Advanced Placement Language and Composition
Ball High School
Summer Reading Assignment 2
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Objectives, Author back ground information, Definitions and Terms, and Historical Connection Included
AP Students must complete the attached discussion questions for each chapter and compose one essay discussing one of the attached prompts.
The Jungle
Objectives
By the end of this unit, the student will be able to:
1. Relate significant details from the story illustrating the hardships the men and women endure working in the Chicago stockyards in the early 1900’s.
2. Define vocabulary words from the text.
3. Point out instances of the following literary devices: allusion, flashback, in media res, foreshadowing, and irony.
4. Discuss the following themes:
• People in authority use their positions to take advantage of others.
• The capitalist economic system promotes economic efficiency at the expense of the health of the people.
• The capitalist economic system promotes anti-social behavior.
• There is little justice in a capitalist economic system for the lower class, the unskilled laborer.
• Those in authority in the capitalist system will take unfair advantage over those less powerful.
• In a capitalist society, marriage and children severely limit a man’s economic prospects.
5. Point out instances of the following uses of language: descriptive imagery, personification, simile, metaphor, and repetition.
6. Cite incidents from the story to illustrate that Jurgis is an example of the classic literary type, a naif.
7. Discuss in what sense Sinclair’s description of the killing of the hogs is an allegory representing the lives of the unskilled stockyard workers.
8. Define “muckraker,” and point out details which illustrate The Jungle is a muckraking novel; comment on the author’s reasons for writing a muckraking novel.
9. Discuss the following as possible symbols in the story: the house Jurgis buys, Jurgis’ bath in the stream, and Marija.
10. Define the following terms associated with the stockyards: pacemakers, speeding up, graft, the War Whoop League, the killing beds, duffers and dope, blacklisted, and scab.
11. Understand the differences between a capitalist economic system and a socialist economic system including the definitions of the following terms: competitive wage system, Communism, and proletariat.
12. Discuss the extent to which labor unions in this novel are effective in helping to improve working conditions for the unskilled laborer.
13. Point out incidents in the story which illustrate the following characteristics of the naturalistic movement in literature:
• People in lower economic classes who must fight against overwhelming odds to survive.
• An urban rather than a rural setting.
• A story that describes the harsh realities of life and the unsuccessful attempts that the characters make to change the circumstances of their lives.
14. Discuss the significance of the title of this story; include: the importance of Sinclair’s use of animal imagery and his ties to the naturalistic movement in literature.
15. Relate significant details from the story to illustrate Sinclair’s belief that in a capitalist economic system, the justice system, the political system, and big businesses all work together to oppress the working man.
16. Cite instances from the story to trace Jurgis’ transformation from a naive immigrant, to a disillusioned, defeated man, to a criminal, and finally to a socialist.
17. Discuss how Jurgis’ journey also serves to illustrate Sinclair’s naturalistic writing style and his socialist beliefs.
18. Discuss the pros and cons of Schliemann’s vision of a socialist society and state your opinion of the merits of his position.
19. Comment on the ending of the story and the extent to which you believe the ending provides a satisfying conclusion to the story of Jurgis’ life.
The Jungle
Definitions and Terms
Allegory - a story that represents abstract ideas or moral qualities. As such, an allegory has both a literal level and a symbolic level of meaning. Example: Gulliver’s Travels.
Allusion - a reference to a person, place, poem, book, event, or movie outside of the story that the author expects the reader will recognize. Example: In The Glass Menagerie, Tom speaks of “Chamberlain’s umbrella,” a reference to the British Prime Minister.
Climax - the point of greatest dramatic tension or excitement in a story. Example: Othello’s murder of Desdemona.
Flashback - a scene that interrupts the ongoing action in a story to show an event that happened earlier.
Foreshadowing- the use of hints or clues in a story to suggest what action is to come. Foreshadowing is frequently used to create interest and build suspense.
Imagery - the use of words to evoke sensory impressions that are beyond the words themselves. Imagery is similar to symbol and motif. Example: “Get thee to a nunnery,” from Hamlet implies purity and chastity, not simply a convent.
In media res - a Latin expression meaning the story begins in the middle of the action. Example: the audience listening to an epic already knew most of the details, the teller of the tale did not need to start at the beginning of the action.
Irony - a subtle, sometimes humorous perception of inconsistency in which the significance of a statement or event is changed by its content. For example: the firehouse burned down.
• Dramatic irony - the audience knows more about a character’s situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary from the character’s expectations. The character’s statements have one meaning for the character and a different meaning for the reader, who knows more than the character.
• Structural irony - a naïve hero whose view of the world differs from the author’s and reader’s. Structural irony flatters the reader’s intelligence at the expense of the hero.
• Verbal irony - a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant; sarcasm. Example: calling a stupid man smart.
Metaphor - a comparison of two things that are basically dissimilar but are brought together in order to create a sharp image. Example: The moon, a haunting lantern, shone through the clouds.
Mood - the emotional aspect of the work, which contributes to the feeling the reader gets from the book. Example: Gothic novels like Frankenstein have a gloomy, dark quality to them reflected by nature, character, and plot.
Naif - an innocent; a person unfamiliar and unaware of the dangers and temptations of the world. Examples: Benjy in the Sound and the Fury.
Narrator - the one who tells the story. If the narrator is a character in the book, the term is first-person narration. (Example: Moby Dick is narrated by Ishmael, a crew member). If the narrator is not a character, the term is third-person narration. (Example: Sense and Sensibility).
Naturalism - a literary movement that began in the late nineteenth century, which emphasized that man was as much a prisoner of instinct, environment, and heredity as animals; man has no free will in the theory of naturalism. Examples: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, The Call of the Wild.
Personification - a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human characteristics. Example: The pig laughed all the way to the barn.
Propaganda literature – writing designed to sway and persuade the reader toward or away
form a certain belief. Ex: Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Protagonist - the central or main character in a story around which the plot centers. Example: Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.
Round Character - characters that have many sides; they have both faults and virtues and, therefore, are able to surprise the reader. They are more like real people. Example: Shylock in The Merchant of Venice is both arrogant and humble.
Sarcasm - the use of harsh words to deride someone. Sometimes sarcasm is only apparent by
the way something is said rather than the actual words that are used. Example: Stage directions in The Taming of the Shrew are sometimes meant sarcastically.
Setting - when and where the short story, play, or novel takes place. Example: Macbeth takes place in the eleventh century in Scotland, which greatly influences the story and adds the elements of truthfulness to its violence.
Simile - a comparison between two different things using either like or as. Example: I am as hungry as a horse.
Symbol - an object, person, or place that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, usually an idea or concept; some concrete thing which represents an abstraction. Example: The sea could be symbolic for “the unknown;” since the sea is something which is physical and can be seen by the reader, but has elements which cannot be understood, it can be used symbolically to stand for the abstraction of “mystery,” “obscurity,” or “the unknown.”
Theme - the central or dominant idea behind the story; the most important aspect that emerges from how the book treats its subject. Sometimes theme is easy to see, but, at other times, it may be more difficult. Theme is usually expressed indirectly, as an element the reader must figure out. It is a universal statement about humanity, rather than a simple statement dealing with plot or characters in the story. Themes are generally hinted at through different devices: a phrase or quotation that introduces the novel, a recurring element in the book, or an observation made that is reinforced through plot, dialogue, or characters. It must be emphasized that not all works of literature have themes in them.
In a story about a man who is diagnosed with cancer and, through medicine and will-power, returns to his former occupation, the theme might be: “real courage is demonstrated through internal bravery and perseverance.” In a poem about a flower that grows, blooms, and dies, the theme might be: “youth fades and death comes to all.”
Tone - the atmosphere in a literary work or the attitude the author puts in a literary work. Examples: The gloom and representation of decay is the dominant tone in Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher; the tone of Catch-22 is one of sarcasm and absurdity.__
The Jungle
Historical Connection
One of Upton Sinclair’s purposes in writing this novel was to expose the abuses of the meat packing industry in the early 1900’s, which he does in graphic detail. Due to the outrage of the public, which read the book in a serial form, the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Acts were established.
In addition to muckraking, The Jungle is also an example of naturalistic fiction, a type of literature that describes the often harsh realities of life in an effort to illustrate the naturalistic principle of the survival of the fittest.
Sinclair was also a socialist who believed that the capitalist economic system was responsible for all of the working man’s troubles. In The Jungle, Sinclair relentlessly points out the flaws in capitalism and brazenly presents socialism as the solution to all of the workers’ problems. Some students may be disturbed by a novel that criticizes “the American way,” but it is important for students in today’s global economy to understand why some people or some cultures might dislike our capitalistic system.
It must be noted that in one small section of this story, Sinclair uses prejudicial language to describe African-Americans, which, unfortunately, was commonly accepted at the time; there are also mentions of prostitutes and prostitution and a few slight uses of profanity.
The Jungle contains many horrible details depicting the suffering of the immigrant family, which may be disturbing to some readers. The book also served as a vehicle to promote Upton Sinclair’s socialist, anti-capitalist beliefs. Numerous questions deal with that type of propagandizing. Students should be aware that Sinclair’s views colored his thoughts and writings.
Themes of The Jungle
Students must compose one paragraph discussing each of the following themes:
1. People in authority use their positions to take advantage of others.
2. The capitalist economic system promotes economic efficiency at the expense of the health of the people.
3. The capitalist economic system promotes anti-social behavior.
4. There is little justice in a capitalist economic system for the lower class, the unskilled laborer.
5. Those in authority in the capitalist system will take unfair advantage over those less powerful.
6. In a capitalist society, marriage and children severely limit a man’s economic prospects.
Some of these themes are not clear-cut. You must close read and critically analyze in order to comprehend the above themes.
For each of the 6 themes listed above, you must write at least a one paragraph analysis. Each paragraph must have the theme asserted, specific evidence from the text that supports this theme and an explanation creating the rationale between the evidence and the assertion. These need to be either hand written or typed with Times New Roman 12 font. Please skip lines between each paragraph.
In addition, students must answer each of the following study questions, and compose one essay. (Prompts are included after the study questions-pick one of the six and write a well-developed analysis.)
Study Questions:
Chapter One
1. Many interesting and important characters are introduced in this chapter. Briefly describe the following characters appearance, personality, occupation, and relationships to other characters:
a. Marija Berczynskas
b. Ona Lukoszaite
c. Jurgis Rudkus
d. Teta Elzbieta
e. Tamoszius Kuszleika
f. Dede Antanas
g. Jokubas and Lucija Szedvilas
2. The Jungle was originally published in a socialist newspaper, Appeal to Reason, in serial form in 1905. Sinclair’s assignment was to expose the injustices the workers at the Chicago stockyards must endure to survive. Use the following excerpt to answer the next three questions. Mikolas and Alena Jadvyga are in love and have wanted to marry for five years, but they are unable to save enough money.
“This is the fi fth year, now, that Jadvyga has been engaged to Mikolas, and her heart is sick.
They would have been married in the beginning, only Mikolas has a father who is drunk all
day, and he is the only other man in a large family. Even so they might have managed it (for
Mikolas is a skilled man) but for cruel accidents which have almost taken the heart out of
them. He is a beef-boner, and that is a dangerous trade, especially when you are on piece-work
and trying to earn a bride. Your hands are slippery, and your knife is slippery, and you are
toiling like mad, when somebody happens to speak to you, or you strike a bone. Then your
hand slips up on the blade, and there is a fearful gash. And that would not be so bad, only for
the deadly contagion. The cut may heal, but you never can tell. Twice now; within the last
three years, Mikolas has been lying at home with blood poisoning – once for three months
and once for nearly seven. The last time, too, he lost his job, and that meant six weeks more
of standing at the doors of the packing-houses, at six o’clock on bitter winter mornings, with
a foot of snow on the ground and more in the air. There are learned people who can tell you
out of the statistics that beef-boners make forty cents an hour, but, perhaps, these people have
never looked into a beef-boner’s hands.” (Pgs. 20-21)
A. What social injustice(s) is described in the above excerpt?
B. Find an additional example of social injustice in this chapter.
C. Most of this novel is written in the third-person point of view. At what point in this passage does the narrator seem to be speaking directly to the reader rather than relating the thoughts and feelings of the characters in a detached, godlike manner typical of third-person narration? Why do you think Sinclair chooses to address the reader directly?
Chapter Two
3. The literary term “in media res” means to begin in the middle of the action. In Chapter 1, Sinclair begins the story by describing Jurgis and Ona’s wedding. Why do you think he begins the novel in this way?
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
16. The flashback from Chapters 2 through 6 ends at the beginning of Chapter 7. Sinclair writes,
“It [Ona and Jurgis’ wedding] was a bitter and cruel experience, and it plunged them into an agony of despair. Such a time, of all times, for them to have it, when their hearts were made tender! Such a pitiful beginning it was for their married life; they loved each other so, and they could not have the briefest respite! It was a time when everything cried out to them that they ought to be happy; when wonder burned in their hearts, and leaped into flame at the slightest breath.…Over them, relentless and savage, there cracked the lash of want; the morning after the wedding it sought them as they slept, and drove them out before daybreak to work.” (Pg. 75)
In what sense is this passage an example of irony? Point out a metaphor and personification.
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
“But there was no place a girl could go in Packingtown, if she was particular about things of this sort; there was no place in it where a prostitute could not get along better than a decent girl. Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers; under such circumstances immorality was exactly as inevitable, and as prevalent, as it was under the system of chattel slavery. Things that were quite unspeakable went on there in the packing houses all the time, and were taken for granted by everybody; only they did not show, as in the old slavery times, because there was no difference in color between master and slave.” (Pg. 107)
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
37. The animal imagery in the following excerpt is particularly strong. Based on this imagery, what do you think is the significance of the title of this story?
“The beginning of these perplexing things was in the summer; and each time Ona would promise him with terror in her voice that it would not happen again – but in vain. Each crisis would leave Jurgis more and more frightened, more disposed to distrust Elzbieta’s consolations, and to believe that there was some terrible thing about all this that he was not allowed to know. Once or twice in these outbreaks he caught Ona’s eye, and it seemed to him like the eye of a hunted animal; there were broken phrases of anguish and despair now and then, amid her frantic weeping. It was only because he was so numb and beaten himself that Jurgis did not worry more about this. But he never thought of it, except when he was dragged to it– he lived like a dumb beast of burden, knowing only the moment in which he was.” (Pg. 137)
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
“Didn’t he ever wonder about his family, Jurgis asked. Sometimes, the other answered, but not often – he didn’t allow it. Thinking about it would make it no better. This wasn’t a world in which a man had any business with a family; sooner or later Jurgis would find that out also, and give up the fight and shift for
himself.” (Pg. 159)
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
“The word rang through him like the sound of a bell, echoing in the far depths of him, making forgotten chords to vibrate, old shadowy fears to stir – fears of the dark, fears of the void, fears of annihilation. She was dead! She was dead! He would never see her again, never hear her again! An icy horror of loneliness seized him; he saw himself standing apart and watching all the world fade away from him – a world of shadows, of fi ckle dreams. He was like a little child, in his fright and grief; he called and called, and got no answer, and his cries of despair echoed through the house, making the women down-stairs draw nearer to each other in fear. He was inconsolable, beside himself – the priest came and laid his hand upon his shoulder and whispered to him, but he heard not a sound. He was gone away himself, stumbling through the shadows, and groping after the soul that had fl ed.” (Pgs. 183-184)
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
“Jurgis stood where the balcony of the theater would have been, and opposite, by the stage, he saw three giant caldrons, big enough for all the devils of hell to brew their broth in, full of something white and blinding, bubbling and splashing, roaring as if volcanoes were blowing through it – one had to shout to be heard in the place. Liquid fi re would leap from these caldrons and scatter like bombs below – and men were working there, seeming careless, so that Jurgis caught his breath with fright.” (Pgs. 196-197)
49. What theme(s) does Sinclair present in the following excerpt?
“…he told himself that he had learned his lesson now, and would meet with no more accidents – so that at last there was prospect of an end to their long agony. They could save money again, and when another winter came they would have a comfortable place; and the children would be off the streets and in school again, and they might set to work to nurse back into life their habits of decency and kindness. So once more Jurgis began to make plans and dream dreams.” (Pg. 200)
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Besides providing his readers with an amusing scene, what does Sinclair reveal about the changes in Jurgis’ character during this chapter?
Chapter Twenty-five
…on a day of Democratic landslides they elected “Scotty” Doyle, the ex-ten-pin setter, by nearly a thousand plurality – and beginning at fi ve o’clock in the afternoon, and ending at three the next morning, Jurgis treated himself to a most unholy and horrible ‘jag’. Nearly every one else in Packingtown did the same, however, for there was universal exultation over this triumph of popular government, this crushing defeat of an arrogant plutocrat by the power of the common people. (Pg. 247)
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Essay Prompts: CHOOSE ONE (Write a well developed five paragraph essay. If you type your essay, you must use 12 font and Times New Roman. If you hand write it, make sure it is legible. If I can’t read it, then it won’t be scored.)
Prompt 1:
In Sinclair’s view, the capitalist economic system harms the elderly, the children, and the women in Packingtown. Support or Refute this statement.
Prompt 2:
Read the following description of the killing of the hogs. In what way is this description an example of an allegory? What moral quality or abstract idea does this example represent? Create a well organized five paragraph essay supporting this assertion.
“There were groups of cattle being driven to the chutes, which were roadways about fifteen feet wide, raided high above the pens. In these chutes the stream of animals was continuous; it was quite uncanny to watch them, pressing on to their fate, all unsuspicious-a very river of death. Our friends were not wonderful efficiency of it all. The chutes into which the hogs went climbed high up-to the very top of the distant buildings; and Jokubas explained that the hogs went up by the power of their own legs, and then their weight carried them back through all the processes necessary to make them into pork.”
Prompt 3:
Naturalism is defined as a literary movement that began in the late nineteenth century, which emphasizes that man is as much a prisoner of instinct, environment, and heredity as animals; man has no free will in the theory of naturalism.
Novels written in this form often include: people in lower economic classes who must fight against overwhelming odds to survive, an urban rather than a rural setting, a story that describes the harsh realities of life and the unsuccessful attempts that the characters make to change the circumstances of their lives.
Based on this definition, cite incidents from the story to prove that The Jungle is an example of naturalistic writing.
Essays can be neatly handwritten or typed and must follow standard conventions. If you choose to type your essay, be sure to use Times New Roman font and size 12 ONLY. Essays need to have at least three body paragraphs, an introduction and a conclusion.
The discussion questions and the essay will be due on Friday, August 29th. These will count as major grades. If you have questions, please email Catherine_jackson@gisd.org, portia481@yahoo.com, or call Catherine Jackson at (409) 939-7842.
Sources:
Information for this packet was developed and modified based on the following sources:
Prestwick House Inc. Clayton, DE 19938; 2005. Permission to copy this unit for classroom use is extended to purchaser for his or her personal use. This material, in whole or part, may not be copied for resale.
Upton Sinclair Website: www.online-literature.com/upton_sinclair; April, 2008. All additional sources were acquired from this page.