Rating: 
Summary: Only the strong survive
Review: Beginning my quest on reading the 100 finest novels of the 20th century I began with the Jungle. I am glad it was my start. It clearly instructs where the Unions came from. It shows capitalism at its greediest. Socialism shines in those days but luckily the world found it didn't work. It was a wonderful novel except the last 35 or 40 pages which was only a speech of socialism which is now a moot point. I will read more of Mr. Sinclairs novels I hope I am as satisfied with the others as I was with the Jungle.
Rating: 
Summary: How much has really changed?
Review: Excellent book that tells the story of Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant who finds himself stuck in the Chicago stockyards. It traces his life in America, telling about all the horridness in the meat packing industry, which prompted the Food and Drug Act shortly after the book was written. It's a true account of what went on in the early 1900's, told in a fictional sort of way. It then proceeds through different manners of living at the bottom of society (i.e., theft, prostitution, political graft, etc.). The last few chapters, though, are mainly Sinclair preaching and raving about the benefits of socialism, which I think ends the story of Jurgis earlier than it needed to be. However, this book was written for the purpose of change during that time, and it probably did help considerably. However, if you also read "Fast Food Nation," which I highly reccommend, you have to wonder, really, how much has really changed? The faces may be different, but is the public not still led to believe by the government and the packing industry that all is fine and dandy with what we eat? Ugh, read both books... they'll scare you.
Rating:
Summary: An Antiquated, And Flawed View, But A Worthwhile Read
Review: Having read this as a high school freshman, I decided to take a new look at "The Jungle". "The Jungle", a model of the propongandistic novel, is the tale of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant to the Packing house district of Chicago. Written in 1905, it tells the story of Jurgis' working class family which had come to America in search of a better life.Arriving full of hope, Jurgis sought advancement through a home with the family, the Lithuanian Community, the Church, the industrial machine and politics. Time after time, the naive workman was taken by those whom Upton Sinclair regarded as the oppressors of the people. Every time Jurgis thought that he was a cog in the machine, he ended up being discarded when he was no longer useful to those in whom Jurgis had placed his trust. Upton Sinclair was disappointed with the results of his book. Intended to win converts to socialism, it was his description of conditions in the packing houses which aided in the enactment of the Pure Food and Drug Act. "The Jungle" can be appreciated on a number of levels. The action is well paced and holds the reader's interest. As a work of propaganda, it is a model specimen. As an historical insight, it lets the reader into the mind of an early Twentieth Century Socialist reformer. As a report of the life of the early industrial worker, it is entertaining, even if its details are exaggerated for effect. As a political statement, "The Jungle" is in the eyes of the reader. For the true believer, it conveys the truth. For the modern conservative, it is an antiquated and flawed view of the world, which, as time has shown, proposed a remedy which was never right. Which ever camp you fall into, or somewhere in between, "The Jungle" is worth a first, or a second, reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great Literature with unique irony and social commentary
Review: I decided to finally read this classic after reading Schlosser's work this year, Fast Food Nation. He mentioned the terrible conditions of the meat-packing plants today and I wanted to get an idea of what they began with back in Sinclair's time. I found this book to move very quickly as the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his demise is extensively fascinating. We begin with Jurgis and his family leaving Lithuania to come to the 'free' land of America for more opportunities. What they find is a situation where they pay their life savings for a home which they don't really own, a situation in which jobs are scarce and the available ones are very dangerous, and a plethora of new diseases and ailments which take away members of the family bit by bit. I enjoy the intense irony of this story because they came for freedom and found they themselves locked in poverty because of the capitalist society. The usurping heads of the meat industry end up controlling much more than their wages and their work hours. ...
Rating:
Summary: Superb book (even if you were assigned to read it).
Review: I'm the type of guy that can't stand many literary classics. I'm sorry, but I read a book for entertainment, not for metephors, meaning or symbolism. This is why it seems strange that I highly recommend this book. This book chronicles the life of immigrants from Lithuania who settle in Chicago in hopes of obtaining the American Dream. The way Sinclair describes the hardships of this family, it almost feels like you're the one who's suffering. Though depressing, the amount of detail engulfs the reader. Though the book is famous for exposing the meat packing industry's unsanitary conditions, it really is just a minor part of this book. The worker's rights, the racism, the corruption, and the poverty is what this book is all about. Though I'm a firm believer of Adam Smith and his invisible hand, half way through the book, I was searching for the local Socialist recruiter. Well, not really, but it will open anyone's mind. Except for the end, where it was just pure Socialist propoganda, this book is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Cow Tastes Good
Review: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a great book. It focuses on the hardships and despair of a family of Lithuanian immigrants, although in the end you're not quite sure what his focus was. It is a great book to read for entertainment as well as knowledge and provides a view of the world which most people never see, the bottom of the barrel.
The family faces a few too many tragedies to be realistic and the book becomes a spiel to promote socialism. But when you look past that, it really is a great book and a great chronicle of the working- mans hardships.
Rating: 
Summary: A well written story, muddled by Propaghanda
Review: The Jungle is the tale of a Lithuanian immigrant named Jurgis, and the struggles he and his family face when they come to the United States with dreams of striking it rich in the Chicago's Packingtown district. What the family finds instead of the immediate success that was promised them is cruelty, lies, coldness, and betrayal at the hands of their fellow man. Upton Sinclair paints a brilliant mental image for the reader, exposing us to the horrors of life in the meat packing district. Although I won't go as far as other reviewers, who vow that you "will never eat meat again!" or possibly "will go vegetarian for at least a few months" because of this book's graphic depiction of the disgusting and horrendously unclean methods of slaughter and preperation, I will say that if you have a weak stomach and a vivid imagination, you may want to be aware of what this book chornicles.
With that said, my review is mixed. On the one hand, Sinclair does well to introduce us to the conflics and daily routine of the poor working-classes who strived for a better life at the turn of the century. However, I found the book to be too full of summary for my liking. Too often, instead of telling the story of Jurgis' point of view, the focus was too much on everyone else in packingtown, and Jurgis was just an observer. True, many very bad things happened to Jurgis, enough to show the reader how bad things really were back then, so little time was spent on exploring the characters in Jurgis' family and life that it was hard to make a connection. The book is also fairly uneven--the first one-hundred or so pages is about Packingtown, with Jurgis simply thrown in as a human face. Soon after, however, when tragedy strikes his family, we really begin to find out more about Jurgis; the kind of man he is, and the kind of man he has always been, and how he is changing, be it for the better or for the worse. His experiences as a homeless "tramp" make up the most interesting story-line in the whole novel. Up till then, and after then, it is mostly flat and rarely focuses on any characters at all. As I've said, the first part of the book is mostly summary; the second part becomes a story; the third, and final, is all political testimony, and let me say that because of this the ending leaves alot to be desired. We find out what happens to the Socialist party in this book, but not of Jurgis and his family! Perhaps that is where I am the most frustrated by this novel. By the last chapter, Jurgis has become just a name the author gives to remind (or fool) the reader into thinking we're reading a novel and not a manifesto of sorts. The fact is, if Sinclair wanted to convince the world the horrible ways of Capitalism and the wonders of Socialism, he would have done far better to continue and finsish the novel through the eyes of Jurgis, and how the world affects him, not by a long-winded "conversation" between high-ranking Socialist Party members! In the end, the well told story of Jurgis' experiences in America becomes lost in a book that could hardly be called a novel at all. For his writing skills, I'll give Sinclair an A+, but for his ability as a story teller, I must give him a C-. So much more could have been written in this book, but instead the reader istrapped by politics.
Rating:
Summary: Overall
Review: The Jungle was a powerful tale about an immigrating family with high hopes and dreams that come crashing down on them. Written at the turn of the century, this book tells the real truth. Upton Sinclair captures the truth about working in the meat packing factories called "packingtown" and what life at homes was like. The Rudkus family has high hopes of living in riches as they travel to America. When they arrive they realize America is anything but what they had dreamed. They try to survive from paycheck to paycheck, and when they do get paid they usually spend it quicker than the last trying to make a good life for themselves and their families. If something good happens you can only expect something bad to come up in their path. The socialist type of government is really brought out in this story too. It is hard to imagine this really did happen in America only about 100 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and accurate historical portrayal of immigrants.
Review: This book is a wonderful look into the lives of an immigrant family in the early 1900's. Upton Sinclair was assigned to do an expose on the meatpacking industry in Chicago. The amazing part, what some people do not realize, is how factual the book really is. Since the book was published, only one discrepancy from the truth has been found; the inspector wore a different uniform. Sinclair's original topic was to inform the world of how "workingmen", as called by Sinclair, of the time were treated in the meatpacking plants of Chicago. Instead, the public centered on his description of how the meat was processed and reacted to that part of the story. This is one of the direct causes of the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair is noted as saying, "I aimed for [the public's] heart, and hit their stomach." The novel itself chronicles a Lithuanian family who immigrates to America in an effort to make a better life. Though this is not a factual family, many of it hardships were shared by families of this time period. The story is told through the experiences of the protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus. Jurgis is a good man at heart and tries his best to support his family. His efforts are met only with defeat. In many instances his family is taken advantage of because they cannot speak the language and do not understand the culture. Sinclair did a wonderful job describing the horrific conditions of immigrants and the "workingmen" in this time period. The scenes in the meatpacking facilities get quite graphic and gruesome at some points. Though this may disturb some, I believe it does a good job of giving the story some meat, no pun intended. The original basis of the story was to expose bad working conditions. These horrific incidents suffered by workers are described quite well, from losing of fingers while working, to falling into the vats of cooking meat and never being retrieved. I believe that all the gory details were described very well and were written in a realistic way that added to the story's purpose, which was to expose the meatpacking industry. It seems Sinclair had a hard time ending the book. In the last few chapters, Socialism is advocated as the answer to all wrongs. Sinclair, being a Socialist himself, may have wanted to add some of his own ideas to the end in order to try to sway the public's belief. I believe this detracted from the book and left the story dangling. Other than this fact, the entire book is well written, and I highly recommend it. The Jungle kept me intrigued, which many classics do not do, and I do not regret reading it in the least.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and accurate historical portrayal of immigrants.
Review: This book is a wonderful look into the lives of an immigrant family in the early 1900's. Upton Sinclair was assigned to do an expose on the meatpacking industry in Chicago. The amazing part, what some people do not realize, is how factual the book really is. Since the book was published, only one discrepancy from the truth has been found; the inspector wore a different uniform. Sinclair's original topic was to inform the world of how "workingmen", as called by Sinclair, of the time were treated in the meatpacking plants of Chicago. Instead, the public centered on his description of how the meat was processed and reacted to that part of the story. This is one of the direct causes of the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair is noted as saying, "I aimed for [the public's] heart, and hit their stomach." The novel itself chronicles a Lithuanian family who immigrates to America in an effort to make a better life. Though this is not a factual family, many of it hardships were shared by families of this time period. The story is told through the experiences of the protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus. Jurgis is a good man at heart and tries his best to support his family. His efforts are met only with defeat. In many instances his family is taken advantage of because they cannot speak the language and do not understand the culture. Sinclair did a wonderful job describing the horrific conditions of immigrants and the "workingmen" in this time period. The scenes in the meatpacking facilities get quite graphic and gruesome at some points. Though this may disturb some, I believe it does a good job of giving the story some meat, no pun intended. The original basis of the story was to expose bad working conditions. These horrific incidents suffered by workers are described quite well, from losing of fingers while working, to falling into the vats of cooking meat and never being retrieved. I believe that all the gory details were described very well and were written in a realistic way that added to the story's purpose, which was to expose the meatpacking industry. It seems Sinclair had a hard time ending the book. In the last few chapters, Socialism is advocated as the answer to all wrongs. Sinclair, being a Socialist himself, may have wanted to add some of his own ideas to the end in order to try to sway the public's belief. I believe this detracted from the book and left the story dangling. Other than this fact, the entire book is well written, and I highly recommend it. The Jungle kept me intrigued, which many classics do not do, and I do not regret reading it in the least.
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