American History

The Jungle by Upton Sinclairs has motivated a number of past and the present generation to fury. This is because the story involves an economic hardship experienced by Jurgis Rudkus and his family. The economy was at its worse since it treated the family as bad as cattles. The book serves as a powerful example since it is used to convey how awful workers were treated in a hundred years ago and how the role of the government regulations were effected during that period (Sinclair, 2010).
This story commences with a family of the Lithuanian who moved into Chicagos parking town with a hope of finding a decent job that will make him and his family to live in decent housing, but all was in vain. This is because everything costed above what it was supposed to cost as the agents to the real estate took advantage of the immigrants as they were ignorant. The book comprises of poor living conditions portrayed by conditions such as of food poisoning, as the food was prepared by sick people in an unhygienic environment. It also explains the life of Jurgis Rudkus after loosing his personal belongings and family and nearly staves in the street due to lack of a job. In addition, this book shows the how Jurgis was exploited by the working class (Sinclair, 2010).  The purpose of this paper is to write a narrative essay based on a life that I might imagine for myself if I lived in the era covered in the book

ESSAY
My name is Abby Foster and I am 36 years of age. I have a spouse whose name is George and is 44 years of age. Our family has four children namely Nicholas Foster who is 21 years old, Olivia Foster  who is age 13, Kaden Foster who is age 3, and lastly,  Isabella Foster who is  2 of age. We all live in Scranton, PA. If I lived in America a hundred years ago, I would have been involved in the area of industrialization so that I can provide my family in responsible manner.

Industrialization is credited with the transformations of agrarian societies to industrial societies. This change is characterized by the shift from use of animal sources for energy to that of machines. The society was characterized by the continuous state of change due to the dynamic technological innovations (Husband  OLoughlin, 2004).In the agrarian society, hunting and gathering were dependent on nuclear and extended family groupings that lived in almost the same lifestyles. Whereas, in an industrial society new changes were evident as the industries were coming up and were dependent on individuals who had industrial skills, who moved to the geographical areas where the industries were set up, thus breaking the involvement of nuclear and extended family participation,  leading to different lifestyle from the other members of the family.

There were various side effects experienced by the low income earners during this era as a result of the introduction of industrialization in the United States. If I lived in this area I would have moved from rural areas to the areas of the United States that were characterized with development of new industries. This would have resulted to disintegration of my family to some extent as industrialization is characterized with reduced levels of family ties.

This period would have given me a view and a perception of obtaining great wealth for my family. This is because, at this time, industrials companies such as steel, oil and cotton arose. But the debate about the wealth creation as a result of these industries to my family would have however has resulted to being controversial. This is because as some continued to gain advantage of the industrial development, others are known to having been disadvantaged (Husband  OLoughlin, 2004).  During this era, there was a drastic change of lifestyle of the people of United States as many people changed their lifestyles in order to work in the developing factories

Unfortunately, the employers took advantage of these workers by paying them low wages and made them work for hours, which were 10 -12 hours in a day, for six days in a week. These workers helped the company owners in acquiring more wealth as they had the capacity to market their products across the country through advertisements. The owners of these industries dwelt on the utilitarian goal of the technology that created the purposes of increasing their wealth without taking due consideration for social issues of the technology (Husband  OLoughlin, 2004). Therefore, despite moving from the agrarian society of cultivating to the industrial society of the steel, and cotton production, I would still be a poor man since the poor were taken advantage off.

During this era the success of the industries was only motivated by making a profit for the owners but was not supported by the social role that the company should play with the society. There was therefore a lack of a harmonious relationship between the owners and the workers. This is because these industries were found to be benefiting only the owners. I would have fought for involvement of the supervision that acquires social control as well as gender domination (Husband  OLoughlin, 2004). If my fight for social consideration would have yielded to unfruitful results, I would have engaged myself in joining a union aimed at protesting against my working conditions as this would have resulted to a declaration of Labor Day as a national holiday with a significance of making human labor important.

I would also have engaged myself with in various strikes since the United States is well known to have undergone a major economist revolution which created one of the most violent management issues (Husband  OLoughlin, 2004).  This was done in an attempt of trying to control and exploit new industrial labor which triggered violent reactions such as the Highway market affair, Homestead strike, Railway strikes, among others. Husband  OLoughlin (2004) state that in 1890, the richest people who were 1 received an income equivalent to the income of the 99.These resulted to a division in class which was mainly the whites against the blacks, thus changing the social settings of the community at large.

CONCLUSION
Activities in the industries at this period were allocated according to race as well as gender. There was a racial discrimination in these industries as the whites were allocated higher paying jobs while the African Americans were allocated to lower paying jobs. Since I am an African American, I would have been allocated a lower paying job. In addition to this inequality, men received a higher income or wage than the women, and thus my income would have been lower than the income of the male gender and therefore, I would have viewed the government as both protectors of freedom as well as potential threat to my freedom.