THE JUNGLE By Upton Sinclair Essay

Question for The Jungle (try to write about a paragraph in response to each question)

1. What parts of the book (characters, themes, scenes) do you think you’ll remember five years from now? Explain why?
2. What aspects of current society in 2020 America most resemble what transpires in The Jungle? In other words, think of all the hardships Jurgis and his family undergo throughout the narrative, and try to pin point one aspect of present-day America (worker power or lack thereof; corruption; working conditions; etc) in which the challenges Jurgis faced are still present today.
3. Look at the passage on p. 193 that begins “He saw the world of civilization then more plainly than ever he had seen it before; . . .” Read until the end of the paragraph and then summarize the ideas Sinclair is expressing in this paragraph. What are some examples from the book up to that point that have contributed to why Jurgis has reached this conclusion about American society?