Sixth Post of My Second Book (heh.. last one~)

~~~~~Free topic ~~~~ XD

The free topic I shall write about will be my own thoughts and opinion on the book...

If I were to rate this book on a 1 to 10 scale with one being the lowest and ten being the highest, I would rate this book a 9. The overall story is very good, and the message within the story is very clear [the message is basically if you succeed in capitalism then you are not the best fit for society its just that you are the most corrupt in the system (it's the books message, I do not necessary believe this ^^;;)]. The only downside to this is that the author tends to go too much into the description of small things which might have been better without instead of dragging. Besides that one negative, I feel the author has taken the time to put in the book a lot of emotions, realistic cause and effect type scenes, as well as depicting reality for what it is instead of covering it in honey like most books tends to do. Comparing this to the first book I read, The Day of the Triffids, I found The Jungle far more enjoyable as well as insightful than the Day of the Triffids. The Jungle is on a higher reading level and intended for more mature audiences than the Day of the Triffids for the two books, in my opinion, are vastly different in the needed intuition one needs while reading.

Fifth Post on My Second Book

So the question is... are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? or disturbing? or memorable? Describe these settings and comment on why they are meaningful to you.

When I read this book there is one setting that just really disturbs me - Jurgis' first workplace. Upton Sinclair describes this setting just very vividly and I found it very disturbing. The location is a meat package factory and is the "killing beds". This is where they take meat and cut it up into nice bits so they could package it. The details one can see for themselves when they read this book ;P. Unlike the other locations that were mentioned this was the only realistic and impacting setting of the book in my opinion. When I first read that it was a meat packaging factory, what I imagined was basically a clean factory where there are long lines of meat being readied and packaged to be sent out to every corner of the United States. However, the image I got after I read the descriptions of the place was a bit sickening. Sinclair doesn't describe it directly and tends to show what Jurgis sees, but when you think about it just a little harder than what is described you get a image in your head and it isn't pretty. Then after you thought about this setting and think about your lunch and figure if the meat you had eaten was made from a place like that, then one would be running full speed to the bathroom (okay I admit that's a bit of exaggeration but its similar XD).

Fourth Post on My Second Book

So... here's the general breakdown of the characters of The Jungle...

Jurgis Rudkis:
The main character of the story. He is a Lithuanian with the hopes of living the American dreams. He shows to be determined in the beginning of the story and always works hard to achieve his goals to the point one would call him naive. Jurgis is keen on following traditions as well as following his duties as a man to his wife. He is not much of what one would call a hero but more of a desperate man squirming as worm when it is dying. It is sad to see him crumbling under the social pressures and lose his moral values. Jurgis was the husband of Ona and traveled with his family and Ona's family as well to America becoming what Upton Sinclair (author of this book) considers as "wage slaves".

Ona:
The supporting character for most part of the story. She is also a Lithuanian who came to America with the same expectations as Jurgis. She is described as quiet and passionate in the book and can be that she is when she is forced to deal with a situation. She is what someone would consider a strong woman and helps to support her family with low payment jobs. She does most of the math and calculation on how they should spend their money earned. She is one of the characters with one of the worst fate in the book - she passes away about 3/4s through the book. Ona is the wife of Jurgis Rudkis and traveled from Lithuania with Jurgis and comes from a household which does not lack anything much.

Third Post on the Second Book

The theme of The Jungle is...

The theme of this book is that the world is twisted. As simple as it is this is basically the theme of this whole book. In the beginning, the main character of this book, Jurgis Rudkis was a man of integrity and tradition, where he is to support the family with his strength and his influence. However, after they move to America in search of a better life what awaits them is only suffering. Jurgis is forced to work hard hours and is unable to support his wife as well as himself. He is horrified at this fact but continues to strive hard, believing that tomorrow will be a bit better but this is not the case.

At one point, Jurgis loses everything, his job, his wife, and his once highly respected characteristics, he basically becomes a bum and only when he claims a socialist stance upon society does he somehow manage to redeem himself from the mess he was in. This whole idea contradicts our views that socialism is one step behind of captialism, and socialism is indeed the way for the better future. In other words, this book is stating that all captialism will do is bring division of the rich and the poor upon people while bringing in conflicts that is just not necessary for the developing world. The brighter future lies in a controlled society for when people are let to do what they want, all they can do mess up.

Second Post on My Second Book

So.. the mood of the Jungle...

The mood of this story is just basically very depression and sad overall, although there are moments where the characters are happy and the setting is all bright and warm this kind of atmosphere only lasts for about 1 or 2 pages. Throughout the story, Jurgis and everyone with him suffers continuously over and over again and has to undergo the sadness of death at as well. Everytime, the main character has a stroke of luck, in the next chapter he is whipped by bad luck in the next. The setting of the book makes this even sadder than it already is with the whole plot. The Lithuanian family are cheated, crumpled by death, are stuck in basically a slum area of Chicago, and their hopes are lost in oblivion. If one compares the character's attitudes in the beginning and then the same character in the middle of the book, you'll find it hard to believe that they are the same character. (However, in the end, the mood completely changes and can be hard to find the ending is the ending of a dystopian novel. ^^;;)

When I read this, the mood got me interested. Although this may be a bit cynical, I found that the book contributed to showing the true nature of the world. The mood also actually showed me the general flow of this story, and told me what kind of voice I should be reading this if I were to read it outloud. This was one of the best dystopian novel that I have read. The whole idea of the human struggle and the mood supporting it was like bread and cheese - really good.

First Post on Second Book

The book I'm currently reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The book is a very interesting one for it is basically about a Lithuanian man and his wife with her family, who goes to an area in Chicago in hopes of living the American dream. The difference between the beginning and the middle to about the end really shows one EXACTLY, that this is what our general ideaology is, and this is reality. However, even though he tries very hard to live his dreams, he faces many problems, and several of them having to with him being tricked. I also found this book far more interesting then The Day of the Triffids (my first book) and is far more realistic (this is probably because the author was trying to raise awareness for laborers in the United States). This dystopian novel demonstrates to us how messed up our society was and maybe still is today, where man has to fend for himself. Jurgis Rudkis, the main character of the story, is a very capable man and I find him far more interesting and round than Bill Masen (the main character from day of the triffids). Jurgis, in my opinion, represents very well the majority of new adults, looking for success and happiness (like the students who have stepped into the outside world, thinking that things would be exactly like in the books). The source of the dystopia in this is the true nature of humans beings of a time when unity was needed. Greed, pride, and gluttony, all bring the character to the ground on his knees but the process of redemption was very interesting.

Entry #3: What qualities would you like to have as a Greek god or goddess?

If could be any greek god or goddess...

I would like to have the power of wisdom like Athena. I find that this ability has the power to overcome any others and is the most useful to have as well. I do not see a reason why a god would forceful control the people when logic and ethics is what a people's basic mind track is based on. Trying to maintain everything with force would one day collapse like how communism did. After all, knowledge is power.

I would look like...
I think I would like to just look like a normal human being, then I would be able to make others look down on me, then suprise them with my true nature of a god. Deceiving is one of the main ways gods moved about in Greek mythology, so I am thinking that having this form would be able to endow more power upon me. The way the gods are depicted in Greek mythology shows that the gods are very human-like except for the fact that they possess an aura that no human can have, so I think a form of a normal human is quite fitting. Besides physical features don't mean much to gods, they can always transform to get the look they want for the moment.