For the first quarter, I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This novel is a political fiction and it has a total of 350 pages. The book was a little hard to understand since the story takes place during the industrial revolution and a lot went on during that time. The main character is Jurgis Rudkus. Jurgis is a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to Chicago, (at the time Chicago was called Packingtown)with his wife Ona and their family, in search of a better life. Chicago at the time was notorious for their meat packaging industry which is a hard, dangerous, and filthy place where it is difficult to find a job. His American dream did not come true when he goes into debt to the saloon keeper. Jurgis meets Jack Duane a safecracker, and all of their debts force Jurgis to join jack mugging people and their financial conditions become so bad that Ona's cousin Marija became a prostitute to support the family. Jurgis becomes ardent socialist to help the means of production to satisfy everyone's needs but most important the working class men. Jurgis did work in the meatpacking industry so he has seen the conditions they work through which also pushed him to fight for his people. I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to endure all the graphic things said about the meat industry.
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