The Weakening Family Bond as the Pushing Factor of the Rise of Socialism in the United States - Research Paper Example

?The weakening family bond as the pushing factor of the rise of socialism during the industrialization period. Key words: Socialism, Industrial revolution, Women, Family bond Summary: The Industrial Revolution was a period of changes in all aspects of productions in the early twentieth centuries. The output raised a great amount and the economy boomed up. During that time, the socialist party arose and went popular. Some people attribute the reason to long working hours, bad working condition, and poverty. This paper goes against this statement and discusses the most significant pushing factor of the rise of socialism: the weakening family bond and the emotional need of unification. The rationalistic view of the world gave rise to the mechanization in the Western World. The development of the factory system during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1750s left sheer influence on the different aspects of human life in the Western world. The increase in the factory system of production paved the way for the loss of significance for the agrarian sector and the society that hovered around the same. The major political party, capitalism, focused on production and profit and created severe problem on people’s physical and mental problem. Like other parts of the world, the Industrial Revolution followed the same trajectory in the United States of America. Clashes within the family became common phenomena during this period (Backer). Some people argue that the bad working condition and poverty led to the rise of Socialism. However, I believe that though the rise of Socialism during the Industrialization period were related to the imbalanced wealth distribution, safety and sanitation issues, as well as the discriminating treatment towards the working class, the major pushing factor should be the social disorder created by the weakening family bond. This paper will focus on the weakening family bond as the majority pushing factor that have led to the rise and popularity of socialism in America and it will be described at the backdrop of Upton Sinclair’s novel, “ The Jungle”. The role of women and emotional turbulence also forms a significant part of the paper. Capitalism and socialism advocates different political belief. Economic sociologist David Stark defines capitalism as a casual economy and socialism as instant economy in the context of industrial revolution in America. In a capitalist society, people, especially bosses and employees, considered production and profit more because they believed that competition brings out the best in people. By following a capitalist routine of production indeed stimulated the economy, yet the worker’s physical and emotional wellness was severely ignored under a high pressure of production—they worked, struggled, and suffered. Comparatively, a socialist society advocates that workers should have most say in their factory‘s management and people look out for general welfare. Having a clear overview of the rise of socialism over capitalism and its perils in the society now the focus should be entailed at the storyline of Upton Sinclair’s famous novel, The Jungle. Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle contributed greatly to the literature and social reform in the American society. The novel gives a vivid description of the life of the workers in America’s meat packing factory. The novel heralds with the wedding feast of Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite who are immigrants from the Lithuania to Chicago. Along with Jurgis and Ona lived her stepmother Teta Elzbieta and her brother Jonas, one cousin Marija and father of Jurgis, Dede Antanas. The guests who came to their wedding ceremony were not all cheerful and they did not also properly wished the newlywed couple. Most of them went home disappointed and drunk. The reason was that this newlywed couple started their journey with debt. They have come from their homeland in Lithuania to Chicago to find a livelihood for them. But they have faith in America. Jurgis believes that he “will earn more money [he] will work harder” (Boehmer 4). In search of job, Jurgis finds himself employed as a sweeper on the killing beds at Brown’s a major meat packing company. Jonas finds a job of pushing a truck at Durham’s, which was Brown’s rival. They both were lucky to find a job and started their lives in America. But Jurgis started discovering the dark sides of America. Their misfortunes started to usher when Jurgis in the factory saw pregnant cows being slaughtered and their unborn calves were chemically mixed and transported in the marketplace for commercial purposes. His faith over the American society became much more pessimistic when he came to know that the people who lived in that house before them lost their properties for not paying their debts. He even finds that there were other taxes and interests levied on the debt amount. With this threat in their minds they planned that more members of the family must join the work force (Boehmer 4). As a part of the plan, they sent their children in the streets to work. Ona took the job of a mistress. But Jurgis was arrested for beating his wife’s boss. In the mean time Jurgis’s father died. He escaped from the jail and went to the countryside. He was recaptured and put into the jail again. Jurgis was really hopeless. In jail Jurgis came in contact with a criminal who showed the way to Jurgis how he can earn a livelihood as a criminal. Gradually Jurgis learns about the different faces of corruption in factories and politics. He helped a candidate of the Republican Party to win the election by bribing the fellow workers in the meatpacking plants and giving money to buy votes for the candidate. His personal grudge of losing his wife resulted in thrashing of Ona’s ex boss and he was again imprisoned. After that Jurgis accidentally visited a socialist party meeting at Chicago. He was very much moved by these socialist ideas as he could replicate these ideas to his own life. Thus he became an ardent Socialist. It was infused in his mind that Socialism was the only solution to all the problems (Deinzer 7). The story of The Jungle is a clear representation of the lives of thousands of immigrants who came to America during the period of industrialization. These immigrants came to America in large numbers and most of them were family members. They migrated to America because they were acquainted with the instances of their friends and relatives who were in America and were rich. According to them, America was considered as the dreamland for the younger generations and lovers. These immigrants came here with great expectations in mind but when they came to realize the actual picture they were really depressed and found themselves in deep trouble. This phenomenon is reflected in a passage of The Jungle which can be mentioned in this case. The passage is as follows: “A very few days of practical experience in this land of high wages had been sufficient to make clear to them the cruel fact that it was also a land of high prices, and that in it the poor man was almost as poor as in any other corner of the earth” (Deinzer 7). With a brief insight on the storyline of “ The Jungle”the idea that we generate is that American society was infected with the evil effects of capitalism and it jeopardized the family life of numerous people which ultimately gave rise to socialism. Now I will make the claims which will explore my main theme that is weakening of family bonds and ties in the rise of socialism keeping in accordance with the backdrop of the novel. I identified that the shift of role of women may be stated as a pushing factor of the popularity of socialism. Before the industrialization era the women were basically engaged in the household works. They were responsible for reproducing, nurturing the infants and to manage the households. This scenario completely changed after the industrialization that migration from the rural areas to the urban areas was a predominant phenomenon in the industrialization era. Young women were encouraged by the state to come to the industrial regions in order to work. As a result they had to break down the ties with their village and they were given clothes, accommodation in the urban areas (Malgorzata). No one cared about these children because both the father and mother of a family are forced to work in factories, resulting in weakening family bond and impacted the growing environment for children. Such ignorance from the government shifted citizens' political preferences to socialism. In this case Sinclairs quotes from his novel can be incorporated here as follows: “Surely it is moderate to say that the dish-washing for a family of five takes half an hour a day; with ten hours as a day’s work, it takes, therefore, half a million able bodied persons --- mostly women --- to do the dish-washing of the country. And note that this is most filthy and deadening and brutalizing work: that it is a cause of anemia, nervousness, ugliness, and ill-temper: of prostitution, suicide, and insanity; of drunken husbands and degenerate children --- for all of which things the community has naturally to pay” (Sinclair, Chap 31). The quotes highlight the exploitation of the women engaged in the most menial jobs which led to the rampant family degradation with high divorce rates and ill effects on the children. In addition, the suffrage of workingwomen also pushed the rise of socialism. Buhle claims that this was a transitional movement for America when the industrialists did not have an opportunity to grant the workplaces for most, while socialism promised equal opportunities for every citizen. Moreover, the national minorities hoped for getting civil rights, and family factor only embraced the liberal moods. In a capitalist economy, women came to the industrialized zone and they were betrayed in several instances with respect to status and wages. Similar story happens in the book The Jungle: In the novel in chapter 28 Marija enters into the field of prostitution in order to save her family from starvation. In this case Sinclair’s move against capitalism is well reflected (Sinclair). A brief conversation between Jurgis and Marija can be mentioned in this context. “Jurgis: ‘Have you been sick?’ Marija: ‘Sick?’ ‘Hell!’ How can I ever be anything but sick, at this life?’’It’s morphine,’i seem to take more of it every day.’ Jurgis: ‘What’s that for?’ Marija: ‘It’s the way of it; I don’t know why. If it isn’t that, its drink. If the girls didn’t booze they couldn’t stand it any time at all.’ Jurgis: ‘Don’t you save money?’ Marija: “‘Save!’ ‘Good Lord, no! I get enough, I suppose, but it all goes. I get a half share, two dollars and a half for each customer, and sometimes I make twenty-five or thirty dollars a night, and you’d think I ought to save something out of that! But then I am charged for my room and my meals- and such prices as you never heard of; and then for extras, and drinks-for everything I get, and some I don’t. My laundry bill is nearly twenty dollars each week alone-think of that! Yet what can I do? I either have to stand it or quit, or would be the same anywhere else. It’s all I can do to save the fifteen dollars I give Elzbieta each week, so the children can go to school.’.” Jurgis: Affirmitive” (Sinclair 296-297 Chap 27). These statements implied the immense pain through which Marija went and also reflects her utmost pessimistic approach towards life. Several women socialist movements rose up in a rigorous scale in the United States. In 1879 Augusta Lilienthal argued that the women in general were stateless and lacking in rights. The women could not also defend themselves against repression legally. (Buhle 40) Thus laws needed to be stringent in favor of the women and thus arose the socialist movement for the women. The Socialist women movement in America started in 1870s and reached its peak in the first decades of the twentieth century. The movement was carried out on a national basis with major issues like women emancipation, labor suffrage and sex reforms in the American society (Buhle). A recent study shows that the stress related to the work place that leads to the weakening of the family bonds and relations (Drukteinis). This fact of weakening family bonds and ties can also be attributed to the rise of American socialism in the industrialized period. After industrialization in USA, several changes in the work pattern among the workers has been noticed and it has also been found out that it led to various mental disorders and weakening of family bonds and ties. These were followed by high divorce rates and movement to conjugal family forms. There is a line in the book saying that “Once she cried aloud, and woke Jurgis, who was tired and cross. After that she learned to weep silently—their moods so seldom came together now! It was as if their hopes were buried in separate graves.” (Sinclair, Chap 15) From this line we can interpret that People who suffered from the industrial revolution were depressed, and this negative emotion broke the harmony of a family and weakened the family bond. The families became more nuclear because there was less affinity of parent-child unit to live with the nonrelatives. This is the first step of weakening family bond—bigger family started to break down into a smaller unit. In 1880 in a study it was found that in one town of Massachusetts approximately one third of the households had non-related boarders. Also as a result of industrialization both male and female found employment in the industries. As a result they became more selfish and relied on their own education and work experiences rather than on family ties, which led to huge scale divorce rates among the American families. By 1980, divorce rates reached the highest rates with a long-term increase in divorce rates in North America (Starbuck 4). A socialist society gave a better life in terms of less pressure and more sense of unification. The plot of the book “ The Jungle”depicts a working-class labor’s will of being united in a family, which is exactly what a capitalism society lacks and a socialism society has. At the beginning of the book when Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite were married, she did not get a day off from the work after the wedding day. She has to get up early in the morning at 7 so that she does not lose her job. The factory where she worked did not even give her a single unpaid vacation (Deinzer 13). Though life is tough, it is still bearable and they had a joyful and felicific marriage. However, a capitalism society was not able to maintain this happy marriage as time passes on. There is one quote from the book saying “This wasn’t a world in which a man had any business with a family; sooner or later Jurgis would find that out also, and give up the fight and shift for himself.” (Chap 17) This line demonstrates the failure of capitalism during the industrial revolution in terms of guaranteeing a brave life with families—people were too frustrated in dealing with money in order to survive. Jurgis wife and child were dead and he almost lost all the happiness of his life. When Jurgis left the yard his fortune gets luckier. The socialist party turned out to be his new home, and he feels a strong sense of unification and brotherhood from it. He served in the South Chicago Mill and also served as a harvester’s work. Jurgis earned good money from small crime and his employment as a politicians helping hand or as the foreman in the strikebound yards. Jurgis’ rebellion was not because of the inhuman capitalism society but his anger and sorrow from losing his family, which turns out to be an emotional need of family. This is what exactly a socialist society provides. People believe that the bad working condition, poverty, and health issue imparted influence on the development of Socialism during the industrialization period. There is a quote from the book describing the social status of the working class people: ‘The division of labor is the forgotten category of classical political economy’ (Walker 673). The underlying meaning in the above sentence points to the neglect of the working class of the classical capitalism economy in the industrialization period. In this period the entrepreneurs of the factory treated their workers as machines and were devoid of human behavior in order to reap the highest benefits. As a result these factories earned huge profits but the workers were physically fatigued and they either fell seriously ill or they died. (Walker) Admittedly, the long-working hour, poverty, and health issue pushed the rise of socialism in some degrees as most people believe. However, it is not mostly significant. Nowadays these severe problems still exist in the majority of the developing countries and some of the developed countries, yet only four countries, China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam still have Socialism or communism as the major political party. In a modern society, socialism doesn’t work unless people are highly educated, and every single worker is making maximum production without any pressure. Obviously, it’s just an ideal world. Conclusion The paper focuses on the factors that led to rise of Socialism in United States of America during the industrialization period with the background of Upton Sinclairs’, The Jungle’. An insight into the emergence of socialism and contrast between socialism and capitalism has been provided in the paper. The brief study reveals the fact that economic and socio-economic factors along with purely social causes led to the emergence of capitalism in America. Most interestingly economic factors like structural change, longer working hours and poor wage rate have given expression to the rise of socialism through the social phenomenon like loosening of family bond, changing role of woman and emotional turbulence. Instances of the aforesaid facts can be found in the novel The Jungle. Here we also find an example of a worker who became a socialist. The worker, Jurgis in The Jungle was infused with the notion of socialism after a long struggle in the industrial zone of Chicago after losing his wife and children. This finds close proximity with the factor of weakening of family bonds and American socialism in general. Again Jurgis fights with his wife’s ex boss as a revenge to his wife’s death, which is metaphorical to the role of women in bringing socialism through various socialist movement. Emergence of socialist set up and its eventual popularity in USA after Industrial Revolution is primarily a social phenomenon. . Bibliography Backer, Patricia Ryaby. Industrialization of American Society, April 30, 2012 from: http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/industrial.htm Buhle, Mari Jo. Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. University of Illinois Press, 1983, Print Deinzer, Eva, The Representation of Immigrant Life in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, GRIN Verlag, 2009. Print. Starbuck, Gene H. Is There a Post-Industrial Family Form? An Exploration Using Global Data, 2001, April 30, 2012 from: http://myhome.coloradomesa.edu/~starbuck/pifamfrm.pdf Stark, David, Bending the bars of the Iron Cage: Bureaucratization and informalization in capitalism and socialism, 1989, April 30, 2012 from: http://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/126.pdf Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle, Forgotten Books, 1935 Drukteinis, Albert M. THE GROWTH OF EMPLOYMENT STRESS CLAIMS:WORKERS' COMPENSATION, DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT AND ACCOMMODATION PROBLEMS, NEW ENGLAND PSYCHODIAGNOSTICS, April 30, 2012 from: http://www.psychlaw.com/LibraryFiles/EmploymentStress3.html Walker, Richard A. "The hidden dimension of industrialization: an expanding division of labour”, Futures (1993) 25.6, April 30, 2012 from: http://oldweb.geog.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/faculty/R_Walker/Walker_52.pdf Read More