Jungle Upton Sinclair's 1908 Novel

¶ … Jungle Upton Sinclair's 1908 novel the Jungle reflects the burgeoning interest in Marxism and socialism that took root during the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, the novel testifies to the disillusionment with the American Dream experienced by scores of immigrants like the Lithuanian family in Sinclair's novel. Jurgis Rudkus's transition from idealistic young immigrant to a convict also exemplifies conflict theory. The corruption in business and city politics are the source of Jurgis' deviant behaviors: his heavy drinking and his repeated criminal assaults.

The class conflicts that Sinclair describes in the Jungle are irreconcilable without wholesale changes to the structures and institutions that govern social norms in America. Immigrant communities from Eastern Europe were underclass because of their deviation from the dominant cultural norms. Their lower class status can also be explained more in terms of Marxist theory: as immigrants they had no access to the means of production. Unable to hold positions of power, immigrants had no viable means of social mobility.

The American Dream was a myth that encouraged new immigrants to participate in the labor force and benefit the capitalists. As immigrants, Rudkus and his family also created a Lithuanian subculture in Chicago. Language was one way the family remained cohesive. The Lithuanian immigrants attempted to preserve their social customs such as marriage rituals. Yet all the family members were constrained by sheer survival: the need to earn a living. Lithuanian wedding guests could not afford to uphold wedding customs from the old country.

They were losing social cohesion because of financial strain, and that lack of social cohesion weakened the immigrant community. Immigrant communities became less cohesive and more focused on individualistic survival, leading to a breakdown in mores, values, and norms. Almost all the family members worked in deplorable conditions and for corrupt labor bosses including the women. The urban migrations that occurred around the turn of the century led to anomie, Durkheim's theory explaining the dissolution of values and social norms.

Both conflict theory and anomie can explain the deviant behaviors in the Jungle. Conflict theory can also account for the white collar crimes that go unpunished in Packingtown. Extortion is rampant and goes unnoticed in the immigrant community, and working conditions were unethical even by 19th century standards. Capitalists place profit above human life. Ironically, the victims of white collar crime are often accused of being antisocial when the heads of companies negatively affect more lives.

Conflict theory shows how political, legal, and financial institutions are both supported by and reflective of unequal wealth distribution. Immigrants who arrive to the United States with no capital also arrive with no cultural or social capital: the means by which to make inroads and develop social connections with members of the privileged classes. Social and cultural capital enable access to educational institutions. Social and cultural capital also offer access to positions of power within organizations. The menial labor jobs that the Lithuanian immigrants do thwart social mobility.

The myth of the American Dream creates the illusion that capitalist social structures are beneficial and immutable. Immigrants like those depicted in the Jungle believe that hard work alone can lead to upward social mobility and a high quality of life. When Jurgis and Ona arrive in Packingtown they are filled with the idealism that characterizes the American Dream. Their idealism quickly dissolves in the face of social norms and institutions that support a hierarchical, stratified society.

For example, the first home they attempt to buy ended up being a scam. Immigrants in the Packington community end up using deviant behavior to fulfill their needs. Whether crime or corruption, deviant behaviors are a product of anomie, which is in turn a product of class conflict. Immigrant communities are stripped of their cohesiveness when their folkways and traditions become impossible to reproduce in the newly adopted environment. For instance, the Lithuanian community does not have enough resources to uphold traditions like bequeathing gifts on newlyweds.

Social cohesiveness leads to political strength and power. The converse is also true. The Lithuanians in the Jungle have lost the emblems that form their identity: the rituals, customs, and values that shaped their culture. Not realizing the power of migration in transforming whole communities, immigrants in the early 20th century sacrificed their lives to fulfill.