The Jungle Dbq Analysis

In 1906, a book started taking the nation by storm. The book was titled The Jungle and it was written by Upton Sinclair, a muckraker who exposed corrupt government and business practices. He infiltrated Chicago meat packing industries and documented the exploited lives of the workers. However, more people were concerned with the unsanitary practices in the meat industry. This led to reforms such as the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Despite the reforms that have taken place over the past century, there are still many problems with the meat packing industry. It harms the workers, endangers the consumers, and has negative effects on the environment.

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).”

During the progressive era, 1900-1920, Chicago had a growing population due to the vast number of European immigrants settling there. By the 1900s, nearly 750,000 people, almost half of Chicago’s population was having to live in the central park. Trying to produce enough food to keep the city feed was grueling. It was about meeting the demand. When The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published in 1906, which revealed the stomach turning ways of the meat packing companies, it caused the people to become enraged. In The Jungle, he uses disturbing visual imagery to describe the filthy conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago during the progressive era, in order to get the public’s attention, henceforth gathering the public along his side to fight for better health codes.

Overcrowded,smoggy,dirty. These word would describe what the gilded age and progressive era looked like. With multiple families living in a small space and people working for less than living wage in dirty cramped factories. Food was made in unsanitary places with rats crawling over it. There were millions of child labour. Some people would say that the inventions society got were great but it was at the cost of people's lives. Economic growth was bad for society because factories had harsh condition.

Have you ever went to McDonalds and looked at the food and asked “is this even real food?” The food industry is a very questionable industry because of how corrupt it was during the late 1800s. A great example of the food industry corruption was the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. In the book, Upton Sinclair expose all the corrupt of the late 1800s capitalists who would dehumanize citizens and their workers. The book talks about a man named Jurgis, who just came to America with his family and tells how his life starts to change. They talk about his job and their very poor work conditions and how they value human life. The capitalists and their industries not only affected Jurgis, but also his family and other citizens. In the book,

Changes in society were shown in a variety of ways, including the meat inspection act and child labor laws. During the progressive era, the conditions in meat factories were horrible. These conditions were masked by fake dye and incorrect expiration dates. Muckrakers were journalists that exposed the truth to Americans. On June 4, 1906, The Neill- Reynolds report exposed the truth, “ Meat scraps were found being shoveled from dirty floors… the floors were damp and soggy… the employees in utter ignorance of cleanliness or danger to health. (Document B)” It was obvious that these unsanitary conditions were unacceptable, and they weren’t acknowledged until now. It was even noted that some workers were infected with tuberculosis. Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” to further inform the public about this, eventually leading to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act. Another social issue that was brought to reform was child labor. In 1909, Jane Addams wrote, “The Spirit Of Youth and the City Streets”. Addams described how children working affected their educations, “Knowing as educators do that thousands of the city youth will enter factory life at an early age as early as the state law will permit....(Document B).” At the time, thousands of children were working in industrial settings, rather than focusing on education. Educators were acting as if this had no effect on the students. Jane wanted society to realize

The people also wanted to have a more safe and fair working environment. Before progressivism there was no laws on food or product production making it very unsafe for the consumer to know what he is buying. Journalists called “muckrakers” would call attention to this by writing about the horrible conditions in factories. One of these muckrakers named Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle” which talked about the unsanitary atmosphere the meat was produced in. This book brought so much attention that the Meat Inspection Act was passed in 1906 by president Roosevelt. This act made strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers to ensure the general people a healthy meal.(Document B). Another act that was passed at this time

Although it was a shocking and revolutionary exposure to the hazardous environment of the meat-packing plants of Chicago in 1906, The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, proves to still be relevant in modern day due strains of bacterial diseases contaminating meat and produce, and causing illness to the public. In its time, the content of The Jungle was supposed to illustrate the demeaning means of which labor was carried out in a new world of industrialization. Sinclair had a goal of exposing the horrid lifestyle impeded on a certain immigrant worker (and many more in the same situations), and ended up causing a revolutionary change in the working conditions of meat-packing factories in cities all across the United States. President Theodore

The Jungle was one the most important sources in my paper. When the book was published, it caused a massive uproar in the United States which I believe was much of the reason Congress finally placed better standards in motion regarding food and drug regulations. Quoting from Upton Sinclair’s experience in the Chicago meat packing factory gives my paper primary information about the horrific conditions that Congress paid little mind to before 1906.

     While the works of Upton Sinclair are not widely read today because of their primacy of social change rather than aesthetic pleasure, works like The Jungle are important to understand in relation to the society that produced them.  Sinclair was considered a part of the muckraking era, an era when social critics observed all that was wrong and corrupt in business and politics and responded against it.  The Jungle was written primarily as a harsh indictment of wage slavery, but its vivid depictions of the deplorable lack of sanitation involved in the meatpacking industry in Chicago resulted in public outrage to the point where Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection

Upton Sinclair echoes this sentiment effectively. In his novel, The Jungle, Sinclair exposes the harsh reality of immigrant life in Chicago in the early 1900s, establishing his role as a pioneer for future muckrakers. His specific exploitation of the filthy, unpalatable working conditions in the American Meat Packing Industry directly resulted in government intervention through the Meat Inspection Act. This policy enforced heavier restrictions on the food industry and cracked down on sanitary requirements (Costly). Sinclair’s risky decision to expose such a powerhouse industry consequently protected American lives, an honorable reward for simply pursuing the

Muckrakers were the term applied to the American journalists during the progressive movement. They exposed corruption in government, horrible living conditions, and the unsanitary of factories. These journalists were given the name “muckrakers” by Teddy Roosevelt. Muckrakers like Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and photojournalist like Jacob Riis became the voices of reform. Upton Sinclair wrote the jungle exposing the unsanitary practices in the meat-processing industry. Undercover working for seven weeks in Chicago’s stockyard, collecting evidence before writing the jungle. Ida Tarbell exposed the unfair business practices of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company: which led to the breakage of its monopoly. Tarbell debited that Standard Oil was

Thesis Statement: Upton Sinclair was a muckraker who wrote, “The Jungle”, which exposed the problems of the meatpacking industry.

2. Muckrakers were writers who exposed corruption and abuse in politics, meatpacking, businesses, child labor, and many more problems. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle were he described the unsanitary conditions of the slaughterhouses which many wok and the sale of rotten meat to the public. Theodore Dreiser wrote Sister Carrie were she talked about a young woman’s corrupt morals in Chicago’s rough urban environment. Lincoln Steffens published The Shame of the Cities which showed how political corruption profited business leaders and party leaders. Ida Tarbell exposed Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company over its arrogance and economic machinations.

Throughout the years of the Progressive movement many people attributed to the expanding distrust of businesses. These people were known as muckrakers. There job was just as it sounds: to uncover the nasty and distasteful facts of large corporations. To no surprise one of the more famous muckrakers was Upton Sinclair. His book The Jungle was so appalling that, in 1906, “the Bureau of Animal Industry refuted Sinclair’s severest allegations, characterizing them as ‘intentionally misleading and false,’ ‘willful and deliberate misrepresentations of fact,’ and ‘utter absurdity.’”(Michael Suede) However these remarks did not change the public's opinion on the meatpacking industry. Sinclair had said many things that discusted the public one of which