... , but rather a critique of the ideology behind the poorly-thought-out, head-long plunge that man took toward industrialization, and his consequent exaltation of the machine over the soul. This critique takes the form of 12 chapters, each several pages long, and each of which discusses a simple and yet fundamental principle ... center the practice of agriculture by the majority of the population. He further describes the way in which this order has been upset both by the machine and by the tendency for most of the means of production to concentrate in the hands of a few as a result of capi...

• Word Count: 2093
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... ; it left her no time to think, no strength for anything. She was part of the machine she tended, and every faculty that was not needed for the machine was doomed to be crushed out of existence"(137). Like men, women were attached to the machine and are force by the economic necessity to sell their labor because the income men earn is ... ...

• Word Count: 1723
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... is either taken advantage of in every way possible, or becomes greedy, dishonest, and materialistic, both of which Jurgis had experienced first hand, seeing the deceitfulness used by the political machine in the packing yards of Chicago. As the elections come around every year, Jurgis is bribed to vote under many different names, and is paid four dollars, equal to a week ... worth of work. Later in the novel, Jurgis becomes involved in the political machine. He becomes one of the henchmen for the political powers in the packing yards. After he gets put in jail, he is forced to buy his w...

• Word Count: 2054
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography

... , some may not be as significant as others, but all play a role in the process of industrialisation. Technological change; new inventions, new ways of doing things Work increasingly done by machine - this way it is quicker, cheaper, more reliable than using human hands. Supplementing/replacing of manpower with energy sources - coal, oil, steam, coke have all been used. These energy sources ... coming arguments more relevant and easier to understand. The industrial revolution can be seen as the process of change from an agrarian, handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine...

• Word Count: 1964
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... environmental limits, much like the brokers and investors on Wall Street ignored a top-heavy economy. Worster explains that our business-oriented society began to transform farming into a mass-producing industrial machine, becoming another excess of free enterprise that not even Roosevelt's "New Deal" could remedy. The "dirty thirties," as many called it, was a time when the earth ran amok in southern ... south refused at first to accept government help, optimistically believing that better days were ahead. Some moved out of the plains, running from not only drought but from the new mac...

• Word Count: 1344
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to Diane Sauder. In the novel, Jurgis sees that everyone that comes into contact with capitalism becomes greedy and materialistic, even him. Jurgis sees the deceitfulness used by the political machine in the packing yards of Chicago. When the elections come around every year, he is bribed to vote under many different pseudo-names, and is paid four dollars, equal to ... a week worth of work. Later in the novel, Jurgis becomes involved in the political machine. He finds that he becomes one of the henchmen for the political powers in the packing yards. After he gets put in jail, he is forc...

• Word Count: 1331
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... for the Republicans. Lies make up the government as a whole. One critic writes, "The democratic institutions which might have provided a means of change have all been bought off by the "Machine." The opportunity to "rise" causes men to betray their fellow workers and countrymen" ("The Jungle" 3096). Democracy does not help anyone apart from its institution at this point in time ... Socialism as a way to solve many problems. Sinclair writes, "...it was the task of Socialists to teach and organize them for the time when they were to seize the huge machine called the Beef Trust..." (317). ...

• Word Count: 1462
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of American Institutions--could not be bought, and would not combine or make any sort of a "dicker".(Sinclair,316) Jurgis had just recently become part of the Democratic machine of Chicago politics, and his job was to manipulate the political system in order to assure power for Mike Scully and other politicians and capitalist that ran the city. To ... ...

• Word Count: 1823
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the workplace killed thousands of people, and nobody dared to complain to their bosses in fear of being fired. Some of these injuries include being scalped by moving parts on a machine that were left uncovered, of literally choking to death on air that was so contaminated by dust. When a worker was injured, the employer wasn't required to compensate for a doctor, and ... ...

• Word Count: 2083
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... who puts in a bolt does not put on the nut; the man who puts on the nut does not tighten it". The assembly line turns a human craftsman into part of a machine. This dehumanizing process has also unfortunately greatly affected our society. Each worker on the line has a specific task to perform, repeatedly and monotonously for hours on end. The more specialized ... ...

• Word Count: 2162
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... much he produces and he has no control over what he produces. Marx writes, "The work of the proletarians has lost all individual character He becomes an appendage of the machine."22 Marx also writes about the proletariat class. He discusses the stages of development the class goes through.23 They are a connected class because of the misery they all share ... ...

• Word Count: 1728
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... cyclical system often results in parents becoming workaholics. Workers being exploited and dehumanized is illustrated in the following quote, "the assembly line is not a tool used by the worker, but a machine which controls him/her." (Thompson, 1999). Because the system is more powerful than the individual, when individual needs are competing with the needs of the system, it is the individual ... ...

• Word Count: 1706
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... how the labor theory of value works: A worker in a factory is given $30 worth of material, and after working 3 hours producing a good, and using $10 worth of fuel to run a machine, he creates a product which is sold for $100. According the Marx, the labor and only the labor of the worker increased the value of the natural materials to $100. The ... ...

• Word Count: 2126
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... in American culture. They write, "Whatever problem you face (lack of self-esteem, lack of attractiveness, lack of social acceptance), it can be solved fast and solved through a drug, a detergent, a machine, or a salable technique"(123). Furthermore, there was a commercial for Supercuts in which a short, unattractive and overweight young man goes for a haircut and returns tall and handsome with great teeth. The ... ...

• Word Count: 1314
• Approx Pages: 5

... human beings and estrangement from one's essential human nature. The feeling of estrangement among the people increased considerably with the further development of the Industrial Revolution, the collectivization tied to a machine age and the gradual but definite depersonalization of man. Marx developed the idea that a scientific socialism is needed to counter the alienation of the capitalistic society. The economic base has ... ...

• Word Count: 1488
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... proletariats, for their extensive use of machinery and division of labor made them lose "all individual character, and consequently, all charm for the workman becoming[sic] an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him." For them, work merely became a means to earn money. As long ... ...

• Word Count: 2003
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to do the work is lessened. Marx says "Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state, they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine" (Marx 43). Marx's major point is that the proletariat has various development stages. The birth of the proletariat marks the starting point. The bourgeoisie will continue to get richer as ... ...

• Word Count: 2202
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School