ipl-logo

Harsh Conditions Of The Meatpacking Industry In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

584 Words3 Pages

In 1906, American writer Upton Sinclair published The Jungle which highlighted the harsh conditions Chicago’s immigrant meatpackers faced in meatpacking industries. Working undercover, Sinclair investigated how these industries exploited their workers by not providing basic sanitary conditions and regulating any safety precautions which often contaminated the meat supplies going out to the public. Per an excerpt from The Jungle, the men faced serious injuries such as sliced fingers and toxic inhalations which caused deadly diseases to upraise. Such conditions were inhumane which called for reform on the meatpacking industry from the public during the Progressive Era.
Upton Sinclair was a muckraker who only wanted nothing but equality from corrupt industries. As a writer and an undercover worker, he wrote from a perspective that allowed the public to truly understand the situations rather than taking one side. This also gave him the advantage of being able to use imagery in his novel to accurately portray details. Whatever he wrote in the novel spoke for itself. It sets of an eerie, dark, and twisted setting that churns the audience’s stomach in a grotesque manner. The content was so disturbing that it did not shed much light on Sinclair’s intended target of working conditions. Rather than highlighting working …show more content…

Seeing how harsh workers were treated in the excerpt, Sinclair took advantage of this time period to push forward awareness. The Jungle helped advance the argument of exploitation of workers in this era. Since they are living in a time of progressivism, they might as well tackle every little industry that directly affected the general public. Socialism was the dominant driving factor during this time and that helped Sinclair’s point of view on the meatpacking industry as it brought the public together to fight for what is

Show More
Related
1317 Words | 6 Pages

How did Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” Impact the Meat Factories during the Progressive Age? During the late 1800s and early 1900s a new stage in the United States began, called the Progressive Era. Over the years, America developed into an industrial working country although, like every country the social and economical problems were becoming an issue. Those who were on top were corrupted and vile while those who did the majority of the work took long hours and low pay.

Read More
348 Words | 2 Pages

When Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle, a book about the terrible environment of the meat-packing factories in Chicago, he hoped to motivate reform in immigrant working conditions and promote socialism. Instead, what shocked readers the most was the sordid surroundings in which their future meals were prepared. Sinclair 's audience saw these conditions as a threat to themselves, and that energized reform in the meat-packing industry. What scared audiences the most was how real this threat was to their lives. As can be witnessed in the results of Sinclair 's crusade, the most effective propaganda is that which rouses the visceral survival instinct.

Read More
549 Words | 3 Pages

During the end of The Gilded Age, technology and innovation expanded, and the United States was thought of as becoming a growing empire. With this growing empire came a lot of changes, trends and differences in opinions. Theodore Roosevelt, Ida M. Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair, sat down to discuss the continuing problems that started with the Gilded Age. Theodore Roosevelt was an astounding opinion leader and was someone people considered to be as the prominent head of the Progressive Era.

Read More
550 Words | 3 Pages

During the end of The Gilded Age, technology and innovation, expanded, and the United States were thought of as becoming a growing empire. With this growing empire came a lot of changes, trends and differences in opinions. Theodore Roosevelt, Ida M. Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair, sat down to discuss the continuing problems that started with the Gilded Age. Theodore Roosevelt was an astounding opinion leader and was someone people considered to be the prominent head of the Progressive Era.

Read More
601 Words | 3 Pages

In early 1900, specifically, 1906, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written. This novel told the story of a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in a filthy Chicago meatpacking plant. It exposed the meatpacking industry by stating their vile practices not only towards their meat but their workers as well. This was a result of the combination of many immigrants in the United States to pursue a better life, and the fact that many big industries were looking for ways to maximize their profit.

Read More
606 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout The Jungle, Upton Sinclaire’s social political agenda was very clear. When Jurgis and his family first arrive in America, they had high hopes and believed that they could achieve the American dream. However, we see a transformation in the family’s view of capitalism as they continue to face hardships. Sinclaire portrays big business as antagonistic through corporate leaders exploiting and taking advantage of their workers. As an author, Upton Sinclaire wanted to expose the flaws and horrors of capitalism to the public and used his characters to depict the lives of many immigrant workers struggling under the power and corruptness of American capitalism.

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

Thus, Sinclair’s purpose of writing The Jungle failed to bring readers to advocate for the rights of workers trapped in the low wages, unsafe working conditions, and long hours of meatpacking factories, but rather, succeeded in opening the country’s eyes to the meatpacking practices that went on behind closed doors and the establishment administrations to protect the public from these unscrupulous

Read More
1073 Words | 5 Pages

c. Horrible working conditions were one of the largest issues that Upton Sinclair wrote about in The Jungle. Upton Sinclair spoke of people losing limbs and other tragic accidents that occurred in the meat packing industry. The most tragic accidents that Upton Sinclair described involved not only the workers but also the customers that would be receiving the tainted goods due to workers falling into rendering tanks and the goods being processed for shipment. During this time of rapid growth, work hygiene wasn’t of significant importance.

Read More
1899 Words | 8 Pages

Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tension in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his novel “The Jungle”. He used the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, to show the harsh situation that immigrants had to face in the United States, the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions in the meatpacking plants, as well as the tension between the capitalism and socialism in the United States during the early 1900s. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were massive immigrants move into the United States, and most of them were from Europe. The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, like many other immigrants, have the “America Dream” which they believe America is heaven to them, where they can

Read More
533 Words | 3 Pages

His first novel, Springtime and Harvest, was inspired by Sinclair’s troubled marriage, and he self-published this novel after receiving many rejections. Since then, he wrote novels based on the topics of Wall Street, Civil War, and autobiographies, but he did not become well-known until the publishing of The Jungle. The Jungle uncovers the mistreatment of the workers in the meatpacking industry, and the book vividly describes the cruelty to animals and unsanitary conditions, which shocked many people and changed the way they shopped for food. Even though Sinclair had many attempts in making his novels known, The Jungle ultimately made him famous for his brutal observations of the meatpacking industry, leading to changes in the

Read More
1441 Words | 6 Pages

The journalist sought to create a piece of political fiction that would induce reform and spread the ideas of socialism, an emerging concept of the time. Sinclair meticulously describes the horrors of Chicago’s meatpacking industry as seen through an immigrant worker’s perspective. By detailing the story of an immigrant chasing the broken American dream, he successfully related the novel to the large working class that had long suffered in the capitalist society. The most wrenching part of Sinclair’s writing was the filthy conditions of the meat plants. Not only was sanitation an issue, separation of family and lack of sufficient pay were also themes of the The Jungle.

Read More
634 Words | 3 Pages

The Bosses squeezed and drained the life of those men. In the book The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair he described the life of a struggling family try to work and stay alive in the filth. The working conditions in the factories were unsafe, unsanitary and people made little. The purpose of this book was for people to become socialist other than capitalist.

Read More
312 Words | 2 Pages

In both excerpts from The Jungle and Fast Food Industry, the authors, Upton Sinclair and Eric Schlosser, attempt to expose corrupt businesses, specifically the meatpacking industry, and aim to uncover the unsanitary and inhuman conditions processed within this industry. Sinclair, in his novel, The Jungle, illustrates the horrifying conditions in the industry through Jonas’ description of rotting meat, as well as the conditions both the meat and workers went through. In his novel, Sinclair explains that the stored meat had “water from leaky roofs … drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it” (Sinclair, U. “Chapter 14” The Jungle, 1906). Through this vivid imagery, Sinclair explains the condition the meat is in, in order to acknowledge

Read More
915 Words | 4 Pages

Upton Sinclair’s, “The Jungle,” illustrated crucial aspects of American history, some more effectively than others. However, it is apparent that “The Jungle” effectively portrayed the realms of capitalism and the industrial crisis exceptionally. This aspect of the industrial issue was further reinforced with tons of descriptions of the harsh working conditions, which further led to the development of many socialistic ideologies and strikes. It was obvious that the high authorities within the meat-packing industry only cared about one thing; profit. These private-business owners reinforced the unsanitary, inhumane operations of a capitalistic society; one that gave little remorse for those working unhealthy loads of hours.

Read More
1202 Words | 5 Pages

During the time period of the 1900’s, the meat packaging industry in Chicago, as Sinclair mentions in his novel, The Jungle, was a very unsanitary and extremely dangerous workplace that lacked much more than just a few safety precautions. Simple things, such as enforcing hand washing or workers’ rights were unheard of in the working environment. It is clear that Upton Sinclair was trying to expose the worker’s horrendous labor conditions in order to improve their situation, along with the introduction of socialism. Upton Sinclair, in his novel, talks about how a Lithuanian immigrant by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, travel to Chicago trying to make ends meet. However, they soon realize Chicago was not the place for that.

Read More

More about Harsh Conditions Of The Meatpacking Industry In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Related Topics

Open Document