Upton Sinclair was the most prolific writer in the history of America. He did most of his work focusing on how the politicians are corrupting the United States and how it will be made a better place; he also wanted political and social reform. The jungle was published in the 1906.it was a grim indication that led the government to a regulation of the food industry inspection.
The jungle was specifically written to draw the government's attention to the working condition faced by laborers in America. Especially the immigrants like"jurgis" who came from Lithuanian, and had no choice but to work long hours and will take whatever wages they get. The novel covers the economic system that destroyed jurgis and his family treating them like the very cattle that were slaughtered in the Chicago stockyard.
At the fist half of the book Sinclair narrated what has become the meatpacking legacy by telling the detail of diseased meat shoveled off the dirty floor into sausage grinder and injured people preparing meat. The other half showed how Jurgis Ruckus, lost his house and family, strike out on his own, nearly starving on the street, unable to find work. There were many immigrants during the twentieth century who came into America at that time so that employers could offer wages for unskilled workers who are willing to do miserable jobs like working in the meat packing industry.
Sinclair was very plain in describing the nature of the food the Americans were consuming due to the nature of the parking house experience. Sinclair wanted to expose the exploitation of the poor and oppressed in America. His description of contaminated meats drew more attention, where spoiled harms are treated with formaldehydes and sausage made out of rotten meats. His aim of writing the jungle is to introduce the people to socialism because the rich who owned industries are using their wealth to take advantage of the poor citizens.
Sinclair explained how the workers who worked in the meat-parking stockyard were also in danger when he said, "in its way as horrible as the killing-beds, the workers in each of them had their own peculiar diseases." Even the employers who worked in the stockyard were very sick each with its own stage of diseases from the rotten meat they were parking.
The description of the smell in the meat house was a horrible experience to the reader who actually did not witness the insident"it is an elemental odor, raw and crude, it is rich, almost sensual and strong.
While The Jungle was by far Sinclair’s most famous work, what many are not aware of is the fact that The Jungle was initially written as an expose for a well-known socialist newspaper in the country, Appeal to Reason. Although Sinclair once said he were to write the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the labor movement”, he did so not by merely speculating what the meat packing industry was like, but by actually experiencing the lifestyle firsthand. Upton Sinclair went to the packing plants himself in order to truly gain the experience of what it was like to work in the stockyards as well as communicating directly with employees, laborers, social workers, and locals to truly grasp what life was like in a place like Packingtown. It was not until Sinclair was able to take all of his experiences in that he was able to sit down and write an accurate and to some, frightful expose of what the meat packing industry
The public’s reaction created unintended consequences from the author’s original intent. Sinclair himself writes "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Publishing the novel led to new federal food safety laws such as the Pure Food and Drug act and the Meat Inspection Act. During his job Jurgis noticed the meat factory was a place “...where men welcomed tuberculosis in the cattle they were feeding...”(112). As it would fatten them up and the factory could sell disease ridden meat. Moreover, on the killing floor, they would butcher “slunk calves” for meat. Slunk calves are born prematurely and is against the law to process this cow meat for
In 1900, there were over 1.6 million people living in Chicago, the country's second largest city. Of those 1.6 million, nearly 30% were immigrants. Most immigrants came to the United States with little or no money at all, in hope of making a better life for themselves. A city like Chicago offered these people jobs that required no skill. However, the working and living conditions were hazardous and the pay was barely enough to survive on. This is the bases for Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle.
Capitalism underwent a severe attack at the hands of Upton Sinclair in this novel. By showing the misery that capitalism brought the immigrants through working conditions, living conditions, social conditions, and the overall impossibility to thrive in this new world, Sinclair opened the door for what he believed was the solution: socialism. With the details of the meatpacking industry, the government investigated and the public cried out in disgust and anger. The novel was responsible for the passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. With the impact that Sinclair must have known this book would have, it is interesting that he also apparently tried to make it fuction as propaganda against capitalism and pro-socialism.
Taking place in the jungle of meat packing factories during the early 1900s in Chicago, a journalist by the name of Upton Sinclair dissects the savage inner workings of America’s working class factory lifestyle. Sinclair portrayed the grim circumstance that workers faced and the exploited lives of factory workers in Chicago. He became what was then called a mudrucker; a journalist who goes undercover to see first hand the conditions they were investigating. Being in poor fortune, Sinclair was able to blend into the surrounds of the factory life with his poor grimy clothing. The undercover journalist would walk into the factory with the rest of the men, examine its conditions, and record them when he returned home. It is the worker’s conditions
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, depicts the life of Jurgis Rudkus. He is an immigrant from Lithuania who travels to Chicago with Ona - his soon to be wife - and both their families. They see America as a new start and a new opportunity. They soon find out that in a country built on capitalism there isn't much freedom for the working class and the family is thrown into poverty with little hope of escaping. Poverty and capitalism are two themes that are still very destructive in our society today.
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
The enormous rush of European immigrants encountered a lack of jobs. Those who were lucky enough to find employment wound up in factories, steel mills, or in the meat packing industry. Jurgis Rudkus was one of these disappointed immigrants. A sweeper in slaughter house, he experienced the horrendous conditions which laborers encountered. Along with these nightmarish working conditions, they worked for nominal wages, inflexible and long hours, in an atmosphere where worker safety had no persuasion. Early on, there was no one for these immigrants to turn to, so many suffered immensely. Jurgis would later learn of worker unions and other groups to support the labor force, but the early years of his Americanized life were filled, with sliced fingers, unemployment and overall a depressing and painful "new start."
When he was little, he was smarter than most kids his age. He was a brilliant man who used his skills and talents to form America the way he felt it needed to be. When Sinclair joined the Socialist group, he made the life changing decision to research a meat-packing plant. This allowed him to become a heroic figure for others. Sinclair was able to write a novel called The Jungle. This was a novel that showed the pain, tragedy, and suffering of the meat-packing industry. He discovered the unhealthy tendencies in these factories and revealed them to the public. Shocking everyone, President Theodore Roosevelt made two laws called the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. These assured safety for the employees of these factories, along with easing the minds of people eating these meats. With this accomplishment on his long resume, he was able to buy a Socialist community and provide for his fellow Socialists. When this community burnt down, he carried on with his life, marrying three women. Even though Sinclair died shortly after marrying his third wife, his talent and abilities have lived on to show people today the importance of exposing the
Sinclair emphasizes the unfairness of capitalism within the struggles of the working class which helps bring most of the attention to the laborious lives th...
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair exemplifies a muckraking style in its often gory depictions of life in a meat packing factory, Sinclair writes of how the meat packing industry exploits its workers, many of whom are uneducated and poor in the same way a capitalist government exploits it's working class. Sinclair uses Symbolism in terms of physical objects, Objects that serve a metaphorical purpose, and oppressive tone, to persuade the reader that Capitalism leads to the declination and corruption of America and that the only way to remedy this is socialistic government.
Many impoverished people immigrated to America in hopes of achieving the American Dream but instead were faced with dangerous working conditions while the factory and corporation owners increased their wealth and profit by exploiting this cheap means of labor. Upton Sinclair succeeded to show the nature of the wage slavery occurring in America in the beginning of the twentieth century. People felt distressed and unimportant in the community because they were being used by the wealthy to generate capital leading the industry for the future success and efficacy in the market. Upton Sinclair was an American journalist who incorporated his personal research of the meatpacking industry conditions and people’s life, as well as the structure of the present business into the novel under analysis. Thus, real facts and data were incorporated into this literary work, which helps the audience to feel involved in the work and understand the overall atmosphe...
From the point of view of history, The Jungle, is both a comment on and a product of its own times. Those times most definitely need to be viewed in relation to what happened in the last half of the nineteenth century. This incredible time period saw the making of great industries and great fortunes (for those who were in control of the industries).
In Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, “The Jungle,” he exposes corruption in business and government and its disastrous effects on a family from Lithuania. The novel follows immigrant Jurgis Rudkus as he struggles against the slow ANNIHILATION of his family and is REBORN after discovering that socialism as a cure away to all capitalism’s problems. The Jungle is an example of protest literature because it exposes in a muckraking style the DANGEROUS, INHUMAINE conditions that workers lived and worked in, corruption in business and politics and the unsanitary meat that was sold.
An author depicts certain elements of a historical time period in his or her novel by incorporating literary elements. Upton Sinclair, the author of the novel ,The Jungle, was a Socialist who supported the rights of the working class in America’s economy. He lived during the time of the American Industrial Revolution when the lower class of the society were poverty-stricken while the upper class were wealthy and corrupt. He had observed the meat-packing factories of Chicago and incorporated the knowledge he had learned into his novel. In writing this novel, Sinclair’s goal was to expose the harsh conditions in American factories (“Upton Sinclair”). The novel takes place during the early 1900s in Chicago were a working immigrant man named Jurgis