hexiu

This book weighed heavily on me, and some of the images, the vivid descriptions of horrific/tragedy, I'm sure I will revisit. The read is hard to take, but in my opinion, it does all that a book should do, provoking serious thought from the reader on the American Dream, on capitalism and just how much the human spirit can endure. The story of Lithuanian immigrants, Jurgis and his family go to the U.S. move to Chicago and work in the meat-packing inudstry, soon learning of the dangerous working conditions, unjust treatment of the workers, the merciless labor with little reward. When the story begins, the reader learns that the family's downward spiral is just beginning, as they are starting off their new life as a couple in financial crisis set off by the cost of their veselija... the horrors that follow are unimaginable. I think early on, the author sums up what we can expect: "The veselija has come down to them from a far-off time; and the meaning of it was that one might dwell within the cave and gaze upon shadows, provided only that once in his lifetime he could break his chains, and feel his wings, and behold the sun; provided that once in his lifetime he might testify to the fact that life, with all its cares and its terrors, is no such great thing after all, but merely a bubble upon the surface of a river, a thing that one may toss about and play with as a juggler tosses his golden balls, a thing that one may quaff, like a goblet of rare red wine. Thus having known himself for the master of things, a man could go back to his toil and live upon the memory all his days" Quotes: •"Here is a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers; under such circumstances, immorality is exactly as inevitable, and as prevalent, as it is under the system of chattel slavery." "Jurgis could see all the truth now-could see himself through the whole long course of events, the victim of ravenous vultures that had torn into his vitals and devoured him; of fiends that had racked and tortured him, mocking him, meantime, jeering in his face." •"To you, the toilers, who have made this land, and have no voice in its councils! To you, whose lot it is to sow that others may reap, to labor and obey, and ask no more than the wages of a beast of burden, the food and shelter to keep you alive from day to day. It is to you that I come with my message of salvation, it is to you that I appeal." - The Jungle, The Jungle, Ch. 28

2022-10-29 03:17