Chicago Meatpacking History

The history of puppy mills started in the World War 2 era. After the the crop failure in the midwest the number of purebred dogs began to increase in the 1950’s. Many families went to a pet store instead of going to a shelter to find their loving pet. The farmers had used the puppies for additional income or as a cash crop, which resulted in the first puppy business. The farmers housed the puppies mostly in chicken coops or rabbit hutches. The farmers also would use things like old refrigerators and rabbit cages to put the puppies in. Most of the veterinarian care and food nutrition were not available to the puppies. “When the 1960’s came along a concern about the pet store happened, mainly because the puppies were being sold from the puppy

It is an obvious safety hazard at the fault of the company, yet, he does not receive compensation. He is forced to beg for his job back. Marija loses her job drawing advertisements at a canning company when she joins a union. Ona’s boss, Phil Connor, harasses her. When Jurgis learns of the assault, he attacks the man and goes to jail. “They put him in a place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink—why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside—why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze?” (Sinclair, 184-185). This quote shockingly illustrates that the prison is actually an environment far preferable to the cruel, filthy world of Packingtown. Sinclair’s famous descriptions of the repugnant meatpacking plants is meant to enhance the plea for better physical conditions. There are endless examples where Sinclair addresses the lack of rights for the working class. He suggests socialism as a possible remedy where the social classes would be even, but stresses the necessity of labor unions to maintain wages, workers’ compensation claims, and a safe and healthy work environment free from exploitation.

Today, it is more evident than ever that there are deep divisions within modern society along the lines of race, class and gender. These divides are highlighted by recent protests, riots and movements. These issues are relevant in modern society as well as in two famous stories. Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men use character development to make commentary toward these points. Fitzgerald’s novel covers the tumultuous journey of Nick Carraway through the swanky social elite of the 1920’s. Steinbeck’s text covers the opposite end of the spectrum, detailing the experiences of George and Lennie, ranchers during the great depression. While also providing a riveting and captivating plot, these seemingly antithetical tales both develop their respective characters to be normal, everyday people who face difficult problems because of their class.

“The Jungle”portrays the harsh conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industry in the early 1900’s. Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite recently emigrated from Lithuania to Chicago in search of a better life. The conditions were the cause of Jurgis’s injury to his ankle, which led to his frustrating unemployment. Jurgis and Ona, a couple who planned on getting married, struggled throughout their time Chicago due the treatment of immigrants. Jurgis always prevailed and assured his wife that things would soon be better as he had believed in the American dream.

Workers in Packingtown were subject to conditions similar to slavery. Sinclair describes the situation explaining that “they were tied to the great packing machine, and tied to it for life” (Sinclair 94). Most of the workers could not escape the grasps of the Beef Trust, a monopoly on the beef industry that was above even the law. They were forced to work in dangerous and filthy conditions, earning barely any compensation for their work. All of the workers were seen as “cogs in the great packing machine,” replaceable and cheap (Sinclair 74). By objectifying their workers as simply moving parts to a machine, employers could find moral high ground in the poor and inhumane working conditions, and they could replace old and damaged “parts” with new ones without so much as thinking about what they had done for that worker. Sinclair hoped to promote Socialism with these depictions, spending the last few chapters of the book detailing how Socialism could fix all of the problems detailed in the beginning. His ideas of “‘Communism in material production, anarchism in intellectual’” were never realized in the United States (Sinclair 291). He believed that people should be given equal resources and then allowed to have as much intellectual gain as they wanted. The general public did not respond to this argument. They saw the problem in a different perspective, blaming not capitalism but

William Attaway’s novel, Blood on the Forge, displays a family torn apart as a product of systematic exploitation. In the compelling narrative, the Moss brothers, Big Mat, Chinatown, and Melody, migrate to the north in motivation of Big Mat committing the murder of his riding boss. As they begin to adjust, their perception of the north’s assumed and rumored opportunities quickly conforms to the reality of what is actually offered. Through plot lines of the very act of migrating, acclimating to regenerated labor and norms, and, finally, the dissolution of the brothers’ identities and close family connection, it is observed that their exodus to the north is just as empty of benefits as the south. Attaway accomplishes depicting an accurate account of the contrasting exploitation that occurred in both the north and the south by portraying the Moss brothers’ demise as a result of their migration from a systematic, rural setting to an industrial, diminishing, and, ultimately, unfamiliar environment along with how the two regions parallel in similarities concerning economical and social consequences, permanently affecting the brothers altogether mentally and physically. Where there was great potential for a rebirth of opportunity and success, the result was a contrasting reality of misery and permanent damage.

These hardships only seem to intensify as winter brings illness to the family. Jurgis is becoming increasingly aware of the corruption of the management of Packingtown and finally joins a union after a long period holding out. His contacts within the union persuade him to learn to speak English, become an American citizen, and vote in elections. This introduction into politics will not become a major theme until much later in the novel, but will eventually become the central focus of Sinclair’s work.

The novel follows Jurgis's Lithuanian immigrant family into the disgusting tenements and meat packing factories of Chicago. There, they suffer the loss of all their dreams of success and freedom in America. They find themselves leashed to the grinding poverty and misery of the city slums despite all their best efforts. Sinclair's purpose is to display the evils of capitalism as an economic system. "…had given to the thought to a struggle by the America's working class to free themselves from their enslavement under capitalism, and to the creating of a new and classless society controlled collectively by all the people in their self interest" (Harris 57). Sinclair was bemused by the public reaction to his phenomenally successful novel. "He said that he had aimed for America's heart, but had ended by hitting it in the stomach" (Harris 82).

The book depicts the life of a fictional Lithuanian immigrant named Jurgis Rudkus, a worker at a Chicago meat packing plant trying to make ends meet for his wife and family. Unfortunately, Sinclair’s dismal depictions of the meat packing industry were all too real.

set of terrifying and inhumanity acts take place on immigrants in the meat packing industry where many of them even lost their lives. They encounter extremes in freeze weather, heat exhaustion, overwhelming, and infectious disease. Upon Sinclair’s novel, where he depicts the scenery in the meat industries, "They don't waste anything. They use everything about the hog except the squeal." Yet most of them are grateful for getting a job because otherwise they would be in debt, starve and die. The author purpose of this book is to raise public awareness, soon after, The Food and Drug Act immediately takes a step on investigating animals slaughtering and working environment. Soon afterward, workers no longer work closed to the diseased animals and

At the beginning of the book, Jurgis and Ona are married. Jurgis is happy and ready to live the “American dream” but after being forced to work in inhuman, unjust, and brutal environments as Sinclair called them, Jurgis sees capitalism for what it really was, evil. Sinclair portrayed early in Chapters 1 and 2 that the “American dream” is achieved by working hard even though it shows the immigrants in Chicago struggling. In the beginning, Jurgis is confident that he will achieve the American dream. An example of his confidence happened in chapter 2 when Jurgis and Ona took a stroll outside and saw the filth of their neighborhood and also saw Packingtown. He said, “tomorrow I will go there and get a job” (page 30). He was confident that he would make his and Ona’s lives better and achieve the American dream. He believed that what they were going through was temporary. Jurgis learns about capitalism by watching his bosses and the rich get richer and himself and other laborers working very hard in awful circumstances for very low wage. Packingtown is an example of this. The tour in chapter 3 was important for this book, because readers are able to imagine what the workers and animals went through. Jurgis and other laborers know the meat that goes through Packingtown is often rotten or carries diseases. Instead of the business owners taking a loss on that bad meat, they would process and sell it anyway, just to get a profit. Even at

From the get go, they maintain faith in the “American Dream”, the idea that morality and hard work will bring wealth and good fortune. However, Sinclair cleverly exposes the hypocrisy of this naive dream by placing the family in Packingtown, a place that flips the myth of the American Dream on its head. Instead of a land riddled with opportunity and acceptance, they find it to be littered with racism and immorality. Instead of the concept that a strong moral compass and hard work can bring you wealth, they find the only way a man can succeed is through corruption and

Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, follows the life of Jurgis Rudkus, his Lithuanian family, and friends who all recently immigrated to Chicago in search of a better life. Jurgis, Ona, and the rest of their family find jobs in Packington, the meatpacking industry of Chicago. Quickly they discover the difficulties of surviving in the United States during the early 1900’s through financial troubles, unreliable work, illness, and swindling. Through his novel, Sinclair exploits the dangerous working conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industry, the health violations, and the struggles the workers face to make ends meet. Contrasted with today’s food industry and the fight for Food Justice, authors Raj Patel, Gottlieb, and Joshi address the similarities between Jurgis and meatpacking workers to the agriculture and industry workers of today. All face challenges such as the struggle to survive on low wages, hazards in the workplace, and the mental burdens these jobs impose on workers. Upton Sinclair exploits the corrupt environment of the meatpacking industry but issues such as worker wages, public health, and sanitation remain important issues today.

Immigrant Life in Chicago Severed limbs, bacterial diseases, nauseating smells; this was the atmosphere of the Chicago stockyards in the early 1900s. Unfortunately for immigrants to Chicago, there was no choice but to submit to the repulsive tasks of the meatpacking industry as they had no other options. Work conditions were just a small portion of the many dark sides to immigrant life. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposes the evils of capitalism by detailing the brutal lives of immigrants in Chicago in the early 1900s.

Throughout the novel it is evident that factory owners care more about their profits, than the health of their workers. Jurgis would often work long shifts for little pay. In the story the Sinclair states, “And for this, at the end of the week, he would carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour—just about his proper share of the total earnings of the million and three-quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States" (85). This quote proves that Jurgis was laboring long hours, every single day, to make no more than a child. Due to this Jurgis struggles to provide for his family and purchase necessities to live a healthy lifestyle. Eventually his lack of success leads him to drinking and corrupt activities. The corrupt practices of the factory owners are evidenced by child labor, sale of contaminated meat, and abuse of female workers. While capitalist gain financial earnings, the corruption that takes place destroys the heart and soul of workers throughout the stockyards, until all hope is lost.