The Jungle Pt.1

The book that we are reading, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, was pretty surprising to me already. This is going to be my first time reading this book and even though we are only through the first couple chapters, there was a lot that I found interesting and not really in a good way. 

First off, I was not expecting this book to have an optimistic tone to it at all. From everything that I have heard about this book, I expected it to have a very dark, grim, and negative tone. That really caught me off guard. 


Next, I thought it was interesting that Jurgis was happy to be doing the work that he was doing. I mean I guess he is just happy to have work in general. After all thats the whole reason why he came to America anyway. He was searching for the "American Dream" but after only earning about $2 per day is that really going to become a reality? He works over 12 hours a day and doesn't get paid that much at all. He is sweeping the entrails of cattle that have been slaughtered and loves it; even with that horrible smell everyday, all day long. He also has to just watch as so many sanitation infractions are occurring. He is literally watching as contaminated is packaged and sent out. I don't think I could live with myself knowing that there are families out there that will be feeding this meat to their children. I mean the conditions and sanitation is a lot better now (or at least I hope so) but still its just not something that I could do. Then again, I guess he's just happy to have a job in the first place. 

My Modest Proposal

With the growing starvation problem that is facing the world, there is not too much being done to help solve it. There is way too big of a population of starving people in this world for the problem to solved. Of the 1.7 billion or so people that are in this world, 33% of those people are starving. Thousands of people die everyday from starvation and suffer throughout their entire life. The stay miserable from lack of food. It is for these reasons that I have my very own solution on how to fix said problem. 

My solution the the starvation problem in the world is quite simple. Now I warn you, it may SEEM a little unnecessary and evil but, I believe it is a pretty good way to go about this. Mykills two birds with one stone. Not only does it take a chunk out of the starvation problem by just "getting rid" of it and just sweeping it under the rug so to speak, it also takes care off the world's problem of over population. 
solution to fix the starvation problem in the world is to set up little camps all around the world. In these camps, all of the starving people will be gathered up and placed into houses. While in these houses, a form of deadly gas will be dropped from the ceiling while the doors are locked from the outside. This

This is only for adults so children will not be allowed in. These children will instead be brought to factories in China and Japan and also farms and fields in Guatemala and Mexico to work for very little amounts of money and terrible working conditions kind of like it already is now. This will cause an increase in production and then countries, like the U.S., will be able to import a lot more products so that they can just end up wasting it anyways.    

And the Earth Did not Devour Him & Cajas de Carton

When I was finished reading both And the Earth Did not Devour Him and Cajas de Carton I couldn't help but notice some similarities. Both of the families in these stories are pretty much going through the same thing. Both are poverty stricken families that work extremely hard in order to try to provide a better life for their children. Also, the whole family works; even the littlest ones. Another thing that I have noticed is the amount of hard work that these migrant workers have. They work long hours, in the extreme heat, everyday of the week. Not
many Americans can say that they do that or have the same amount of work ethic. 

 To connect these stories to my own life, during the summer I work with a man who is from Mexico and him and his family did the same thing that these families are doing. He would tell me stories of his childhood of his family all working on a farm doing a lot of the similar jobs. He said of how they would travel a lot looking for work. Anything they could get really and for however long they could get it. He told me that they would work from sun up to sun doCajas de Carton where Francisco was able to go to school. Unfortunately, he didn't have that privilege. He has since gotten his GED and is one of the nicest and most hard working persons I've ever met.    

Rigoberta Menchú

This story of Rigoberta Menchú was really inspirational and eye opening. The fact that she was working when she was only 5 was quite disturbing. While other five year olds in the United States and other parts of the world were playing with toys and other neighborhood kids without a care in the world, just as a five year old should, Rigoberta was working side-by-side with her mother. No child should have to do that and even if they are, they should at least get paid. They shouldn't have to wait until they are 8 to get what they deserve. 

This story really made me thankful for what I have. I sit there and complain about not having food in my house when Im sure there is something that I can find while there are other people in other countries that are starving. I sometimes complain about how I feel under paid for the work I do when there are people barely getting paid and they probably do twice the work and work a whole lot harder than I do. I complain about the homework I have or the test coming up while there are people that would KILL to have the opportunity to an education that I have.  

After reading Rigoberta's story, I just feel like a giant complainer who doesn't know how good he has it. I cannot even imagine how hard the Guatemalan people have it. This story changed me as a person. I will start to become more thankful for all of the little things in my life that most of us take for granted while there are some people out there who can only dream about having.

A Modest Proposal

While I was reading through some of my other classmate's blog posts, their reactions were all about the same, disgust, horror, and surprise. A lot of what Swift says are disgusting and horrific and I don't blame anyone to have these emotions. Although all of these emotions are fair, there is an underlying message to this essay that not many people know; especially if they are reading it for the first time. 

During high school, we read and analyzed Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. In fact we had to write a pretty lengthly essay on it so, I know what Swift was really trying to get across. Even though Swift may have brought up some pretty interesting solutions to solve the hunger problem, he is not really serious about any of it. He is actually writing a satire. It might have not appeared to be so but that is the point of the essay. He wanted to get attention from the public by proposing some ludicrous solution. His satire actually mocks the way people view the poor and the hungry. It also is meant to make the audience think about the Irish policy at the time. 

I must say that Swift does have a very dark sense of humor and a very dark writing style. However, I can see how this would catch everyone's attention. Even now when people read it, its very attention grabbing. Its just a crazy proposal that nobody in their right mind would actually consider. It does actually make it quite funny once you figure out his real intention behind the essay and what he was actually trying to accomplish. 

Loaves & Fishes

While going through the Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes's website, there is a lot that I have learned. As I navigated through the "for students" section, I came across a reading from 2011 that had talked about the families that are going through hard financial times and had also included tables; one of which was the U.S. census poverty thresholds for families according to size. While I studied these tables and paragraphs, it had really opened up my eyes. I guess I never really realized how many families are going through hard times right in my backyard. This site really made me thankful for what I have and that I always had food in my pantry and fridge even if I thought that there was nothing.  

Another thing that I had noticed from going through this website was that, at the high school that I had attended, we were doing something very similar. Ours wasn't as big but, it was along the same lines. At my school, we had a room where people would go to donate food or money and anybody from the neighborhood or the surrounding area could go and get food for them and their families. I always thought it was such a great idea that my school was this generous to the community and really made me feel proud to be associated with such a great school. 

Loaves & Fishes is such a fantastic organization that has so many people so thankful that they are operating. On the website it said that they had given out roughly 2 million pounds of food annually. This is so incredible and I know that the people who are receiving this food cannot thank this organization enough for all that they have done. I cannot wait to go there myself and learn all that I can from them.       

Dinner of Trimalchio

While I reading the Dinner of Trimalchio I felt that it was quite hard to follow at times. The way the chapters were worded could be difficult at times and I struggled. Although this is true, from what I did pick up from the story was that the feast that they all had encountered was awfully decadent. Its unlike anything that I've read before. I had taken a Western Civilization class in high school and we had covered the life styles of people during this time period of ancient Egypt and Nero but, we had never coved anything quite like this. It really opened my eyes about the just how HUGE of a gap there was with social classes. Way more than I had thought. The wealth of Trimalchio was quite outstanding and I am quite curious as to what had happened for him to acquire such wealth. 

Something that I had found pretty interesting was that there was a different meal almost with every chapter. From what I could take away from the text, they most likely very luxurious foods from all over. The  themselves seemed like nothing really that we would see people eating today which I found interesting. Although, I guess food does change over time. One thing about the feast that I didn't understand really was when the meals were placed on the signs of the zodiac. I felt that that was pretty interesting.