If you put two objects or two things side by side and compare them, you will generally find something similar between them. Now, granted there will often be more things different then similar but that is just the way things go. Carl Sandburg's “Chicago”, is a poem about the glorious city of Chicago. He describes the city as being, “Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness…”(Sandburg). Though Chicago is an extremely productive city, it still wants more and is fiercely proud or the mantle that it holds. The Chicago that Upton Sinclair portrays in “The Jungle” is somewhat similar in this regard as far as how the meat packing industry is discussed in the first few chapters. “It was all so very business like that one watched it fascinated.”(Sinclair 39).
The people that come to the factory are so in awe of the productiveness of it that they don't realize the horrible things that are happening. This is where these two works of literature start to differ. The view of Chicago that Carl Sandburg paints is one of vehement pride, loyalty, and jolliness. “The Jungle”, however is ruined canvas of complete despair, tragedy, heartbreak, and horror. “It was too much for some visitors- the men would look at each other, laughing nervously, and the women would stand with hands clenched, and the blood rushing to their faces, and the tears starting in their eyes”(Sinclair 39). Once the visitors are exposed to the full “glory” of the industrious factory, they are horror stricken. Though both of these two works show Chicago as industrious and all-powerful, because “The Jungle” goes into so much more detail, it sets it worlds apart from “Chicago”. Also, because of the flat out honesty of Sinclair's novel, I believe it is more effective in its presentation of the working class situation in Chicago.
Ask most people and they will say that they prefer the flat-out truth rather than a sugarcoated answer. In this aspect, Sinclair does not skimp. His vivid portrayal of Jurgis and the hardships he and his family endure are just one example of the many similar situations facing the lower class of Chicago at this time. “And they would loose it all; they would be turned out into the streets, and have to hide in some icy garret, and live or die as best they could”(Sinclair 156). The working class of Chicago are portrayed and being no good and on the very brink of death, even in life. They are also replaceable; several time Sinclair describes men having accident at the meat packing factory and they are replaced right away. What Sinclair does to get his point across so much better than Carl Sandburg is just how much more vivid, and terrifying, and realistic his imagery is.
