Jungle By Upton Sinclair Essays - Economic Ideologies,

Jungle By Upton Sinclair A French philosopher once said that the greatest tyranny of democracy was when the minority ruled the majority. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle gives the reader a great example of exactly this. A man who earns his living honestly and through hard work will always be trapped in poverty, but a man who earns his living through lies and cheating will be wealthy. The Jungle portrays a Lithuanian family stuck in a Capitalistic country. It shows the ongoing struggle of a lower class that will never get farther in life as long as the minority of rich people rule over them. The Jungle conveys a struggle between Capitalism and Socialism. Socialism is the best way out for the peasants, but a Capitalistic America has already trapped them. When Jurgis Rudkus and his family first come to America, they do not know how it was run. Once Jurgis begins working in the stockyards, he finds out that the upper class dominates over the lower class. Supposedly America is a democratic nation, but this is not true. Capitalism rules the nation. The upper class bosses rule what goes on in the peasants lives. It is a form of slavery. Sinclair writes: Things that were quite unspeakable went on there in the packing houses all the time, and were taken for granted by everybody; only they did not show, as in old slavery times, because there was no difference in color between master and slave. (106) Sinclair compares the conditions of the factories to that of slavery. The rich boss is the master and the peasant is the lowly slave. Capitalism rules in the stockyards of Chicago. The higher class people can get ahead in life because they have an in with the system, but the peasants will forever be stuck at their work on the machines in a packing plant. Jurgis Rudkus endures the work in the factory system. He comes across Capitalism first hand here. Through his work in the meat packing plant, he sees how they are able to work around government regulation through bribes and deceit. He also soon learns that everyone steals from the people below them in the system. Sinclair writes, "...the bosses grafted off the men, and they grafted off each other; and someday the superintendent would find out about the boss, and then he would graft off the boss" (59). Sinclair reveals that men of a higher status were able to steal freely from others and get away with it. If one found out, he just stole right back from another. This was Capitalism in and of itself. Here, in the stockyards of Chicago, the upper class rules over the lower class. In Packingtown, Jurgis Rudkus and his family face many difficulties with the Capitalistic rule. The people take advantage of them and steal their money. When they first came to America, they had to pay many fees because they were foreigners and did not know better. Eventually, Jurgis decides to buy a house. He thinks he is getting a good deal, but in reality is not. The real estate agent tells him that it is a brand new house, but this is a lie. Sinclair writes, "...it was not new at all, as they had supposed; it was about fifteen years old, and there was nothing new upon it but the paint" (65). The real estate agent took advantage of them because they were lower class. He was able to do so because they did not know any better. The upper class ruled over them. They lived in a Capitalistic nation that trapped them as lower class citizens. The Capitalistic way of life allows for a lot of corruption in the government and police department. Many people pay off high officials in order to get lead way in court and other places. Men who own saloons pay the police so they can sell liquor on Sundays. At one point in the book Jurgis beats up a bartender because he will not give him his change for a hundred dollar bill. The bartender does not get in trouble for this because he has paid people off. Sinclair writes, "...the owner of the saloon had paid five dollars each to the policemen alone for Sunday privileges and general favors" (249). This was a common thing among many bartenders. Capitalism involved the police, government, and common people. If one had the money, then he could get special privileges in life. After "hoboing" around the country and going to jail,

Warhol by Ratcliff essays

Warhol by Ratcliff essays The life and work of Andy Warhol has inspired many writers to tell of the artists secrets in published writings. However, Carter Ratcliff accomplishes this feat in a unique fashion, profiling Warhols work in Andy Warhol. A must-read for anybody interested in the origins of American Pop art, Ratcliffs book touches on all aspects of Warhols work. Segmented chronologically, Ratcliff explains the influence and significance of select paintings, as well as sections devoted to Warhols sketches, photographs, movies and notes on the techniques used by the artist. This format, combined with the inclusion of nearly 100 prints of paintings, is effective because a natural theme flows through the chronological ordering of the monograph. Some of the influences are obvious in Warhols work. However, the cumulative effect of the artists attempts is more easily understood through the chronological ordering of the pieces. The chronological ordering helps the reader understand what social or personal beliefs or conflicts the artist was dealing with pertaining to the given time period. For example, Warhol produced many pieces with singular subject matter displayed multiple times as in his Campbells soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles and dollar signs, possibly just comforting symbols to Warhol as well as the American Pop Culture. Also, Ratcliff l eads the reader on a journey through the details, effects and consequences of the work. The author also describes similarities in select Warhol pieces. The development of Warhol as an artist is easily understood using this format, as his work transforms from the playful character of Saturdays Popeye (Figure 1) to the realism of Skull or the political power of the Hammer and Sickle series. Andy Warhol takes a convincing and comprehensive look at the pursuits of the artist, basing observations on a plethora of sources. The information cited i...

English Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

English Literature - Essay Example John Clare begins his poem with a description of the wild and untamed plains of his youth, â€Å"Still meeting plains that stretched them far away / In uncheckt shadows of green brown and grey† (5-6). As he describes the beauty that he once enjoyed in these sights, he begins to illustrate how the freedoms they once offered have been overtaken by the ravages of capitalism and consumerism, being turned to profit by the â€Å"little tyrant with his little sign† (67). More than simply discussing how the land itself has been bounded in, Clare illustrates how the animals and mankind, particularly the poor, have also been constrained by the temporary blockages that have been put in place by wealthier men in the interest of making a profit. At the same time, he suggests that these wealthier men have discovered in the process that their â€Å"dreams of plunder in such rebel schemes / Have found too truly that they were but dreams† (79-80). Rather than reaping significant profit from ‘their’ lands, the owners have discovered that they have given up something precious, rare and unrecoverable for temporary and insufficient material gain. This seems to be in direct contrast to Stephen Duck’s poem as Duck focuses on the activities of the poor workers, particular those of the threshers, as they struggle all year long to produce profit for their master. The subject of this poem is perhaps set by the inspiration that birthed it, â€Å"’The Thresher’s Labour’ was commissioned by Duck’s local patron, the Reverend Mr. Stanley, as a poem ‘on his own Labours.’