusivity are accomplished through macro initiatives that bring visibility to the systemic, institutional organisms that create structures that disenfranchise those most in need. Policies and programs should be designed around eradicating social ills and alleviating the conditions of those at the bottom. Such policies afford opportunities for upward mobility to individuals under the dominance of capitalism. He highlighted the significance of implementing a system of checks and balances where the fate of its people is not governed by private markets and small pockets of concentrated power and wealth but instead designed in a way that can fairly distribute resources while closing the societal social-economic inequalities the precipitates disparities amongst its most vulnerable citizens. 

These policies encompass the needs of the poor, elderly, disabled, under-age, women, and disadvantaged.

Unsafe Employment Conditions

The workspaces described in the Jungle represent the inhumane condition bred by capitalism. The constant presence of filth, the foul odor was ever-present, like an inescapable web, reminding them of their plight. The workers had no reprieve; work was taxing and ruthless. A capitalistic society values revenue and production over its employees’ health, safety, and morale. Tamoszius explains capitalism honestly to Jurgis by saying that the owners of meatpacking factories are only concerned with making money and have no regard for the quality of the product or human life. The unsanitary environment is the stomping ground for the spread of dangerous illnesses as the overcrowded workspace fosters its success. 

Greed and hoarding of resources, money cause the working class and immigrants great pain. These circumstances instigate divisiveness as people are pinned against each other-opportunities are scarce, and job insecurity is pervasive.    

Corruption

According to Sinclair, corruption in a capitalistic society occupies high governmental positions and makes it possible to live better. 

Corruption in high places is seen when Jurgis crosses paths with Harper-a vote buyer working for a corrupt politician in Chicago. An election is approaching, and Jurgis is offered a job as a hog trimmer, which allows him to galvanize votes in favor of republic candidates by ushering in groups of immigrant workers from stockyards to vote. Jurgis demonstrates he is valuable and helpful at securing a victory for the republican party. His participation in corruption allows him to earn three hundred dollars and negotiate other jobs. This is the first time he has made decent wages and is treated as an asset. The problem with corruption is that it disengages people like Jurgis from effectuating the societal changes that bring-forth social-economic improvement. Now, Jurgis is a recipient and part of the perpetual problem as corruption is the only means to move upward. His short-lived success reveals why corruption only works for a few who hold all the power. We saw how Jurgis’s employment security was stripped from under him when he sought retribution for Phil’s abuse against his wife. He was returned to his mediocre position, scramming to survive.   

Family strengths

Throughout the Jungle, Upton Sinclair illustrated the many strengths the family possessed individually and as a family. Their strengths and collective resilience allowed them to forge a sense of community and support each other as they faced insurmountable obstacles. Much of their ability to survive is a direct result of strong family ties; undoubtedly, much of their survival is attributed to their individual and shared tenacity. 

In the following text, there are various instances of individual strength, family unity, love, and shared communal hardship. These strengths are not only transcending but lifesaving.   

Marija, like Jurgis, shared similarities around their ability to engage in strenuous labor as they were physically strong. This characteristic allowed them to withstand harsh labor conditions. We saw how Ona and Stanislovas were forced to work after the family was scammed into buying a home in poor conditions and whose payments did not reflect the initial agreement. This fraudulent act of deception pushed the family into more financial hardship and despair- leaving them no other option than to join the family attempt to provide sustenance. Their dedication and commitment to helping the family epitomize collective strength and unity in contributing to their needs. Their actions demonstrate a great sense of family and responsibility. Teta Ekzabieta represents the nucleus that holds the family together- she is resilient, optimistic, and faithful. Her inner strength is unwavering as she has to endure the loss of her two children, her stepdaughter, and the abandonment of her brother Jonas and Jurgis. Teta remains true to her family traditions, believing that family unity is essential to survival. Her empathy and compassion were most notable in her forgiving Jurgis for abandoning the family and allowing him back in. 

The family’s greatest testament of strength and determination is exemplified when Jurgis attends a socialist meeting, and Teta is open to listening and exploring a new and reformed way of government. Jurgis attending a socialist meeting and reflecting upon ways to structurally and institutionally effectuate the governmental and societal changes he and his family need indicates that he remains vigilant and hopeful that the American Dream will materialize for him. One day, he and his family will reap the benefit of their hard work. It also demonstrates that he understands that change is brought on by mobilizing the individual and the collective. His actions serve as proof that the negative experiences of capitalism have not completely dispirited him or his family, that they continue to move forward in faith and confidence in their capacity to participate in the change they need.  

Past and Present Struggles

Immigrants and the poor at the time the Jungle was written are subject to many of the same harsh realities of the immigrants and poor people of today. The Jungle gave a demonstration that the struggles of the past continue to plague those who are disadvantaged by capitalism. Capitalism seeks hoarded wealth and disenfranchises people most in need. Upton Sinclair provided tangible representations of systems, institutions, and industries that maintain the status quo, abuse, and exploit immigrants and the poor alike. We have seen how immigrants are mistreated and marginalized today as in the Progressive Era. Mistreatment of children is prevalent as children are separated from their parents at the U.S. border and placed in prison-like animal cages. The environments where immigrant children are held today at immigration detention centers are comparable to the meatpacking factories, deeply afflicted with unsanitary housing, diseases, and maltreatment of the most vulnerable. Detention Centers are no different from the meatpacking industry as it is not concerned with the impact, trauma, and harm it is inflicting upon those who are defenseless. Children who are exposed to inhumane situations fall victim’ to sexual exploitation/denigration, physical and emotional abuse. A capitalistic society places value on profit over the lives and upward mobility of those less privileged.  

The Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic proliferated ideologies that favor Darwinism- some people or groups are born naturally superior/more potent than others. During the pandemic, ideas of superiority resurfaced as narratives supporting whites’ natural ability to fight off COVID19 related illnesses allowed them to suffer fewer hospitalizations and death. The notion that whites have innately more robust immune systems thus can combat COVID19 better did not consider the social, environmental, and economic factors that caused non-whites (Black and Latinos) to experience higher mortality and hospitalizations rates. The same divisive perception was propagated during the Progressive Era, where it was believed that American’s were naturally stronger while immigrants were inherently weaker and, as a result, got sicker, developed diseases.   

The reality is that biological reasons are not the cause of health disparities; in fact, many of the same conditions that immigrants and the poor encounter during the time of the Jungle they face today. The spread of COVID19 and other diseases are the product of living or working in overpopulated spaces, lack of access to health care, pre-existing medical issues stemming from food insecurity, or poor food choices. Immigrants had to work throughout the pandemic as many were essential workers and front-line workers. They did not have the luxury of working from home, retreating to homes outside of highly congested areas, or taking time off from work. Like Jurgis, immigrants today are a paycheck away from becoming homeless; an interruption of wages can have detrimental consequences to their sustenance and their families.

Conclusion

Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle allowed its readers to see that capitalism continues to be as destructive and insidious as it was 100 years ago. Immigrants continue to be exploited, and corruption reigns and resides in high places-monopolizing all opportunities and limiting social-economic climbing. Children, women, the elderly, immigrants, and the poor are most subject to abuse and exploitation. For many, crime represents the only option out of destitution and towards progress. Environmental inequalities and inequities are as dominant today as they were in the past. Immigrants, however, are hopeful and exploring ways in which they can galvanize and join others in effectuating social change. Some victories towards justice, equality, and uplifting human rights have been sustained; much work is still required as capitalism has created a caste system that seems inescapable.           

References

Sinclair. (1906). The Jungle, Page 21. Columbia, SC: Amazon