ipl-logo

Successes And Failures In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

845 Words4 Pages

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle “hit [the readers] in their stomach” rather than in their hearts like he had hoped to. Steve Trott thoroughly writes about Upton Sinclair’s successes and failures as a writer in his piece, “Upton Sinclair and The Jungle.” Sinclair had written the novel in hopes of drawing attention to the “appalling conditions and squalor of wage-laborers under capitalism…[b]ut his objective was lost on the public, overshadowed by unsanitary conditions and inadequate regulation in the meat processing plants” (Trott 2). Because Sinclair based the novel off of a fictional character, Jurgis Rudkus, his reliability fell short. Although the plot made the novel easier to read, the audience was too distracted by the grotesque descriptions …show more content…

He led “the intervention of President Roosevelt and the subsequent passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906” (Trott 2). How successful the act became is beside the point because no matter what it had to have been better than the guidelines that were previously set forth. Inspectors were stationed throughout the meat packing industry, but the problem was “while [they] were talking you could hardly be so ungrateful as to notice that a dozen carcasses were passing them untouched” (Sinclair 39). Along with that insight, Sinclair was profound in using memorable …show more content…

His words and phrases could truly make a reader cringe in disgust. That is what hindered Sinclair’s success in drawing attention to the horrid working conditions that wage laborers were under. Phrases like, “spoiled meat went to be doctored” (Sinclair 39), hinted to the audience that bad meat wasn’t thrown out like it should have been, but rather covered up and blended in with the “good” meat. A reader can draw this conclusion because they later read about the white moldy sausage that was “dosed with borax and glycerine...and made over again for home consumption” (Sinclair 145). If a reader is not considered a wage laborer, their attention is going to be drawn towards the topic that affects them most. The intense details of the unsanitary conditions simply overshadow the true purpose behind Sinclair’s writing because it is more memorable. In today’s world if people heard about “meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where workers had tramped and spit and uncounted amount of germs…thousands of rats [racing] about on it” (Sinclair 1450, there is no doubt that they would never consider eating in the place that was just documented about. While reading about poisoned rats being thrown into the food hopper along with their droppings, and the bread that killed them, it is nearly impossible for a reader to continue on without cringing at the thought of such filth. After reading about an incident that would affect

Show More
Related
485 Words | 2 Pages

One side of the controversy is the agreement that the meat industry was indeed unsanitary and a risk to an individual’s health. While Sinclair’s novel only gave a glimpse of the issue, it brought the problem to light with many critics speaking and commenting on the unethical methods used in slaughter houses. Kauffman explains how the issues may be “because… inspections program [were] underfunded, there [most likely was] not

Read More
1184 Words | 5 Pages

Sinclair worked undercover in a meatpacking plant to gather information firsthand, before he began writing the book. Its influence on the labor practices and regulations governing the food industry cannot be understated. It tackles subjects as varied as the poor living conditions of the immigrants, exploitation of cheap labor by industrialists, and the unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking plants and stockyards of Chicago. The descriptions of the disgusting processes that were conducted in the meatpacking plants made for shocking reading and turned the book into a bestseller. The President Teddy Roosevelt ordered an investigation into the lack of sanitation in meatpacking plants and caused the creation of legislation governing the food industry in the form of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906.

Read More
756 Words | 4 Pages

I would have felt awful for the numerous men who worked extended periods, got little pay, and endured numerous wounds attempting to bring home money. I believe it's obvious why Sinclair wrote this. I believe it was because he wanted people to see what they were really buying at their local butchers. He also did this to show how horrible the working conditions were these men had to operate

Read More
1395 Words | 6 Pages

Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle”. This book exposed the way meat was being packaged. As a

Read More
550 Words | 3 Pages

“- And while we are on the topic of horrible and unethical practices of the rich man taking advantage of the poor, lets discuss the conditions of the working man in the meat industry.” He continued to discuss the gruesome, shocking, and awful treatments that the men had to deal with on a daily, reading an excerpt from his article, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

In this novel, Upton Sinclair had one main goal in mind, to display the abuse of immigrants who worked in the meat packing industry in the early 20th century. The immigrants who worked in this industry were often exploited because of their lack of English language skills and unfamiliarity with American laws and customs as a whole. “They use everything about the hog except the squeal” (Sinclair 38), Sinclair writes this to suggest the workers are treated like animals because every single part of their body is used, but their voice. The conditions were extremely dangerous and unsanitary, consequently demoralizing every worker. They had long hours, low pay, and ordinarily frequent injuries.

Read More
1569 Words | 7 Pages

They provided a voice for the American people providing an accurate picture of living conditions in communities. Upton Sinclair was as famous writer that wrote a novel called The Jungle that provided an accurate description of the living conditions of immigrants in Chicago and the industrial industry. The novel caused a heightened concern for safety from consumers and public officials and also targeted concerns of sanitary issues and packaging violation in the meatpacking industry. Upton Sinclair was considered a muckraker journalist that was responsible for inspiring public outrage which, cause numerous political movements in the early 1900’s. Sinclair’s novel, the Jungle exposed the inhumane living conditions and treatment of immigrants while also exposing the unsanitary conditions of the meat packaging industry.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

The book, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection describes how Upton Sinclair stated how he had hoped to draw his readers’ attention to “the conditions under which toilers get their bread,” and how there are, “corrupt federal meat inspectors, unsanitary slaughter houses, tubercular cattle, and the packers’ unscrupulous business practices”(Document 4). The authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle are expressing how meat factory workers are making terrible, unsanitary food. They’re pointing out that not even the meat inspectors care for the condition the meat is in. In other words, just as long as they’re making a profit, the inspectors could care less about the meat’s quality. However, consumer products soon took a turn for the better when the Meat Inspection Act was finally passed.

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

Revealing the harsh treatment of meatpacking workers and showing the reality of the disgusting conditions found in butchery shops to the public, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle became an enduring classic by American readers throughout the early twentieth century the prompted the later creation of the Federal Drug Administration. In the early 1900s, America was explosively transitioning from an agricultural society to a thriving manufacturing-based nation. As production demand in factories grew throughout the country, the work force needed to run those factories also expanded. A new type of demanding and dangerous work became prevalent throughout the nation, as immigrants coming into the “Land of Opportunity” found themselves desperate

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
642 Words | 3 Pages

The term was pioneered by Upton Sinclair, who wrote the book The Jungle which exposed the fraudulent practices of the Chicago meat industry. This quote explains the term's meaning and how Upton Sinclair became its pioneer. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was a turning point in the meat industry, changing the way people viewed processed meat and leading to a boycott until processing techniques improved. “At the center of these journalistic debates stood the twenty-seven-year-old, nearly unknown writer Upton Sinclair and his novel The Jungle, which tells the story of a Lithuanian immigrant family that finds work in the slaughterhouses of Chicago, only to be progressively ruined.” (Graf).

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food. Body 1: The meat packing industry’s working conditions were much worse in the 1900’s than they are today. In the novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, working conditions were horrible for immigrants who were employed in these factories. People in these factories were worked very hard and used up till they could not work anymore. In the novel Jurgis broke his ankle because of the unsafe

Read More
1167 Words | 5 Pages

The book the jungle written by Upton Sinclair 1906 documents the meat processing industry. A quote from the book reads "there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage… The rats, [poisoned] bread and meat would go into the hoppers together" This quotation shows that there is radical change because it showed what the food industry was like before the reforms occurred and were put into place. It alerted quite a few people of the many unsanitary conditions and actions that placed consumers at risk of disease. Later that year, in 1906 the meat inspection act was passed by Congress.

Read More
586 Words | 3 Pages

DDT polluted the air and damaged many necessary factors of life. During the meatpacking reforms, workers had first-hand knowledge of packaging swindles. All of the information that Upton Sinclair received was based on immigrant workers’ experience. Spoiled meat was canned or turned into sausage.

Read More
1202 Words | 5 Pages

Camila Casanova U.S. History 1302: S67 Mr. Isaac G. Pietrzak February 9, 2018 Critical Review: The Jungle Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.

Read More

More about Successes And Failures In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Related Topics

Open Document