In 1906, “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair was published and it created public outrage. Its depiction of working-class poverty, terrible working conditions, and unsanitary health conditions opened a window to the despondent world of the rising industrialized agriculture and food systems. Flash forward more than one hundred years, we are still seeing these same issues at a much larger scale around the globe. Moreover, these issues have evolved into new, more pressing problems that greatly affect the well-being of the Earth’s growing population in unimaginable ways. These industrialized systems have gained momentum over the last couple of decades, becoming an unprecedented multi-national, multi-billion dollar companies. Even though improvement has been vast, there still seems to be various plaguing issues surrounding this particular aspect of the Industrial Revolution. Some of those issues relate to the negative effects on the environment; food production and health; known cases of animal cruelty; and harsh working conditions. All in all, the adverse effects of the industrialized agricultural and food systems do not outweigh the limited benefits. What most people will find surprising is the fact that the industrialized agricultural and food systems is a great contributor to global warming, as its carbon emission are increasing year after year. This is something that the general public is unaware of. There are several statistics that shows the grand scale of damage that this
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written to expose the brutality faced by the workers in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair wanted to show people what was really going on in the factory because few people were informed about these companies work conditions. He wanted to show the public that meat was “ diseased, rotten, and contaminated” (Willie).” This revelation shocked the, public which later led to the creation of the federal laws on food and safety. Sinclair strongly shows the failure of capitalism in the meatpacking industry which he viewed as inhumane, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent (Willie).”
In the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair there are many ways that different literary elements are used to explore a political or social issue. One main issue has to do with the meat packing industry and how the workers are treated. In the novel, the main character had moved to America to find work and live the American Dream but his time in America was anything but a dream. Upton Sinclair uses many literary elements in his work to show imagery, metaphors/ similes and personification all why relating to the social issue of the packing industry.
For centuries immigrants have left their homes and have journeyed to the United States in pursuit to live out the “American Dream”, an idea that the U.S. will provide people with a better life. However, this “better life” was not just given upon arrival, immigrants were not told the horrid experiences, and backbreaking hour, they would face in search for a better life. There is no better representation of this than Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, this book is a very accurate representation of the life of the vast majority of people within the United States. During the time when this book was written there were few jobs, and the jobs that were obtainable were mostly factory jobs with horrible conditions that entailed excruciating hours. Aside from the dangerous conditions, the pay was next to nothing making it near impossible to afford food and shelter, let alone providing for a family. Immigrants quickly found out that the “American Dream” was not the glorified vision that they thought, rather more like the song “Welcome to the Jungle” by “Guns N Roses”. After examining the lyrics, you can tell the similarities Axl Rose and the rest of Guns N Roses were facing as they tried to make it in the music industry. “In the jungle, welcome to jungle, watch it bring you to your knees, I wanna watch you bleed,” once you get to the U.S. you’ll get ripped down to almost nothing and suffer from the horrible conditions that you are faced with. The Jungle takes all of the issues immigrants
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a vivid account of life for the working class in the early 1900s. Jurgis Rudkus and his family travel to the United States in search of the American dream and an escape from the rigid social structure of Lithuania. Instead, they find a myriad of new difficulties. Sinclair attributes their problems to the downfalls of capitalism in the United States. While America’s system was idealistic for Jurgis and his family at first, the mood of the story quickly transforms to assert that capitalism is evil. This theme drives the author’s message and relay of major issues throughout the entirety of the novel. The idea of capitalism and social Darwinism is to
Most famous people inspire authors to write books written about their achievements, however Upton Sinclair Junior did it backwards. Some of his ninety novels including an autobiography, and in particular The Jungle, changed America forever by using fictitious stories to depict the present issues at that time. Upton Sinclair was an author and activist in the early to mid 1900’s who was passionate about issues involving women 's rights, working conditions, and the unemployed. He wrote over ninety books in his lifetime, as well as countless articles and other works of journalism. As Sinclair grew up, he was exposed to both a lifestyle of poverty and wealth that shaped his world as well as his political views as a socialist, or someone who advocates the vesting of the control of the means of production and distribution, of capital or land in the community as a whole. Upton Sinclair was a controversial author who took a stand in history by vastly impacting the food industry, becoming politically active, and forecasting solutions to social problems.
This is seen in the meatpacking industry where the conditions were horrific. Sinclair exposes the truth of Capitalism in America as hypocritical and deceitful. Furthermore, these changes in American society influenced the work of Upton Sinclair and particularly in “The Jungle”. Sinclair examines several societal changes during the turn of the century where his literature reflects the changes of a newly emerging
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair and Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass both bring forth personal or fictional events that capture the interest of the the reader. The use of pathos in their writing along with true events questions the ethics, morality, and human rights of each individual at the time setting for the publication.
A wealthy nation is not a prosperous nation, as a nation can be prosperous without being wealthy. Wealth can be defined as capital or vice versa as having properties or resources and turning it into money. A country that is wealthy can have both rich and poor people living in it. There is an upper class, middle class and lower class, which individuals are associated to. We all know that individuals in the upper class have more resources, materials, properties and more money than the middle and lower class. The position that Upton Sinclair takes is that a wealthy nation isn’t a prosperous nation as many immigrants worked in horrible conditions and lived in miserable areas in her book “The Jungle”. I claim that a wealthy nation isn’t a prosperous nation because people have to look at the quality of human life and factors such as education, health care, inequality, basic needs, social goods and literacy are key aspects in determining if a wealthy nation is a prosperous nation. The first body paragraph of my essay will be focusing on Gross Domestic Product and how it is not the best way to determine if a country is wealthy or not. Also it will be addressing the issues of Qatar which is the richest nation and has the highest per capita. The second body paragraph will illustrate the drive for capital by Heilbroner and how it can produce wealth or misery. Upton Sinclair book “The Jungle” is a good example as it shows how Jurgis left Lithuania to go to America to become a wealthy
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.
The working conditions in the US in the 20th century were diffcult since workers had to struggle to survive on the daily bases.The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair does not only highlight the life of American workers but also uncovers the infleunce of capitalism in the US, where workers and employees were destined to fight for a living, while the upper-class reaped the benefits of national wealth.The Jungle gives many examples of the contemporary labor issues which are still a detriment to U.S. capitalist system and traditions of the labor unions. Sinclair demonstrates the gap between employers and the employees in his book .
This book shows the horrific working conditions and unsanitary conditions in Chicago's meatpacking industry. Sinclair's descriptions of conditions and procedures in the meatpacking plant led to subsequent reforms in food safety regulation. From the killing beds to the fertilizer plant, the meatpacking plant is not a place one would like to work at, it is a place of blistering cold and burning heat, a place where a man might accidentally fall and end up in the canned food. Sinclair uses descriptions of food and diseased meat to reveal the disregard capitalist owners have for the safety of American citizens. He also portrays the grotesque physical harm done to workers, who lose fingers, cut themselves and get blood poisoning, have their skin eroded by low pH acid, and lose limbs. Sinclair uses the industrialized brutality of the animals to symbolize the ultimate pain and discomfort the workers are
In his work, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair depicts the brutal story of a migrant Lithuanian family and their new life in America. The novel brings to life the harsh reality that Jurgis Rudkus and his family faced everyday in the Chicago Stockyards, known as Packingtown. Their preconceived dreams of America were slowly crushed by their daily struggle to make a life for themselves and to simply survive. As the story is unfolded, it becomes clear how the family and others were trapped in a greedy and unforgiving system. They poured themselves into working under the most horrendous conditions only to make a few pennies an hour and fall victims to the evil schemes of business owners and city officials. Eventually the story turns to what I believe
The book that I read for the assignment three is called The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair. The jungle is a Fiction book that is based on the meat packing industry in Chicago in early 20th century.
Gastroenteritis, Typhoid Fever, and E. coli… all conditions that can result from eating mishandled food. Before modern research, nobody knew that these aliments could result from consuming food that was handled by someone in a factory which had poor sanitation. The environments of these factories are specifically depicted in Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle. We now live under the impression that the FDA and other governmental companies are strictly regulating what happens to the food we consume - that we are fully protected from any harmful diseases we could catch from something that gives us life; however, this is just another false promise the leaders of this country tell us in order to secure our dependence upon them.
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.