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'Unhealthy Conditions In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle'

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A muckraker is what is considered today an investigative journalist. In Sinclair’s case, he is considered a muckraker because he “wanted to investigate the meat-packing industry” in order to write about the working class, especially the immigrants working in them. As he began his investigation, however, he discovered dirty and unhealthy conditions in a workplace with unsafe standards. The applicable theme would be Culture and Society (CUL) because although he speaks about the working class and work conditions, he focuses on society as a whole. He writes “The Jungle” to describe to them the dirty, “unhealthy conditions, and general absence of meaningful safety standards in the workplace”. It is centered around the ideas and beliefs of proper work and health conditions. …show more content…

The political cause the led to “The Jungle” was urban political corruption. Sinclair, along with other journalists decided to investigate the “plight of the working class, especially the immigrants working in the meat plants”. His journal then raised questions about the government’s involvement with health regulations in the working area. Sinclair’s book led to new establishments of health and safety regulations. Socially, “The Jungle” was created to explore “unhealthy conditions, and general absence of meaningful safety standards in the workplace”. This book caused society to “think about the nature of the system that was making such conditions necessary”. Conditions such as the ones presented in Sinclair’s book appalled the readers. Economically, Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” after she decided to investigate immigrant workers in the workplace. The book led to the “loss of the European market caused by their smaller competitors”. Europeans were concerned by the health issues “The Jungle”

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“With one member trimming beef in a cannery, and another working in a sausage factory, the family had a first-hand knowledge of the great Packingtown swindles” (par.1). This statement from Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, introduces trust from a family because of their own personal knowledge . The Jungle, features an immigrant family trying to survive in 1900’s Chicago meat packing district. In the story, Sinclair’s goal is to expose the miserable life of immigrants who work in factories.

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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.

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Seth Ruiz Tracy Brady HIST151 October 19, 2015 Paper 1 Upton Sinclair’s Living and Dying in Packingtown, Chicago is a reading of a portion of his novel, The Jungle. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair writes about a man named Jurgis Rudkus who is an immigrant from Lithuania looking for a job in Packingtown. After the death of one of his wife’s sons, Kristoforas, Jurgis applied to work for a fertilizer plant which was considered the lowest of the low places to work. He got the job and soon came to realize how terrible it was to work at the fertilizer plant. Upton Sinclair wrote about what the plant was like in Jurgis’s and the townspeople’s mind, “All this while he was seeking for work, there was a dark shadow hanging over Jurgis; as if a savage

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778 Words | 4 Pages

In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Jurgis and his family attempt to survive in a malicious society. In this jungle of a town, rotten meat is being packaged in order to save money. Throughout the novel, the immigrants are faced with greedy capitalists who take advantage of the family’s ignorance and naivety in order to make money. The symbols of corruption, a jungle-like setting, and the tension between family and a work-based lifestyle transparently contribute to the unifying theme of anti-capitalism. In other words, this book is not art; this book is propaganda.

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601 Words | 3 Pages

The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair was an expose on the life of those who lived in Packingtown, Chicago. Packingtown was where most of the people who was looking for work lived, it was a very crowded city. Job openings were scarce and most of the jobs were very unsafe. Most of the people in this part of town were poor, so they did not really have much doubts of food,. The Jungle exposed the horrific work conditions, the poor food quality, and the deceitfulness of the business owners.

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It includes muckraking and yellow journalism which make it an excellent example of the type of journalism during this era. Muckraking was a type of journalism that was used to investigate and reveal scandalous or corrupt information. A clear example of muckraking and yellow journalism in Sinclair’s book is when he says, “All day long the blazing midsummer sun beat down upon that square mile of abominations: upon tens of thousands of cattle crowded into pens whose wooden floors stank and steamed contagion; upon bare, blistering, cinder-strewn railroad tracks and huge blocks of dingy meat factories, whose labyrinthine passages defied a breath of fresh air to penetrate them; and there are not merely rivers of hot blood and carloads of moist flesh, and rendering-vats and soup cauldrons, glue-factories and fertilizer tanks, that smelt like the craters of hell-there are also tons of garbage festering in the sun, and the greasy laundry of the workers hung out to dry and dining rooms littered with food black with flies, and toilet rooms that are open sewers,” (Sinclair 27). Yellow journalism is the use of exaggeration and sensationalism in writing. Sinclair’s uses both of these tactics to expose the horrific conditions of the meatpacking industry and the conditions the workers were forced to

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863 Words | 4 Pages

Subject: The Jungle mainly focuses on poor living conditions for the working class in 20th century Chicago. I learned how corrupt politics in this time period were, how gross the meatpacking industry used to be, and how hard immigrants had it when they came to America. This text is controversial because it gives suggestion that socialism is the better government system. This would split the sides into those for capitalism and those for socialism. Occasion: The Jungle was written in 1906 by Upton Sinclair.

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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair The Jungle by Upton Sinclair truly exemplifies the difficulties immigrant’s families run into when pursuing the “American Dream.” The Jungle can be evaluated as a primary source as it uses direct evidence in Chicago in PackingTown district. PackingTown District is known to be Chicago’s biggest meatpacking industry. Written during the Progressive Era it revealed the many dangerous and horrible conditions that are in the meatpacking industry. It uses vivid description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat, which ultimately shocked the public.

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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.

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In “ The Jungle”, the author Upton Sinclair states that “ I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach”. This means that Sinclair wanted to muckrake the Meat Packing Industry to seek attention for the workers, but instead food became a bigger concern. The characters Jurgis, Ona, and Marija with fellow family members are Lithuanian immigrants who came to PackingTown in hope for a better future, however they came to realize that the whole town is run by capitalist. Although Sinclair intentionally uses metaphors and similes to depict the characters struggle in the horrible living and working conditions in Packingtown, his purpose is undermined and overlooked by his use of realism to depict the food process.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

During the era of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the book soared in popularity— for numerous reasons. While Sinclair’s original intent was to expose the poor working conditions of the working class citizens, it spread further than that in its readers' hearts. His book went on to expose the food industry, and how horrid the things were that were put in the meat to be consumed by unsuspecting individuals. This discovery led to a movement of people demanding better food conditions and health standards worldwide.

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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

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When Upton Sinclair, a progressive era muckraker, wrote The Jungle in 1906, he was attempting to bring knowledge of the horrific conditions in Packingtown to the average citizen. His revelations on the terrors of Packingtown helped to slowly improve the lives of the immigrants. Sinclair’s pursuit of knowledge relates to the slowly growing knowledge of the characters in The Jungle. Throughout the story the characters find themselves in many tragic circumstances that could have been more easily avoided if they had been more aware of their surroundings. The immigrants are full of a false hope for success that disillusions the reality of their life.

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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

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During the 1900’s working conditions were undeniably horrible. In Packingtown everyday got more difficult as the days went on. In the meat packing business things were supposed to be done quick. Inside the factories packing, chopping, inspecting and people actions didn’t mix. Not only did the people in the factories suffered, the people outside of the factory also suffered.

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