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Examples Of Muckraking In The Jungle

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Muckraking in Relation to Capitalism and Labor Reform: The Jungle The Jungle is a novel published in 1906, written by an American journalist named Upton Sinclair. Throughout the 1900’s, lower class families as well as immigrants were faced with the harsh working conditions of the rapidly growing American industry. Due to the savage working conditions and dangerously low wages, families encountered unstable living conditions throughout this period. Upton Sinclair exposes these treacherous conditions in his novel while also introducing the major health issue of the meat packaging industry in Packingtown, Chicago. Although this American novel is most commonly associated with the flaws in the American meat packaging industry, it is actually centered …show more content…

Upton Sinclair perfectly fits the description of a muckraker as he personally worked undercover in a meat packaging plant to expose working conditions and product cleanliness. Although Sinclair primarily aimed to report on the harsh labor conditions experienced by American employees, his novel The Jungle partly focuses on the negative effects the meat packing industry poses on American health, while his intention was to anger the population over the physical labor conditions that immigrants and the general working class faced. During this process, he discovered the severe corruption within the labor system and the flaws in social reform attempts. He discusses the plight of the immigrant throughout the entire novel, from describing their travel circumstances all the way to their work day requirements and painful family conditions consisting of low wages and physically draining labor leading to the separation of hundreds of families and unnecessary financial stress. He also relates the working class to the slaughterhouse animals that he witnessed during his undercover study at the meat packaging facility in Packingtown, Chicago. The use of symbolism throughout the novel allows Upton Sinclair to firmly describe immigrants and the general working class as being treated under the same circumstances that the animals nearing their death were. For example, the animals found in the slaughterhouses were overstocked into corrals and forced to physically drain themselves due to the amount of stress that was imposed on them. This is similar to the conditions the American working class is faced with because they are also overworked and expected to complete impossible tasks. Members of the working class were also treated unfairly and were forced into a system in which their opinion did not matter to the larger corporation owners which primarily led the

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