The Jungle is an American novel written by Upton Sinclair, in the year 1906. The novel depicts the cruel conditions endured by the immigrants who live in early 1900’s Chicago, in Packingtown, which is the meat packing district of the city. The book describes the poverty of the average workers, lack of support from the government, cruel and repulsive living and working conditions, and despair among most workers due to corruption in the power structure The main character in the book is Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant who is supporting his large Lithuanian family. The book starts with Jurgis having a wedding feast that leaves him and his family in debt. He lives with his family in Packingtown where all the immigrants work and live. He accepts a position in a factory; as a “shoveller of guts” (52). Jurgis had figured the US would offer more opportunity, however, he discovers it is not as easy as he had hoped. One problem that Sinclair points out that is not specific to the slaughterhouses is the issue of poor working conditions and the physical consequences it has on the workers. In the novel Jurgis saw some workers in the preserving room having skin illnesses. Some men working on the sped-up assembly lines lost their fingers quite often from knife cuts as others injured their backs from …show more content…
He explained that laborers would process dead, injured, and infected animals during overtime when no meat inspectors were nearby. He also explains how pork fat and hamburger scraps were canned and named intentionally ambiguous names like "potted chicken” (80) Sinclair informs the reader that meat that was to be used for canning was heaped on the floor before the laborers could carry it away in carts holding sawdust, human spit and pee, rodent waste and poison as well as dead