ipl-logo

Upton Sinclair's Impact On The Jungle

904 Words4 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. Furthermore, the book didn't just stop there, as it went on to speak of politics, and how unfavorably it tied into everyday life. Additionally, Upton Sinclair’s book shed light on the unfavorable treatment of immigrants and the bias held against them. Altogether, The Jungle was an …show more content…

As briefly mentioned earlier, Upton Sinclair’s work forced the government to look into and act on the situation. The government was rather bare, pressed, and exposed. To mediate public worry, the government sent officials to survey the situation in the meatpacking facilities, to decide whether the situation was really as drastic as the book described. When word was sent back sharing news of how the situation was indeed dire, the decisive solution was to put a new act in place— the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. As stated by U.S. Capitol - Visitor Center, “The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce and laid a foundation for the nation's first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)”. Not only had the act progressed food safety, it had also made one of the most well known organizations to this date, the FDA. With this accomplishment, The Jungle had reached a height unthinkable—it had influenced the political climate of the Progressive

Show More
Related
1184 Words | 5 Pages

This eventually led to the creation of the federal department of Food and Drug Administration which lays out laws for what is safe for inclusion in the food and medicine consumed by the

Read More
538 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1268 Words | 6 Pages

A Book for Societal Change As one thinks about the change brought about by a book named The Jungle, one might think of its call to preserve forests or wildlife. However, in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, he writes about something completely different. Sinclair writes this book to expose the meat packing industry and its horrific conditions for the meat and for the workers while also promoting socialism as the ideal form of government. His socialists views expressed in the book lead the book to be banned in several countries.

Read More
601 Words | 3 Pages

That same day, The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was created. This act required the makers of prepared food and medicine to host government inspection as well. Overall, these acts have now been a reassurance to the public that meat and other things are in good

Read More
149 Words | 1 Pages

The book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a good nonfictional read for those who don’t know much about immigration and discrimination. Sinclair uses the characters Jurgis and Ona that move to a the center of Chicago 's meat packing industry to demonstrate the cruel treatment that was given to immigrants from American’s. The theme of The Jungle is to show the evil of capitalism in the world at that time. Jurgis’s family was treated unfairly under the law for being immigrants. Sinclair tries to portray all the ugly sides to capitalism in this book by showing how it is effecting Jurgis’s family.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Progressive reformers worked to improve the social, political, and economic problems in American society. Throughout this time, muckrakers helped reformers by revealing injustices to Americans through journalism, books, campaigns, photographs, and political cartoons. Poor working conditions, low quality of consumer products, and inferior democracy were present in American life during the Progressive Era; reforms such as state actions, the Meat Inspection Act, and Direct Primary helped to eliminate these corruptions. An issue society faced during the Progressive Era was poor working conditions. In Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, he writes that if a person found anyone who uses knives in this factory,

Read More
1651 Words | 7 Pages

It achieved what he was aiming for. I agree with the way he used to try and fix this problem. There might have been other ways to fix it, but they wouldn't have been as effective. Because of this book, The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 were created. After that, the Bureau of Chemistry became the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1899 Words | 8 Pages

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

Read More
1523 Words | 7 Pages

During the late 19th century, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle where he romanticized the notion of American culture. This exaggeration enticed immigrants to travel to America in an effort to start a new life as exemplified by Jurgis Rudkus and his family. Immigrants traveled due to their high hopes and expectations for finding more opportunities and climbing up the socioeconomic ladder. They allowed unrestrained capitalism to take advantage of them which ultimately led to inhumane living and working conditions. With its abuse of the immigrant workers, the system of capitalism was a major downfall in society.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, is set in Chicago in the early 1900’s, during the height of social reform known as the Progressive era. The population of Chicago had grown substantially, from 29,000 in 1850 to 1.7million in 1900, due to the influx of immigrants in search of the “American dream”. America was the destination of all in search of freedom, equality and higher wages. The dream promised success in exchange for hard work, determination and morality. The reality was that the “American dream” was just an illusion.

Read More
1156 Words | 5 Pages

Upton Sinclair wrote in The Jungle, “There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about it.” The conditions in the meatpacking industry were unsanitary and needed to be changed. “Sinclair’s expose led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.” This is also known as the FDA. The FDA is in place to make sure that food is safe to

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

After winning this case, the Act became an important devise for “government regulation of corporations.” Although it was not named the FDA until 1930, Roosevelt began the “Pure Food and Drug Act” and the “Meat Inspection Act,” which were both passed in 1906. The first act banned the sale of “adulterated or inaccurately” labeled foods and medicines, and the second established federal regulations for meatpackers and a system of

Read More
896 Words | 4 Pages

Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle in 1906 during the time of progressivism to portray the horrors of the labor conditions and non existing sanitary conditions of the meat packing industry. Jurgis and his family, immigrants from Lithuania, came to America expecting a prosperous life. The family dreamed of coming to America for a better life full of success and opportunity but as they began working in the stockyards they were exposed to the terrible quality of life experienced by the factory workers. The Jungle tells the story of a family of immigrants coming to America to gain freedom and portrays the dehumanization of the stockyards through the political corruption, inhumane child labor practices, and the horrific working conditions. Jurgis

Read More
3422 Words | 14 Pages

CASE STUDY Title: The Food and Drug Act: A Case Study in Public Health Regulation Introduction: The Food and Drug Act (FDA) is a federal law passed in the United States in 1906. It was designed to protect consumers from adulterated or misbranded food and drugs, and to ensure that these products were safe and effective for their intended use. This case study will examine the origins and impact of the FDA, including the political and social context in which it was created, the role of public health advocates in its development, and the ways in which it has evolved over time.

Read More

More about Upton Sinclair's Impact On The Jungle

Related Topics

Open Document