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Upton Sinclair's 'A Response To The Jungle'

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A Response to the Jungle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a novel about what Sinclair observed when he took a trip to Chicago’s “Packingtown” area in 1904. The book is best known for illustrating the filthy production of meat using unnatural substances and unfavorable parts of animals. Sinclair also described the atrocious conditions that immigrant workers lived and worked in, often resulting in bodily injury and even death. The excerpt begins by describing the circumstances outside factories that immigrants lived with. Danger was all around, the milk they bought was water and tainted with formaldehyde, their jams made with toxic dyes, and their houses having cesspools under them. The immigrants had no way of knowing about their doctored …show more content…

I thought this would be an uninteresting excerpt and when I finished it, I was fascinated. The language that Sinclaire uses paints a perfect picture of the environment of the time. I can see the neighborhood, the factory, the people, and even the meat and other products they produced. I think that having the ability to picture this definitely makes it more impactful on me. Furthermore, another thing I liked about Sinclair 's writing is how he used exclamation points and question marks. He used them to add emphasis to the words he 's saying and really make the reader think. I think this is particularly notable when he asks “And even if they had known it, what good would it have done them, since there was no place within miles of them were any other sort was to had?” and exclaims about people being made into lard. I think this stands out to me because of other works I’ve read that use the same technique. Additionally, this excerpt definitely got me thinking about the food we eat today. These people had no idea they were eating disgusting, rancid, altered meat, so I wonder is this happening today without the people’s knowledge? If not in the US because of our laws, then what about countries without these restrictions? I’m also concerned about the things the US does allow to be put in food such as nitrates, preservatives, and GMO’s. I think these concern me because I want to know what’s going into my body, and how it’s gonna affect my

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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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He then was paid to write about the meat-packing industry. Sinclair focus on “Packingtown”. Chicago was the center of the meat packing industry. Upton took day and night to research the slums and working conditions the poor worked in. He had a thoughtful plot on what the book would be about.

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When Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle, a book about the terrible environment of the meat-packing factories in Chicago, he hoped to motivate reform in immigrant working conditions and promote socialism. Instead, what shocked readers the most was the sordid surroundings in which their future meals were prepared. Sinclair 's audience saw these conditions as a threat to themselves, and that energized reform in the meat-packing industry. What scared audiences the most was how real this threat was to their lives. As can be witnessed in the results of Sinclair 's crusade, the most effective propaganda is that which rouses the visceral survival instinct.

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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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$500 in 1904 is worth about $11,500 today. So, one can infer that money was a big reason that Sinclair published this novel. However, Sinclair was also highly passionate about his socialist views. Sinclair’s goal in the book was to inform the public that the best form of government was socialism. However, his book is known for its impact on the industry due to his gory details and experiences.

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