The Jungle Essays (782 words) - Meat Packing Industry, The Jungle

The Jungle Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is the story of a Lithuanian family that immigrates from their home city in Lithuania to the city of Chicago. The novel begins with the strong description of a wedding in which Ona Lukoszaite and Jurgis Rudkus are united in Holy Matrimony. The two of them then move to Chicago. Soon after the wedding, Ona and Jurgis have many great debts to pay due to both the wedding and a large debt that Ona's father left them after he died. Due to Jurgis' large size and strong will he found a job in Chicago within only a half an hour of waiting in the unemployment line. Back in the newlywed's hometown of Lithuania, Ona and Jurgis' family anticipated a move to America. America uses the image of the ?American Dream? to lure immigrants to this land of opportunity. The family desperately desires higher wages and true freedom. For months and months, Jurgis works very hard to pay for the families travel to Ona and Jurgis' new hometown, Chicago. When the family finally makes it to America, their funds are very low. They met with a well off man named Jokubas Szedvilas who placed the family in a run down youth hostel. Jokubas takes the family to the meatpacking factory. He makes jokes about the sanitation of the operation (due only to the lack of quality of the meat). The family finds an advertisement for a housing complex that is very cheap. They talk to a real estate agent and they go see the housing complex. The houses aren't as big and luxurious as they are pictured in the advertisement, but the price is right. The real estate agent swindles them, and they are pulled into the contract. Sinclair emphasizes the corruption of upper class society during this era. Jurgis' father, Dede Antanas, is promised a job by a grubby worker, but only if he pays that worker one third of his wages. He takes the job despite the disgusting working conditions and his low pay. Jurgis is a very hard worker. He is the only person in the meat plant that doesn't complain. He doesn't think much of the other workers. He feels that they never get any work done, and all they do is gripe. Marija, Ona's cousin and Jonas, Ona's step brother, both get jobs, but neither one holds them for very long. From there things take a turn for the worst. The meat packing factories prove to be very unsanitary. Animal fetuses and even human corpses were processed, packaged, and distributed to the country. Working conditions became even worse for Jurgis, and after both his wife and child die, he left his job and family. Jurgis, now struggling more and more for money, turns to crime. The slums of Chicago show great contrast between the upper class and the underprivileged. The majority of the immigrant society possess very little money. Jurgis, an underprivileged person, must make his money illegally. He wanders the city aimlessly taking continuous criticism from the upper class of Chicago. He returned home to find that Ona's stepmother's child, Stanislovas, who once had a great fear of the cold after a frostbite incident, has tragically been eaten alive by a pack of rats on the job. He also finds out that his cousin in law Marija has become a whore to make money for herself. Jurgis tries to convince her to give it up, but she become addicted to morphine and she depends on the money. Jurgis' life has hit a dead end. He only finds light when he hears a political speaker involved with the Socialist party. He feels that an oversized proportion of a government is the only thing to uplift people of his kind. Back then, in the United States, being poor was a terrible crime in its self. I believe that these people looked toward a more Socialistic government because this type of government would take some of the power from the upper class and would give it to the poor. These people were working terrible shifts in horrible working conditions. If they were born poor they would remain that way unless they really got lucky, the same as

Exceptions in the Rules of Hyphenation

Exceptions in the Rules of Hyphenation Exceptions in the Rules of Hyphenation Exceptions in the Rules of Hyphenation By Mark Nichol After thumbing through the dictionary or perusing a usage guide, you’d think that the trend in American English and, to a lesser extent, in British English is to omit hyphens from words consisting of a prefix attached to the root word. But reality begs to differ. Mail sent from nonprofit organizations invariably features the word non-profit in the upper right-hand corner, where a stamp would normally be placed. (By contrast, the US Postal Service, on its Web site, correctly styles the term nonprofit but the Internal Revenue Service employs the hyphen, as do many such organizations.) Commercial Web sites and product catalogs invite customers to plan ahead, using the word pre-order, though the dictionary listing is preorder. And many print or online references to peace movements feature the term anti-war, despite the designation of the standard form in virtually all writing resources as antiwar. So, why do descriptivist and prescriptivist handbooks alike exhort readers to close the gap, when so many people who use the English language to communicate in writing ignore or are ignorant of the authorities’ citations? The natural trend in associating words or parts of words is to first combine them in open compounds, later hyphenate them as they become more established, and finally convert them into closed compounds when familiarity is thoroughly achieved (though many compounds remain open or hyphenated long after these evolutionary stages seem overdue). But most writers seemingly a majority of amateurs and definitely too many professionals don’t pay attention to such details, though the standard is easily ascertained by a glance in a dictionary or another resource. The exceptions to the preponderance of closed prefixes are relatively few and more or less simple. Retain a hyphen in the following cases: When the root word is a proper noun (post-Depression) or a number (pre-1914) When the prefix precedes an existing prefix (non-self-governing) When the prefix precedes a proper open compound (â€Å"pre-Civil War†) in such a case, the symbol should technically be an en dash, to help clarify that pre- modifies â€Å"Civil War,† not just the word it is actually attached to, but many publications, print and online, use a simple hyphen When two instances of the letter i or the letter a are adjacent (anti-intellectual, extra-action), or another combination of letters could hamper reading (pro-labor and many other pro- constructions) When a prefix is repeated (anti-antibody) When suspensive hyphenation is employed (â€Å"over- and understimulation†) Also, some people find it awkward to close up co- and a word starting with c (they prefer co-chair to cochair), with o (co-owner is preferred to coowner), or even with any word (coworker, instead of co-worker, annoys many writers). In addition, there are isolated illogical exceptions. For example, why close up reentry but hyphenate de-emphasis? And an otherwise superfluous hyphen is often inserted to distinguish homographs (as with re-count, â€Å"to tally again,† as opposed to recount, â€Å"to narrate†). Some writers ignore this seemingly overcautious strategy, though a clear context doesn’t necessarily obviate it. (Sometimes, the distinction does seem unnecessary: How many people write recreate as the verb form of recreation compared to using the prevalent usage, meaning â€Å"to create again†? But, oddly, the dominant homograph is given the hyphenated form.) Despite this apparent multitude of deviations from the norm, there is a norm: An overwhelming majority of prefixes are closed. But if you’re ever in doubt, just consult your dictionary. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Spelling Test 15 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers20 Names of Body Parts and Elements and Their Figurative Meanings