When I was in tenth grade, my high school English teacher forced my class to read the most mundane novel of my high school career: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. For anyone who has never read it, Sinclair’s novel depicts the story of a Lithuanian man named Jurgis who immigrated to Chicago with his wife during the early twentieth century and began working in the meatpacking industry.
Because the particular course was meant to connect with material being learned in AP U.S. History, the curriculum aimed to have APUSH students read this book to comprehensively learn about the harsh and filthy industrial conditions experienced by immigrants in the United States during the 1900s and how this book led to the creation of new laws governing the meatpacking industry.
Maybe other people had better experiences with this book, but I rate The Jungle as a 3/10.
Much to my and my classmates’ dismay, we found the writing of Sinclair to be tediously complex. Due to the vivid and grotesque descriptions, I did not enjoy the read, as I encountered several “TMI” moments. To make it easier to grasp my point, I took the time to look up some of my “favorite” quotes from the novel:
“. . . this [dishwashing] is most filthy and deadening and brutalizing work: that it is a cause of anemia, nervousness, ugliness, and ill-temper: of prostitution, suicide, and insanity; of drunken husbands and degenerate children — for all of which things the community has naturally to pay.”
“There were high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax.”
“They use everything about the hog except the squeal.”
Undoubtedly, quotes like these made reading the novel a highly cringe-worthy experience. Although, one can argue that these descriptions fulfilled the author’s purpose of demonstrating the disgusting conditions of industrial life in twentieth century America. Sinclair chose his words for a reason; he wrote the book to invoke change that creates laws to prevent the exploitation of workers in the capitalistic society.
I cannot argue what Sinclair did to accomplish his purpose because he was successful in changing American society for the better. As result of the publishing of his book, the public became aware of malpractices by the meatpacking industry. Their shock and surprise raised concern for the sanitation of the meat distributed by the meatpacking industry, and this encouraged the creation of new federal laws concerning food regulations.
With that said, my main issue with the novel, however, was that the language was relatively difficult to read, especially in comparison to other books read in high school. Despite the vivid use of words, I experienced difficulty paying attention to the writing because it was so complex. Consisting of 400-500 pages, the novel seemed rather drawn-out and excessive. This caused most students to abandon any attempt at reading the book after the first chapter, which negated the literary merit that they were meant to comprehend. It didn’t help that we only had about a week to read the book, during a time when several tests were being held, as well.
Rather than reading the book thoroughly, I personally skimmed through the bulk of the middle and the end of the novel simply to get the homework finished. Taking the time to interpret the author’s intricate details was far too time-consuming and, quite frankly, boring. I remember sitting on my living room couch, scanning the pages as quickly as possible the night before it was due to complete the assignment in a timely fashion.
When it came to writing the literary analysis for this novel, my class had to compare this book this to a movie we watched during school called Food, Inc., which essentially exposes present-day malpractices by major food corporations like Monsanto. To complete the essay, nearly everyone felt the need to resort to Sparknotes to figure out what to say about The Jungle.
Overall, the school curriculum’s goal of teaching students about life in twentieth century America failed because the vast majority of us only completed the assignment to get it done, not to legitimately comprehend the concepts that the novel explores.
Although I think The Jungle serves as good choice of a book to read as one that challenges reading comprehension skills, perhaps modifying the assignment to allow students more time to read the novel would have been better for students to gain from the work. Perhaps even assigning a completely different title altogether would be more beneficial for the students. Despite that there will probably always be at least a small portion of students who neglect to read assigned books, this novel practically guarantees it through the boring complexity of the writing.
Though I’ve never read the book, from reading your description, I am so sorry you had to. I understand why reading challenging books can be beneficial to gaining knowledge, but I don’t think that picking such a graphic novel is effective in teaching anyone anything. Essentially, thanks for the heads up so I know to never read this book unless I’m assigned to it!
Ooh, really interesting. I’ve never read The Jungle, but it does sound quite tedious to read from what you’ve said. In your first post, I saw a reply suggesting you review Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. First, I totally second that, because Dickens is one of my favorite authors ever. However, some of the quotes you mentioned from The Jungle remind me of Dickens’s long, drawn out descriptive paragraphs. Specifically, I remember one passage from A Tale of Two Cities when Dickens was describing hunger, personifying it in fact, to be omnipresent among the streets of Saint Antoine. Dickens and Sinclair both seem to feel the need to write these vivid descriptions to force the reader to take the time to realize the brutality or gravity of the issue at hand. Metaphorically speaking, they don’t let you skim through. Another author that these descriptive quotes remind me of is J.R. Tolkein. Everyone I know who has read the Lord of the Rings books has said he takes a whole chapter to describe the leaves on a tree (perhaps that is an exaggeration, but the essence is the same). Anyhow, I definitely agree with you that these long descriptions are tedious and many times, unnecessary. Because I’ve never read The Jungle I’m not sure if they were powerful like Dickens’s imagery was, but hooray for him achieving his purpose at least!
I feel compelled to make it clear that he didn’t achieve “his purpose” in writing this book.
The Jungle is a passionate call for Socialist revolution. It is a damning condemnation of society and its masters.
New industrial regulations were an incidental response. They were very much not the intended purpose of the text.
As an English major, I feel it is grossly (no pun intended) unfair to critique The Jungle in this manner, considering you admit yourself that you didn’t actually read it.
Right on
Thank you very much!
Talk about cringy!
It’s all about text complexity now. How about comparing it to Kafka’s the Metamorphosis, child labor, and father controlled apprenticeships, thing adolescents would do well to reflect on?
I ask students in a Modern American Lit course to read just the first chapter of The Jungle, which is a beautiful narration of a wedding celebration in the immigrant hard-working-class community. The Lithuanian immigrants working in ‘meatpacking’ were especially exploited, which makes the urge to fulfill the cultural traditions and rise above the drudgery of daily toil all the more desperate — and admirable. The scene is rendered in stunning, poignant detail. I highly recommend this chapter, whether or not the reader proceeds through more of the novel.
This just sounds like the comments of a lazy, apathetic student who has the attention span of gnat.
Accurate. Thank you for this.
I love The Jungle. I reread it every few years. The suffering of that family (the work, the housing, etc.) is a great example of the struggle of recent immigrants. Perhaps give it an actual read. It’s a treasure.
It was required reading in our in 8th grade literature class. It was impactful and has stuck with me my entire life. It was obviously written for adults not teens but I didn’t think it was particularly difficult to read. The teacher and school likewise thought it was comprehendible by 8th graders so certainly in high school not unreasonable.