Chapter seven then talks about the location of most meatpacking plants, in an urban city. Following that, Fast food nation, tells readers that Chicago was the meat capital of the world, at the time. Large meatpacking firms that employed around 40,000 people and shipped meat all throughout the United States and Europe was headquartered there. Upton Sinclair wrote the book titled “The Jungle” in 1906 based on working conditions in the meatpacking industry of Chicago. After poor working conditions were discovered and proven true, political influence on the meatpacking industry gave way for the “food safety Legislation”. This gave workers union representation and increased pay after WW2. Next, the book notifies on Iowa Beef Packers (IBP), telling us about its founders, employees, and working structures. IBP was the culprit for many wholesalers and butchers either going out of business or being fired, due to the fact that they had expanded their uses and ways of cutting beef. While talking about IBP, the workforce of its employees came to light. Dakota City workers went on strike and even showed violence towards those who were in a high position in IBP. Also, Iowa Beef packers…
When thinking of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, many immediately picture the grotesque meat that was being packaged and sent out to the families all over the state and country. That is because of the paragraph about the meats, where Sinclair writes of the spoiled meat used as sausage; the many chemicals used to change color, flavor, and odor; and removing the bone from bad smoked hams, where a white-hot iron was placed instead. The bad meats were sold under false pretenses, and most of the time it worked. Boneless hams were odds and ends of pork, California hams were shoulders and knuckle joints, and skinned hams were made from old hogs (142). That passage so angered President Roosevelt that he had the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act passed, which had harsher laws regarding the meats that could be used. “‘I aimed at the public’s heart,’ said Sinclair, ‘and by accident I hit in the stomach’” (McCage). He said that because he was instead hoping to expose the poor working conditions and hopefully promote socialism. The workers in Packingtown were given very low wages; not even eighteen cents an hour (Sinclair 44)! They were treated very poorly and were given no sympathy for sickness or death. For example, Ona was dislike by her forelady after asking for a holiday to get married (112). Although it was not allowed to happen, bosses would blacklist workers, keeping them from ever getting a job (208). The working…
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a three-hundred and seventy page, descriptive and touching political fiction critiquing the social and economic inequality of work in the meat-packing industry during the early 1900’s. The book follows the life of Jurgis Rudkus, a poor immigrant who, along with his many family members, move to Chicago to live the "American Dream". However theses Lithuanian American dream are quickly crushed as work in the meat-packing industry has only given them intolerable levels of hardship such as death, injuries, scams, rape, and injustice. The Rudkus innocence and desperation causes many frustrations and…
In February 1906, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group published the novel called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This novel exposed the plight of immigrants working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. It depicted the severe working conditions of the meatpacking industries employees in Chicago and also described the unsanitary factory conditions that they had to work through during a daily basis. For example, some of the unacceptable conditions that were described were the mislabeled canned meats, meat supplies contaminated by human remains, thousands of rats, and water from leaky roofs dripping over the meat. This is just one of many horrific conditions that were going on in Chicago. All of these alarming conditions…
The Book “The Jungle” was written by Upton Sinclair, it explained the critical conditions of meat packing plants. It was a fictional story used to open the eyes of the readers that ate the contaminated meat. Readers then became concerned with the sanitation and health troubles that they may be facing and that they will face. They then began to attack Theodore Roosevelt with letters, full of their concerns with the meat they consumed. Due to the public’s reaction to The Jungle Roosevelt then sent a social worker and a labor commissioner to visit the meat packing plants. After the book, The Jungle, was written and printed, Theodore Roosevelt was highly disturbed by what he had read, he then called up Congress to create a law beginning “The Pure…
The factories were extremely unsanitary, there were numerous injuries, and dangerous working conditions. Sinclair depicts the gruesome aspects of factory labor, such as human limbs getting caught in the machines and still being packaged along with the other meat. "The Jungle" changed the way food is distributed now, after the novel was published the FDA (food and drug administration) was established to inspect food quality.…
The Jungle was an 1906 novel written by author Upton Sinclair. The book was wrote to help portray all the harsh and inhumane living conditions. It also exploited to unsanitary conditions of the meat factories and meat packing industries…
Upton Sinclair had a very successful life which gave him many qualifications for all the books he has written. When he first thought of the idea for “The Jungle” he decided that he should go undercover for seven weeks inside of an actual meatpacking plant in Chicago, in order to get all the information he would need to accurately write his novel. He was also well educated by many different schools. He went to the City College of New York at the young age of fourteen and after graduating from there he went and studied for a while at Columbia University back in 1897. “The Jungle” was also, by far not his first…
Upton Sinclair has famously remarked, “All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” These words are especially befitting for Sinclair’s most famous novel, The Jungle. Sinclair’s novel follows the devastating collapse of an immigrant Lithuanian family as a result of the ruthless practices of capitalism. Thus, The Jungle is a severe critique of capitalism, and it possesses the intention of persuading readers to adopt the views of the socialism. With this objective in mind, the book has been heavily classified as a piece of socialist propaganda by many critics. Sinclair’s goal to convert readers to socialism failed for the most part, however, but the novel did help pass landmark legislation dealing with food safety conditions. The Jungle as a piece of socialist propaganda ultimately fails as the result of various factors including Sinclair’s biased argument against capitalism,…
The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair can be considered one of the most influential novels written at the beginning of the 20th century. Though largely known as the book that resulted in the creation of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, The Jungle illustrated the harsh working conditions and ruthless competition that plagued the meat-packing plants in Chicago. Sinclair’s original intention for writing the book was to point out the flaws of capitalism, the greed that plagued society, and the poor imprisoned wage-slaves that struggled with starvation, disease, and the purpose behind their lives.…
Workers and citizens today have Upton Sinclair to thank for the improved working conditions and higher regulations in the food industry. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair uses vivid imagery and figurative language to expose the extremely unpleasant working conditions of immigrants and the Capitalist ideology of early 1900’s Chicago . A large Lithuanian family comes to Chicago in hopes for better life and work. The main character Jurgis is eager to work after a new marriage with his wife, Ona. The family of twelve quickly realizes that things are not quite what they seem. They are struck with hunger, poverty, injury, and death on multiple occasions.…
Imagine a place where there is no FDA and no control on what goes into food. A place where people think they are eating sausage but, in actuality, they are eating feces! This “place” was America in 1906 and the years before. For years and years, ordinary citizens had no idea of the horrors that happened behind the scenes of the meatpacking industry. That was until “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. This book unmasked the monstrosity that was the meatpacking industry and impacted audiences like no other book has. Sinclair used graphic depictions such as dead rats being put in the food and spoiled meat still being used to impact the audience and achieve his purpose.…
In The Jungle , Upton Sinclair shows The corruption of the Industrial Age through his depiction of working conditions, wages, and living conditions.…
Many works of literature deals with political issues or social issues. One such work of literature is Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. The author uses symbolism and motifs to show the overarching theme of his book, the evils of capitalism. The author writes about corruption time and time again as a tool used by the powerful in a capitalistic society. As Jurgis and his family continue to live in Packingtown, believing they can be part of the realization American Dream, they find themselves slipping deeper into the corruption and immorality surrounding them. Jurgis, and through his eyes the viewer, witnesses the packaging of tuberculosis ridden beef, the overworking and death of many of Jurgis's family, and even the rape of Jurgis's wife at the hands…
The young man was known as Upton Sinclair and traveled to Chicago to write about the life of the working class. Sinclair attacked the working conditions of the meat packing industry with newspaper articles but the situation was left unnoticed until a copy of a Sinclair’s publication was sent to President Roosevelt. “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair, contained reports of the unsanitary conditions and the horrible images he had witnessed during seven weeks of observing Chicago’s meat packing houses. Sinclair got the attention of the nation, especially with reports that included a section of how meat packing houses treated diseased meat. The report stated that the smell of diseased meat was masked by applying kerosene in order to pass the current standards before reaching the public. The report became a much bigger issue then Sinclair claimed that such meat did in fact reach the public killing more American soldiers than the Spanish-American war. This was a time of muckrakers and Sinclair was considered one of them, having a huge influence on investigations of corrupt industries and exposing to America harmful meat products, thus resulting in new government regulations and laws. Sinclair’s reports and horrible descriptions of filth and blood also influenced a decrease of almost half…