This semester one of my many projects includes planning a 5-6 day unit on whatever I like for my Social Studies Methods class. After a few weeks of brainstorming and reading, I decided to choose what is called the Progressive Era in American history. If you’re wondering, my other choice was doing something about “The Hundred Years War” because I’ve become fascinated by English long bow archers. What made me choose the Progressive Era was a novel written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, The Jungle. The story is about a family of immigrants who travel from Lithuania to Chicago, Illinois to work in the meat packing industry. Not being able to speak the English language, they immediately become a target for those that wish to take advantage of their innocence. Although they eventually settle among people they can communicate with, they spend most of their time at work in horrible conditions. Whether it was the canning factories or the slaughter houses, the pay was little, the hours were long, and death seemed to be the only thing that would relieve them of this misery. The family was even forced to put their children to work who didn’t even understand why they were forced to work (and for less pay), they just did it. I can not even begin to describe how horrible the working conditions were, SinClair does a brilliant job of it himself. Before the book was published, the United States government got a hold of it and was so alarmed, they checked into the conditions, and were quite surprised to find out Sinclair’s descriptions were accurate. Sinclair stated that he wanted to write a workers version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I’ve never read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and many say that it doesn’t compare; either way Sinclair’s work is moving.
What I find particularly interesting is Sinclair’s analogy “The Jungle” to describe the conditions. I think it’s clever. This reminds me of the popular Guns N’ Roses song “Welcome to the Jungle,” which also describes the underside of a city and it’s cruelty. The song was first born when Axl Rose was hitchhiking with a friend in New York City and a homeless black man informed them that they where in the Jungle, and they were gonna die. So Rose got the idea for a song. In Seattle Axl and Slash wrote the song, but instead New York or Seattle, they describe the city of Los Angeles. Axl Rose himself explains: “I wrote the words in Seattle. It’s a big city, but at the same time it’s still a small city compared to L.A. and the things that you’re gonna learn. It seemed a lot more rural up there. I just wrote how it looked to me. If someone comes to town and they want to find something, they can find whatever they want.” I couldn’t not find a quote from Slash on the subject that did not include excessive profanity… haha….. ok.. actually I didn’t look, but most of his quotes end up that way. 
The best scene from the music video is when Slash is drinking from a paper bag in front of a television store, then at the end of the video they return to the scene, but he’s gone. That happens a lot in cities, people disappearing, but who seems to care? Guns N’ Roses reminds me of Sinclair because they both make efforts to talk about the negative things that exist in society (which GN’R often promoted unconsciously). Behind the excessive hairspray, leather, and cigarette smoke Guns N’ Roses was a pretty liberal band that spoke their mind about the world’s problems. The song “Civil War” is a prime example, among many others. The music video for Welcome to the Jungle shows violent clips from the news of the era, not for the violence, but to make a point, it’s a jungle out there. Another occurrence comes to mind when they band played at Freddy Mercury’s tribute concert. Freddy Mercury, lead singer of Queen was homosexual and died of aids. Many criticized Guns N’ Roses for playing at the show because it meant they supported gay rights, and they did. Security was a major issue; the bands biggest fear was getting shot. Considering the bands name, Guns N’ Roses was also quite contradictive (guns). Now that I’ve completely rambled about Guns N’ Roses (I can’t help it!) lets get back to Sinclair. Other than being labeled a socialist, Sinclair was an average guy looking to make the world better. While teaching about the Progressive Era I doubt that I will have enough time to allow students to read the book, plus the school probably wouldn’t buy copies. But should a teacher give up? Never! I’ll of course have my own copy of the book and will plan on reading excerpts from the book. The goal is to make students feel like they’re living through the time period. What was is like to walk to work in a blizzard to work? You had to go, or you lost your job. What was it like to get injured? What did that mean for your family? The message that Sinclair provides for his readers is powerful and that’s why I plan on using it. I also hope that students will become interested and read the book for themselves. HA! And No Child Left Behind cuts Social Studies funding because they claim reading is more important. There’s reading in Social Studies too! I would also ask students to think of other analogies other than the “jungle.” Now finding the video for Welcome to the Jungle may not be easy, but checking out The Jungle from you local library is easy, so check it out.
