The Gist: Good afternoon everyone! I am just returning from Toronto, and gearing up to discuss chapters 6 to 16 of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Much has occurred in the lives of the main characters of the book, specifically Jurgis, Ona, Teta Elzbieta, Marija, Stanislovas, and the other children of the family—all of it negative. They have been used and abused by the Packingtown system, and by the end of chapter 16, they are literally in despair. Ona has been taken advantage of by her boss, and Jurgis is now in jail for seeking revenge for his family by attacking the man with the intent to kill him. This week's reading has mainly focused on humans, but there is a connection between how these characters are treated and animals. Neither the humans nor the non-humans can be heard or express their rights.The Discussion: This book is chock-full of discussion points, but I would like to keep it to two, so that we can maintain a focus. I look forward to reading your comments!
1. Above, I mentioned the symbolism and connection between the humans and animals in the book. Do you agree with this conclusion? Can you point out some parts of the reading where this is apparent? Do you think that Sinclair knew that he was making this connection?
2. This book is very sad, almost to the point of hopelessness. Although this book is set in 1906, there are still problems like this today, in which the people who work on factory farms are horribly abused. As vegans and animal-rights activists, we can sometimes forget about the human-rights abuses of this industry. What could we do to help change these problems? Do you think that if we worked to change these problems that it could help the animals as well?
The Assignment: Please read chapters 17 to 25 for our discussion on Monday, September 15.
~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig
I believe Sinclair knew he was making the connection between the workers and the animals. The book describes how each worker had their own disease depending on what plant and job they worked. So far the whole book has made this comparison. The workers belong to the industry, they have nowhere else to go and like the animals they are used to the very last drop. Then they either die or are left out in the cold. Their destiny was no longer their own and dreams were put on hold, Marija had to give up her dream of marrying.
ReplyDeleteToday a lot of the workers are the same as in his book,but now they Hispanic mostly. Some are undocumented workers and have no choice but to work for little pay and no benefits to support their families and like Jurgis do not speak English, so when they arrive they have to trust people who do not have the workers interests at heart. If we demanded that these factories hired people who fully understand their jobs and rights and had people who kept an eye on the hiring practices and conditions then it would help the animals too because they would know they were being watched more carefully and the people in these jobs would not be in a position where they had to accept torturous conditions as a part of life.
Thanks Hope-g for you comment, and I think you make some great points. It's unfortunate that we still have to deal with these issues today, and I think we definitely need to focus on fixing the human rights issue within the industry in order to solve the whole.
ReplyDeleteI will be posting a wrap up tomorrow and I look forward to discussing chapters 17 to 25 on Monday!
~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig