25 Important The Jungle Quotes For Teens To Study

Luca Demetriou
Dec 12, 2023 By Luca Demetriou
Originally Published on Feb 09, 2021
forests / woodland

'The Jungle' has been influential in the scout movement and is read by people all across the globe.

The tales in this book are high fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to teach moral lessons. The other readers who read this book have interpreted the work as allegories of the time’s politics and society in Chicago.

“They use everything about the hog except the squeal” is a quote from the novel by Upton Sinclair. The main motive behind writing ‘The Jungle’ was to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry.

Sinclair's description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws. The moral of the story is something little that people love to read after every level.

The novel 'The Jungle' was written in 1906 and is an important book for introducing people to the way that animals are treated. The novel by Sinclair is also important because it presents the bleak life that immigrants and their families experienced and what they went through at that time.

Here are some of the important ‘The Jungle’ quotes for the teens to study.

If you enjoy reading this article then you should definitely check out our other articles, like 'The House On Mango Street' quotes and Heart Of Darkness' quotes.
 

Important Quotes From ‘The Jungle’

The central theme of ‘The Jungle’ is the evil of capitalism. Every event, especially in the first twenty-seven chapters of the book, is chosen deliberately to portray a particular failure of capitalism: for Sinclair, it is inhuman, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent. Here are some of the important ‘The Jungle’ quotes for teens to study.

1. “The rich people not only had all the money, they had all the chance to get more; they had all the know-ledge and the power, and so the poor man was down, and he had to stay down.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

2. “The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country—from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

3. “To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat- and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.”                            

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

4. “Relentless, remorseless, all his protests, his screams were nothing to it. It did its cruel will with him, as if his wishes, his feelings, had simply no existence at all; it cut his throat and watched him gasp out his life.”      

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

5. “...and the wild beast rose up within him and screamed, as it had screamed in ‘The Jungle’ from the dawn of time.”              

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

6. “When he came home that night he was in a very somber mood, having begun to see at last how those might be right who had laughed at him for his faith in America.”                      

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

7. “In that country, rich or poor, a man was free… he might do as he pleased, and count himself as good as any other man. So America was a place of which lovers and young people dreamed. If one could only manage to get the price of passage, he could count his troubles at an end.”                                

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

8. “They use everything about the hog except the squeal.”            

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

9. “Was it permitted to believe that there was nowhere upon the earth, or above the earth, a heaven for hogs, where they were required for all this suffering? Each one of these hogs was a separate creature.”        

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

10.     “If we are the greatest nation the sun ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad our wage-earners to this pitch of frenzy.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

11. “There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.”        

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

12.  “There should be no more tears and no more tenderness; he had had enough of them - they had sold him into slavery! Now he was going to be free, to tear off his shackles, to rise up and fight.”          

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

Fantastic Upton Sinclair 'The Jungle' Quotes

Exhibiting the evil side of capitalism , 'The Jungle' also sheds light upon slavery and poor working conditions of workers. This is the reason that 'The Jungle' quotes about working conditions of immigrants  are still quoted by many. Here are some of the most prominent the Jungle Upton Sinclair quotes.

13.  “Dieve-but I’m glad I’m not a hog.”                

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

14.  “In a society dominated by the fact of commercial competition, money is necessarily the test of prowess, and wastefulness the sole criterion of power.”                          

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

15. “I find that all the fair and noble impulses of humanity, the dreams of poets and the agonies of martyrs, are shackled and bound in the service of organized and predatory Greed!”              

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

16. “The marriage would have been at once, if they had had their way; but this would mean that they would have to do without any wedding feast, and when they suggested this they came into conflict with the old people.”                              

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

17.     “When one comes to the ultra-modern profession of advertising,” responded Schliemann—“the science of persuading people to buy what they do not want—he is in the very center of the ghastly charnel house of capitalist destructiveness.”                      

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

18.     “Now and then a visitor wept, to be sure; but this slaughtering machine ran on, visitors or no visitors. It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory.”                            

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

19. “They were trying to save their souls-and who but a fool could fail to see that all that was the matter with their souls was that they had not been able to get a decent existence for their bodies?”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

20.  “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

21. “All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

22. “One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

23. “It is impossible to get a man to understand something if his livelihood depends on him not understanding.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

24. “It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

25. “It appeared as if the whole world was one elaborate system, opposed to justice and kindness, and set to making cruelty and pain.”

- Upton Sinclair, ‘The Jungle’.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestion ‘The Jungle Quotes for Teens to Study, why not look at 'The Metamorphosis' quotes, or 'The Bluest Eye' quotes.

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Written by Luca Demetriou

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice

Luca Demetriou picture

Luca DemetriouBachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice

Experienced in writing and sub-editing, Luca holds a Bachelor's in English Literature and Drama from the University of Birmingham, where he served as the culture editor at Redbrick Paper. He is currently pursuing a Master's in Performance: Design and Practice at the University of the Arts in London, showcasing his passion for the arts, performance, and history. With a keen interest in traveling, Luca enjoys exploring new cultures and experiencing diverse perspectives.

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