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Social, Political, And International Repercussions Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

1522 Words7 Pages

Isabelle Wilson
Carey, Hour 1
14 January 2015

Social, Political, and International Repercussions of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”

They were called floorsmen, trimmers, beefboners, or butchers. Stuck with the dirty work, these men hacked and sliced, severing jowls from shoulders from ribs. Backs hunched, they repeated the same motions, preparing these unidentifiable creatures for consumption. The danger of their labor was clear to them from the horrifying accidents they had all witnessed, however they had a job, so no one was complaining. Their hands were unsightly, criss-crossed with mazes of cuts and scars, reminders of previous incidents. Fingers were mutilated, barely distinguishable, and one would rarely find intact, functioning fingernails. …show more content…

It sold nearly 1 million copies in the year after its release. Despite Sinclair’s original intentions, most readers were more largely concerned with the health codes being violated in the meatpacking industry. It was meant to be “the ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of wage slavery” (Cohen). Sinclair remarked, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” People made such an immense uproar about the contaminated foods that they were being sold, that it actually brought about changes on a congressional level. Just months after The Jungle was published, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were signed by president Roosevelt. Upton Sinclair’s exposé, The Jungle, lead to public outrage, to the government stepping in to ensure safe, sanitary food, and to international …show more content…

The Meat Inspection Act required livestock to be inspected prior to slaughter, carcasses to be inspected postmortem, sanitary standards to be established in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be allowed routine inspections of slaughter and processing operations. More than 1300 inspectors were hired by the Bureau of Animal Industries’ Meat Inspection Division to execute inspections in 163 institutions. Consumers benefitted from the enhanced quality of meats and knowledge of the foods they were purchasing.
Very soon after it’s publication, The Jungle began to make impacts on an international level. For instance, the German Butchers’ Association composed a petition in order to prevent the German government from signing a treaty with the U.S. This treaty would have allowed increased imports of American beef into Germany. According to Michael Hussey of Emporia State University, the New York Times article, ”Argue Against Our Meat: German Butchers Quote “Accusations of Lax Inspection Methods,", stated that the German petition contained “copious extracts from Upton Sinclair’s The

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