The Hunger Games 1-5

In the first three chapters, we are introduced to some of the book’s main characters, notably Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of the novel. We also learn all the basic facts about the world in which the story takes place. Katniss is a sixteen-year-old girl living in what is essentially a dystopia, a fictional political state in which life is awful (George Orwell’s 1984 was also a dystopian novel). The book is set at some unspecified time in the future, by which point the countries of North America as we currently know them have dissolved. The cause of this dissolution isn’t fully explained, but Katniss does talk about the natural disasters that led to it. Among them are rising sea levels and severe storms, which suggest global warming played a role, as those are two of the most serious consequences scientists predict warming will cause. We also know there are widespread food shortages. The government of Panem, the country that rose up after North America’s collapse, is totalitarian. It monitors the speech and actions of its citizens and mercilessly punishes anything it construes as dissent. The Hunger Games that give the book its title are the ultimate expression of its mercilessness and its power over its citizens.

But life is also terrible for the people of District 12 for more immediate reasons. Few people, we learn, have enough to eat. Many are malnourished and death by starvation is common. Moreover, the main industry in the region is coal mining, which is notoriously difficult and dangerous work. Katniss describes the miners, both men and women, heading to work with hunched shoulders and swollen knuckles, suggesting how physically hard the job is. We also know that both Katniss’s and Gale’s fathers died from an explosion in the mine. District 12 is in what’s presently known as Appalachia, which is among the poorest regions in the modern United States, and from Katniss’s description it seems the district is among the poorest regions of Panem.

refernces

The Jungle Summary Of Chapters 6-13 Group 1

The family’s encounter with Grandmother Majauszkiene foreshadows these immigrants’ eventual fate. The real-estate companies have trapped them in a scheme by selling them a house that is shiny and pretty on the outside but rotten on the inside. In this way, the house is similar to the tins containing rotten and diseased meats—like these meat products, the house is sold on its appearance. This ruse also exemplifies the betrayal of the American Dream by capitalism. The home is the symbolic center of the family, and owning one’s own home is a central tenet of the American Dream. The real-estate company’s swindling of Jurgis and his family suggests that the capitalism that makes the American Dream possible also, paradoxically, destroys it.

Grandmother Majauszkiene has seen successive generations of immigrant laborers crowd into Packingtown where they are ground down and worn out. Those who survive enter the web of graft and corruption and, by doing so, advance in power and status, mostly by abusing the next generation of immigrants. The successive waves of wage laborers who come to Packingtown to face abuse and degradation recall the image of the animals being herded to slaughter in the stockyards. These immigrants either fail to succeed or they compromise their moral principles. Either way, as with the ill-fated animals, forces beyond their control determine their respective fates.

An important premise of the novel is that the political and governmental systems that support American capitalism are as rotten and corrupt as the business world itself. Sinclair makes clear that the few labor reform laws aimed at preventing abusive labor practices are largely ineffective. The child labor laws forbidding children under the age of sixteen to work do nothing to keep children from being forced to labor at grueling jobs, since the desperate need for money necessitates that these youths work any job that they can. The very structure of capitalist economics, in Sinclair’s portrayal, demands such a sacrifice in order for one to survive. Throughout The Jungle, Sinclair uses narrative incidents such as Stanislovas’s exploitation as evidence to support the argument that working from within capitalism is not effective. Socialism, he argues, is the only viable political and economic system.

Jurgis’s naturalization to become an American citizen, which might otherwise be seen as an encouraging step on his way toward achieving the American Dream, is tainted with corruption. The democratic process is entirely besmirched by politicians with hands caught in the deep pockets of big capitalists. Elections are rigged through an extensive vote-buying scheme, and members of the Chicago criminal underworld take advantage of ignorant, impoverished wage laborers to pervert the democratic process according to the wishes of big businessmen and their cronies.

WORK CITED

The Jungle

The Jungle is the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his family, Lithuanian immigrants who come to America to work in the meatpacking plants of Chicago. Their story is a story of hardship. They face enormous difficulties: harsh and dangerous working conditions, poverty and starvation, unjust businessmen who take their money, and corrupt politicians who create laws that allow all of this to happen. The story follows the hardships of Jurgis and his family and the transformation that Jurgis undergoes when he accepts the new political and economic revolution of socialism.He begs on the streets, gets into rows in saloons and is in and out of jail. During one of his visits to jail, he meets a con man named Jack Duane who initiates Jurgis into a life of crime. As a criminal, Jurgis learns about the corruption in city politics, in various industries such as steel and horseracing, in the packing-plants and even in the Chicago police force. Everyone, it seems, is crooked. The elections are fixed and Democratic and Republican Party members pay men for votes. Jurgis even helps out a candidate by bribing fellow workers at themeatpacking plant and offering them money for their votes. After another scrape and some more jail time, Jurgis wanders the streets of Chicago, begging and trying not to starve. He stumbles into a Socialist party meeting and is instantly transfixed by the speaker. He is introduced to a party member named Ostrinski who teaches him the tenets of Socialism. Jurgis is transformed by what he learns: finally there is an explanation for his suffering, and even a way to change it! Capitalism, he learns, is the bane of society, constantly keeping the common worker in poverty while enriching the wealthy. Jurgis finds a job at a hotel run by a Socialist and finds himself obsessed with Socialism. He runs into an old friend who tells him Ona's cousin Marija is living in a whorehouse, working as a prostitute. He finds her addicted to morphine and quite sick and cannot convince her to leave. She tells him to find the rest of the family and he does, supporting them with the money he makes at the hotel. The novel ends with a Socialist polemic supporting the movement and promising that the party will become stronger as time passes and, in the end, will "take Chicago."

JUNGLE

My modest proposal

Starvation is defined as noun suffering or death caused by hunger."thousands died of starvation". I don't think anyone will ever understand starvation expect the people literally going through it. I have volunteered at homeless shelters and seen what it's like to me them, it breaks me heart to hear that some of these people wouldn't eat for days. It s so many of us that waste food throw it always and don't look twice, but we never think about if the tables were turned what would we do. I've seen on TV dumpster drives,  I would laugh never truly understanding that these people have absolutely no other choice. It like they have to eat so what do you do? We were told to come up with solutions for starvation and I'm trying to figure out what I really think could work. Here's what I came up with. Since there are people starving I think every single persons household should be given a homeless person and they feed them every week. It may should crazy I know, but think about it, if everyone had a specific staving person to help they would soon be able to soon help someone else. It would be like a circle you help me, I help you...or someone else who needs it. The program would be a called solve starvation and people can also write it off on their taxes.  It's perfect for the people starving and 

STARVATION ARTICLES

Loaves & Fish

So before this trip was planned I wouldn't have went to this place. To be honest I knew nothing of it so I went to their website and checked it out. I clicked on history and here's what it said: Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes was organized in 1982 by several downtown churches concerned about increasing requests from people for food assistance. The congregations joined together to share resources and create an organized response to local hunger and formed Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes. I didn't know that they started from churches, I absolutely love that!! I reviewed their vision, mission & values and it shows that they really care about the community. I can't wait to go visit tomorrow, I was wondering if they need volunteers to come help out because that's something I would love to participate in!!!!! Here's the history of their logo "We began implementing our current logo in 2011, around the time of our 30th anniversary of service for this wonderful community. The current logo still connects us to our past - to our roots in the faith community.  The changes are subtle, and yet incorporate a fresh, clean look to move us into the future. It includes a new “tagline,” which now reads: “Promoting a Hunger-Free Community Since 1982,” something that also reflects our new vision and mission."

dinner with trimalchio

I can be honest and say this wasn't my favorite read, however it did keep me wanting to know more. Its really weird because before this class I never really paid attention to the history in food. The had enough food to feed a village, just to impress guest. I cannot believe that actually a temped to eat it all, as if they didn't know when they would eat again. It was really selfish to me and a waste. I don't think they know that over eating is a sin, or maybe they did and didn't care. I couldn't understand why he was being so rude to the servants. I know he was drinking, but something tells me that wouldn't have mattered. Violently treating them after they have done everything you ask is unbelievable. When they gave details about the food that they were eating I had to stop reading. It sounds absolutely disgusting. I feel like when your wealthy you don't have to show off it will show for its self! I don't understand how self centered he was and how everything revolved around only him.