Welcome To The Jungle Not once in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle does the author refer to the title in the text, but its meaning is deeply rooted in scripture. According to Merriam-Webster, a jungle is defined as “a confused or disorderly mass of objects, something that baffles or frustrates by its tangled or complex character; a place of ruthless struggle for survival. In the early 1900s, Chicago's Packingtown neighborhood perfectly embodies a jungle. The starvation, conditions and extent of devastation demonstrate organized chaos at its worst as animal behavior mixes with physical needs in the filth of Chicago's stockyards. Sooner or later, this hunger catches up with many of the main characters and they turn to immoral activities to survive. Sinclair emphasizes this with an abundance of metaphors that include the personification and breakdown of human choices into primary actions. In this book, the jungle is not a literal jungle, but rather a fight for survival in the capitalist pyramid. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get the original essay In the packinghouses, Sinclair describes the pigs on their way to the slaughterhouse in an almost eerie way: "We couldn't not stand and stare for very long without being philosophical, without beginning to deal in symbols and similes, and hearing the cries of the universe... Each of them had their own individuality, their own will, a hope and the desire of a heart; everyone was full of self-confidence, importance and a sense of dignity. And confident and strong in faith, he went about his business, while a dark shadow loomed over him and a horrible fate in his path. Suddenly, she threw herself at him and grabbed his leg. Implacable, merciless, all his protests, his screams were nothing in comparison. He did his cruel will with him, as if his desires, his feelings simply did not exist; it cut his throat and saw him gasp for the rest of his life” (Sinclair 31). The picture Sinclair paints with these words is not typical of city life; instead, it reveals the true savagery and relentlessness of Chicagoans and the city itself. This quote perfectly takes the lives of factory workers and condenses it into a few sentences, summarizing one thing: nothing is safe in this town. Jobs, money, housing and even lives can be taken away at any time. By taking this feeling of constant fear and placing it on something as naive and innocent as a pig, Sinclair perfectly captures the emotions and feelings of those coming to America for the first time. Sinclair also notes these wild instincts in places outside the packinghouses: "Here, for example, is Durham's, owned by a man who was trying to make as much money as possible from it and didn't care at all how of which he succeeded; and below him, arrayed in ranks and grades like an army, were managers, superintendents, and foremen, each leading the man immediately below him and trying to wring as much work from him as possible. And all men of the same rank opposed one another; everyone's accounts were kept separately, and everyone lived in terror of losing their job if someone else performed better than them. So, from top to bottom, the place was nothing but a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds; there was no loyalty or decency anywhere in there, there was no place where a man counted for anything.