Upton Sinclair Biography

The art of taking big bulky slabs of meat and turning it into smaller portions for serving two people has been in practice for centuries. Rural farmers slaughter animals during the fall and then turn parts of the animal in sausage links by utilizing every piece of the animal. Now that society has entered an age of industrial revolution, it has become another person’s sole job to cut, pack and distribute the meat products to our convenience. Some people are very particular about their food and want to know what goes on with the process before they receive the meat from the convenience store. These slaughterhouses were places of secret and nobody except the people who worked inside the houses knew what went on in them until one man enlightened

He started writing when he was fifteen to make money for college. (Hart pg.692). He would write small novels for kids for a nickel apiece to help put his way through College of the City of New York. (Hart pg. 692). After his bachelor, he attended Columbia University and did his graduate work there. (Hart pg. 692). He wrote a total of six novels while in college, and his early inspirers where Jesus, Hamlet, and Shelley. Shelley, who Upton Sinclair was referring to is really Percy Bysshe Shelley, who is a very highly known poet, playwright, and author of the English romantic period. One of his most famous works include the Masque of Anarchy and Queen Mab. (Percy Bysshe Shelley; Web). After finishing school at Columbia Sinclair made the decision to be a serious writer and to make his bills every month a freelance journalist. (Upton Sinclair; Web). Upton Sinclair was a socialist so he believed it was the people’s right to govern over a company and oversee its well-being rather than a single

Sinclair who went into this job thinking it was going to a very easy story to broadcast the conditions of workers in the industrial district was sadly mistaken when he published his book. Once the book hit the streets it unleashed a beast never before seen and caused a massive amount of damage to the reputation to companies and the government. Upton Sinclair at the age of 28 wrote The Jungle. He was paid $500 to write about the factories of Chicago and was given seven weeks to investigate the atrocities that were about to be uncovered and revealed to the public’s eyes. (Conditions in Meatpacking Plants; Web). The workers were a prime source of information for Upton, who questioned them about where they got some of their meat and they said it came from the rejections across the Atlantic in Europe. (Conditions in Meatpacking Plants; Web). The sausage for instance, would be white from the mold that had accumulated from the prolonged exposure on the journey from Europe. The trip would also bring many unwanted pests such as rats. The rats would live on the moldy piles of meat for weeks during the trip and leave their droppings and carcasses throughout the piles. Once the meat arrived in the factories it was immediately doused in borax and glycerin and dumped into