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Upton Sinclair The Impact Of The Jungle

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“Things that were quite unspeakable went on there in the packing houses all the time, and were taken for granted by everybody; only they did not show, as in the old slavery times, because there was no difference in color between master and slave”. The international best-seller book The Jungle as published by author Upton Sinclair on February 26, 1906 had a profound impact on society in the way that the working class is viewed, particularly with the food industry and meat packing plants such as the one that took place in Chicago during the story. While building public sympathy through the depiction of such oppressed workers, it also managed to spark a great deal of protests about the poor conditions and lack of sanitation that took place in the food industry. In a short matter of two months after Sinclair had published the book it …show more content…

It was because of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle that there were laws passed regulating foods in a safe manner. Sinclair was extremely disappointed by the reaction to his story as people believed he was a muckracker when his purpose for publishing it was mainly to focus on the end of “wage slavery” and revolutionizing America into a more socialistic society with the redistribution of wealth. It did not help the working class, instead increased awareness about how the filthy and dangerous plants posed a threat to the public. Although the public perceived the book differently than it’s intended purpose, Upton Sinclair successfully had created such an image of what was occurring in the food industry that was absolutely necessary to be stopped in order to the safety of Americans every day and without it a lot more harm than was already done could have occurred. The public was made aware of the horrible situations in which food was not regulated and how the workers were working in such

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February 26, 1906, Upton Sinclair published his novel titled “The Jungle”, which informed its readers about the unsanitary practices and health violations that occurred in the meatpacking industry in America. Due to the information that Americans were receiving about what went into their packaged meat, citizens demanded that something must change. The FDA, or Food and Drug Administration, was almost a direct result of Upton’s novel. They made sure that the events going on in the factories would not continue, so the FDA passed various laws and regulations regarding the meatpacking industry.

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Summary Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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1. Hopeless is the word that best describes the situation of the working-class in America in the early twentieth century. In this time period, people’s lives were controlled by their work. Unfortunately, the workers were paid very poorly. They were paid small wages to do large amounts of work in twelve to fifteen hour shifts.

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Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

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The book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a book that tells about the working conditions of the meat packing industry located in Packing Town, a district in lower Chicago USA. In the book a family emigrating from Lithuania, and coming to America to start a new life, encounter hard times. James Braddock is an Irish emigrant who comes to America to start a life, He becomes a boxer and fights his way to the top. After the Depression hits, he is hit just as hard as everyone else is; he works in ports to make little to no money just to survive. At the end of The Jungle, Jurgis is a worker who finds his way once more and makes good money.

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Compare And Contrast The Progressive Reform Efforts Of The Gilded Age

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At the time, the conditions of the meat packing industry included toxic chemicals in all the meats, how they were kept, and how they were packed. But, progressives such as Teddy Roosevelt made efforts to help it. One instance was when he pushed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act, which would significantly improve the industry. Document 1 explains how unsanitary and

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Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

142 Words | 1 Pages

The Jungle Book Review In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle to expose how rough the life of immigrants coming to the United States was. This book also exposed unsanitary conditions in meatpacking industry. Upton Sinclair’s main focus in this book was to show how tough life was for immigrants coming to America, but instead he disgusted Americans by the conditions of the meat factories. The book begins with the main character, Jurgis Rudkus, and his wife Ona, having their marriage reception in Chicago. This gives the reader background information about the characters, where they are from, and why they have come to American.

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How Did Theodore Roosevelt Contribute To Consumer Protection

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Why Is Upton Sinclair Important To Public Health

755 Words | 4 Pages

The 1906 book, The Jungle, caused an uproar that completely shifted focus to these issues of these workers and the safety of their conditions. This work should be considered a milestone in itself because of how wide-reaching and accessible it was. It also sparked the need for the government to get involved, which happened almost immediately after Sinclair’s book was published. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 paved the way for health inspections of both facilities and meat, even though the bar was set extremely low and inspectors were often still disgusted. Both this act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1907 resulted in much higher quality ingredients in the United States.

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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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The Jungle, speaks of a fictional family who have immigrated to Chicago, the protagonist later ends up working in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair speaks of the way meats are packed and processed, large companies corrupt ideologies, along with the dire conditions that their workers undergo daily. He wrote of the sickening events, depicting them in detail “men fell into the vats; and when

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Upton Sinclair's Jungle Conditions

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The Cruel Conditions of A Jungle Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, introduces Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant who enters America with his wife Ona. Jurgis is a strong individual who is eager to learn more about the American dream, but the miserable working and living conditions in Packingtown starts to make an impact in his life that will cause him to struggle in supporting his family. Firstly, this story takes place in the twentieth century, and depicts a Lithuanian family who decides to move to Chicago trying to find a better life.

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1900's Meat Packing Industry

665 Words | 3 Pages

Intro: When people eat food they do not think about what is in it, or how it is made. The only thing people care about is what the food tastes like and how much they get. During the 1900’s the meat packing industry had not regulations of any kind. All that mattered to the industry was that they made as much money as possible with as little expenditure as possible. During this times people were often made sick and died either from working conditions or poor food quality.

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Upton Sinclair The Effects Of The Jungle

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Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle depicted many disturbing social injustices immigrants had to endure at the time during the 19th century. Jurgis and his family moved to America in search of a better life, but upon arrival the harsh reality set in that America was not what everyone said it to be. They suffered many hardships. The working conditions, when they could find employment, were terrible. They battled discrimination, they were grossly taken advantage of, and survival from day to day in Packingtown slowly worked to deteriorate their faith.

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