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Upton Sinclair: The Role Of Social Reform In The Gilded Age

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As the Civil War came to an end, the U.S. entered into the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was characterized by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration, but it also consisted of poverty, labor unions, and political and business corruption due to the significant change of industrialization in U.S. society. In order to change and fix the troubles of the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era began in 1897, where progressives believed that it was the responsibility of the government to bring positive change for the working class. As businesses were becoming wealthy and powerful, they were also corrupt due to monopolies and trusts, while also influencing the government, factories also had no cleanliness or safety, and only white men held the majority …show more content…

Upton Sinclair, a muckraker, brought attention to the American public, about the meatpacking industry in his book The Jungle. In his book, it revolved around a Lithuanian immigrant family, who immigrated to Chicago and the difficulties and poverty they faced while in Packington. The purpose of the novel was to bring about attention and expose the conditions of the meatpacking industry, so that the government would be forced to to fix it. The intended audience that Sinclair hoped it would catch the attention of was the American public so they could be exposed to the hidden truth about the meat packing industry and the government as well, so that they could also pass food safety laws.(Doc.2) Although it was a fictional story, it was successful in bringing attention to how filthy the meatpacking industry was to the government and public. It caught the attention of the U.S. public because Sinclair noted how rats crawled all over the meat and workers would clean their dirty hands in the water that would be put into the meat that consumers would eat. Smoked sausages had chemicals put into them to alter the appearance of it. It was seen as outrageous to the American public and the government. The significance of this novel was that since Roosevelt promised the Square Deal, it meant that he would ensure consumer protection as his role as president. Consumer Protection Laws were safety …show more content…

Big businesses and corporations were very influential and wealthy so they would use that to get certain legislations passed in Congress for their benefit. Monopolies and trusts would also bribe politicians, and this upset American society since the government is meant to work for the good of the people. A muckraker who would bring awareness to the particular corrupt relationship between big businesses and the government would be Lincoln Steffens. He notes in The Shame of the Cities that wealthy businessmen would buy votes and some would even partake in political machines. This was an illegal method to keep a candidate in office. (Doc.3) Steffen brought awareness to the relationship between businesses and politics was because his point of view as a muckraker was to expose the problems of the the Gilded Age was that it needed to be changed and fixed. A muckraker would do this either through journalism or another form of writing to gain support from the public. In this way, muckrakers and progressives hope that it will force the government to fix the problems that have continued. The solution that progressives wanted for the political corruption between businesses and government was to have a direct democracy. This would mean that the power would be given to the citizens of the U.S. and they would be

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Genre: This book is in the genre of political and historical fiction, as it portrays the horrors of the meat-packing industry with a few fictional characters. Historical Context: Upton Sinclair was a muckraker, which meant he was a journalist who exposed the harsh societal norms

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The United States went through substantial changes during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Industries grew, and the way people lived and worked changed a lot. During this time, an important thing that happened was that the industry grew extremely fast. This made people like Andrew Carnegie and John D. extraordinarily rich and powerful. In previous years, Rockefeller was a wealthy and influential individual.

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The Progressive Reform Efforts from the 19th Century helped attempt to fix the many problems of the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was when economic growth in the United States skyrocketed, surpassing the US ahead of Britain. The Progressive Reform Efforts from the 19th Century were excellent and helpful in attempting to fix the many problems of the Gilded Age. The problems consisted of out-of-control monopolies throughout different industries, the entirety of the meat packing industry, and the living conditions of people, especially immigrants. During the Gilded age, the meat-packing industry was identified as one of the most disgusting and horrid food insures.

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The Gilded Age, which occurred during the nineteenth century, was one of the most important periods in American history. America’s industry expanded and generated many opportunities for all people. It allowed them to build great fortunes, but also left many, such as farmers and other workers, struggling to survive. Overall, national wealth increased tremendously, but there was a divide between the rich and the poor. Industrial monopolists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller revolutionized business and ushered in the modern business economy, but also at times, destroyed free-market economic competition.

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However, Sinclair was and unlikely savior. He had roots in socialist agenda, which unapologetically opposed capitalism and lobbied for full government takeover. In addition, Sinclair had alienated himself from elitist circles by authoring over 40 books which muckraked industry and institutions such as Hollywood, the press, and religion. Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, described the in detail the horrors of the meat packing industry and led to government regulation of the industry. Sinclair realized that America was in desperate need for immediate reform and could not await social victory over capitalism.

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A major change found from the novel and still in practice today is the food industry. Many times throughout, Sinclair mentions unsanitary aspects of what people were truly purchasing to consume. “There was never the least attention paid to what sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white--it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption” (Sinclair, 100). As many Americans read the novel, they found themselves disgusted by what they were truly consuming on a daily basis. This resulted in nationwide outrage, and even had reached congress.

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Corruption was prevalent in the United States during the 1900s. Fraud existed in major industries, such as monopolies or unsafe working conditions. Several people wanting reform wrote books and articles about the industries which made a large impact on the consumers and users of industries. This put pressure on the president to make changes in regulating these industries. Muckrakers, a group of journalists, exposed corrupt issues to the American public, which brought reform to many major industries such as oil, railroads, and government.

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The jobs were hard, and “the family had firsthand knowledge of the great majority of packingtown swindles” (Sinclair 1). After his book was published a national uproar occurred. Not because of the life of immigrants but because of the dirty meat-packing industry. The book helped laws get passed so the meat would be healthy and not full of “little extras” that would poison the

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However, readers at the time were not very concerned about the petty immigrants living on the lower rung of society. Rather, they cared about what affected them most: the condition of the meat they were eating-- and had been eating-- for years, that were produced by some of the very factories mentioned in Sinclair’s novel. For the majority of The Jungle’s readers, the fact that poor immigrants were being exploited was not bothersome. Instead, the fact that the food that readers had been eating for years contained the power to kill them seemed shocking, pushing the nation into a worried frenzy. Readers were disgusted by the facts they were reading, catalyzing the creation of administrations like the FDA.

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Seeing how harsh workers were treated in the excerpt, Sinclair took advantage of this time period to push forward awareness. The Jungle helped advance the argument of exploitation of workers in this era. Since they are living in a time of progressivism, they might as well tackle every little industry that directly affected the general public. Socialism was the dominant driving factor during this time and that helped Sinclair’s point of view on the meatpacking industry as it brought the public together to fight for what is

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The book was instrumental in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906. These laws were passed in response to the book’s depiction of the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. The laws were designed to improve the safety and quality of food products in the United States. The Jungle also had an impact on the political beliefs of many Americans. Sinclair’s message of socialism as a solution to the social and economic problems in America resonated with many people.

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The book mentions and involves the meat packing industry many times. A big part of the story is meant to talk about the horrible conditions about the meatpacking industry but it’s not the whole story. The main character does start to work in the meatpacking industry but it’s not the whole story. The book is about the hardships of a poor immigrant family in Chicago and about every other poor person having hard times in the country. Upton Sinclair is showing the horrendous ways that people had to live in his days, the way people manipulated each other, stole, tricked, ripped off.

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His first novel, Springtime and Harvest, was inspired by Sinclair’s troubled marriage, and he self-published this novel after receiving many rejections. Since then, he wrote novels based on the topics of Wall Street, Civil War, and autobiographies, but he did not become well-known until the publishing of The Jungle. The Jungle uncovers the mistreatment of the workers in the meatpacking industry, and the book vividly describes the cruelty to animals and unsanitary conditions, which shocked many people and changed the way they shopped for food. Even though Sinclair had many attempts in making his novels known, The Jungle ultimately made him famous for his brutal observations of the meatpacking industry, leading to changes in the

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The book displays the conditions of the corrupt economy of the meat-packing industry, aside from telling what Jurgis went through. The book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair was reached by President Theodore Roosevelt, which helped advocate congress to pass the “Food and Drug Act of

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During the time period of the 1900’s, the meat packaging industry in Chicago, as Sinclair mentions in his novel, The Jungle, was a very unsanitary and extremely dangerous workplace that lacked much more than just a few safety precautions. Simple things, such as enforcing hand washing or workers’ rights were unheard of in the working environment. It is clear that Upton Sinclair was trying to expose the worker’s horrendous labor conditions in order to improve their situation, along with the introduction of socialism. Upton Sinclair, in his novel, talks about how a Lithuanian immigrant by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, travel to Chicago trying to make ends meet. However, they soon realize Chicago was not the place for that.

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