Upton Sinclair's Life And Accomplishments

A muckraker was a popular term used in the Progressive Era in order to categorize people that were American journalists, and they attacked and wrote about corrupted companies. One of the most known muckrakers during this time period was Upton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair was a journalist who was a bright child, and he self-published many works, including the famous The Jungle, and caused changes in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 20, 1878 to an alcoholic liquor salesman and a respectful, puritanical mother. As a child, Sinclair was exposed to dichotomies, which made him an intelligent individual throughout his life. Even though he was not wealthy as a kid, his mother’s family was rich, so he experienced a rare event — both sides of poverty and wealthiness. After graduating from City College of New York in 1897, Sinclair enrolled at Columbia University in order to continue his studies and wrote novels to support himself. Therefore, Sinclair had a bright mind as a child which led him to his achievements and a successful life as an adult.

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