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Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

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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. The couple and several relatives buy a home and set out to search for jobs in Packingtown. Shortly after
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• Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” which exposed the conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago. • Moved to Pasadena, California in 1915 and wrote 47 books by 1933. • Sinclair ran for governor of California in the election of 1926 and in 1930 but in 1933 ran as democrat for governor of California • “I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future” (1933) a utopia novel written by Sinclair, if elected, he would end unemployment. • Sinclair proposed another program called End Poverty in California (EPIC) • If any farms were sold for taxes would be purchased by California and establish cooperative agricultures communicates known as “California Authority for Land.” This would only be put into effect

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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.

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They also better to identify with Jurgis and his families’ struggles. Sinclair probably also wanted government officials to read the book because they had the power to take immediate action. It is ironic because government officials did take action, just not in the way that Sinclair originally anticipated. Roosevelt passed the Federal meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug act in response to the book. While this changed America for the better, it did not come in the form of democratic socialism that Sinclair

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314 Words | 2 Pages

Sinclair, a socialist writer, was a struggling writer. An editor recommended that Sinclair investigate the strike that was happening in Chicago because of the unfit conditions of meat packers. Sinclair followed his suggestion. In 1904, at the age of 26, he went to Chicago to examine the conditions of the workers in the meat packing industry and figure out why the workers were on strike. Sinclair interviewed not only the workers involved in the meat packing industry but families, lawyers, doctors, and social workers.

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Enjoyed from little league baseball games to outdoor family barbecues, hot dogs have grown to be one of America’s most iconic food products. Due to the ambiguity of its ingredients and manufacturing processes, however, hot dogs have also been known to stir up feelings of disgust and unease among consumers. To address this obscurity among consumers, a thorough examination of the manufacturing processes and ingredients is necessary to separate the myths from the facts. The average American hot dog holds a variety of ingredients. Although hot dogs are known to be made of some sort of meat, most of the ambiguity and suspicion rest on the kind of meat used and the processes of how they are manufactured.

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The injured immigrants in the factories slowly start to die off including some of jurgis' family members. Those who did not die physically begin to die emotionally. Jurgis begins to see the American dream as nothing but a façade. Jurgis and Ona's family all have to start working just to get by. The dream is lost and desperation has set in.

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For most of us, we take life for granted; We forget about all the everyday things like hot food, readily available running water, and a climate controlled house, all things that we take advantage of on a daily basis. All of these things, basic necessities, that immigrants struggled to keep if they ever did gain them in the first place. For the most part Upton Sinclair portrayed the life of an average citizen who started their life as an immigrant very well. Whether it be the extremely poor working conditions people were forced to deal with, the everyday struggles that they had to confront on a daily basis, or even the political corruption that the cities were once plagued with, Sinclair’s story matches up to what actually happened in history

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Upton Sinclair published a novel describing how unsanitary the meat packing houses in Chicago were. His publication resulted in the enactment of legislations that established more stern inspections of meat processing and packing houses. However, The Jungle resulted into a different consequence from what Upton intended. This is because Upton aimed that the book would shed light on the difficulty of workers in meat industry but ended up back firing. In this regard, the public ignored the need to improve workers’ welfare as described in the book but instead became more sensitively aware of the awful unsanitary conditions in the meat industry.

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America in the early 1900’s was an explosion of industrialism, with poverty on its heels. From a distance, America appeared as a magnificent wonderland filled with amazing opportunities. However, as many immigrants soon discovered, America was not the magical kingdom it was made out to be. With levels of poverty and disease rising, and unsafe workplaces widespread, America was built on pillars of corruption and muck. Upton Sinclair shared these beliefs, and in 1906 he decided to help open the eyes of the American public to the horrors behind closed factory doors by publishing his book, The Jungle.

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1949 Words | 8 Pages

America seems to be the perfect, amazing country to live in. Almost every immigrant wants to come to America to seek the most extraordinary life. In the novel, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Sinclair writes about a family of twelve from Lithuania who comes to Chicago, Illinois to seek the ideal American life that consists of freedom and wealth by working in the meat packing industry. The family of twelve who came to Chicago are Jurdis, Ona, Antanas, Teta Elzbieta, Jonas, Marija, and lastly, Ona's six step-brothers and step-sisters, Stanislovas, Kotrina, Vilimas, Nikolajus, Juozapas, and Kristoforas. The family has heard successful stories from Jonas, Ona’s step-uncle who has a friend who lived in Chicago.

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The influence of Upton Sinclair upon our world cannot thoroughly be measured in just a few short paragraphs or even one study. Sinclair 's work for which he was most famous, The Jungle, written in 1906, was just one of many examples of one person 's ability to change the world they live in. While the topic of The Jungle was bringing to light the horrible working conditions associated with the meat industry, the work accomplished so much more. Of course people were enraged when they found out they were probably eating rat meat along with their favorite meats but they also began to see how much hardship immigrants were going through just to try and make a living in the country at the time. Sinclair didn 't just interview people to get the

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653 Words | 3 Pages

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair gave great insight into many issues that were evolving in America during the Progressive era. It is based around telling the story of an immigrant family who comes to America for a better life. They soon realized the American dream wasn’t what it seemed. Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meatpacking industry, and the poverty in America. He aimed at the public's heart and by accident hit it in the stomach.

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869 Words | 4 Pages

The Jungle is one of the best-known pieces of the muckraker movement. The novel is responsible for bringing the working and sanitary conditions of Chicago's slaughterhouses to light. The jungle a brilliant story that bring to light a lot of the trues people didn't consider. It show that the working conditions for the immigrants and their living condition to ;as well as the condition of the food the people are eating. Americans were horrified to learn about the terrible conditions which their meat products were packed and were disgusted that rotten and diseased meat was sold without consideration for public health.

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Life in the Lower Class In the novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair uses various literary devices to portray the naturalism movement in the view of a Lithuanian immigrant living in America. Sinclair uses symbolism to portray the house that Jurgis and Ona desire to live in as the beginning of their American dream, he also uses foreshadow as he mentions the innocent hogs being slaughtered at the factory which foreshadows Jurgis and his families future as these innocent people begin to face hardships leading to their end. The negative diction in which Sinclair uses in this novel portrays a poignant and despicable lifestyle in Chicago. Jurgis and Ona were newly weds who came to America shortly after their marriage in Lithuania. Upon arrival to the states Jurgis and his wife lived in a boarding house for a while as Jurgis went in search of a job.

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

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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