The Jungle Dbq Analysis

First of all, during the Gilded age, many children were forced to work in unsanitary work places that contained dangerous machines and harmful substances until laws were passed against child labor. At this period, child labor was a huge issue because many children died before they reached their 10th birthday. The Breaker Boys, as shown in document B, were young boys that separated coal from other minerals as a living. Injuries, sickness, and even death was common between the young boys. The boys had to break up sharp coal with their bare hands, breathe in harmful air, and deal with dangerous factory machines that can potentially kill them. This task was very dangerous for children and was continued to take place until the 1900s. In 1913, the New York State Department of State Bureau declared that “No child under the age of fourteen years shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work in or in connection with any factory [and].... [n]o child between the aged fourteen and sixteen shall be so employed, permitted or suffered to work unless an

The younger boys who worked at the mines were called breaker boys. They didn’t work in the mine itself, but sat on benches and picked out the bits of rock from the coal. “These children worked in the picking room, a crowded, high-ceilinged vault, crisscrossed with rickety catwalks and crooked stairs, lit only by a wall of grime-choked windows” (Levine, Marvin J. "Mines, Mills, and Canneries." Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 21. Print.) Within factories, small children had to work fast at the machines, being very careful unless an unfortunate body part happens to get caught in the high-powered, dangerous machinery. For several long hours in rooms without fresh air, ventilation, and sometimes, no windows, the working conditions that the children suffered through were appalling. There are children who work in hazardous industries, risking accident and injury; there are others working in conditions that take a slower but definite toll on the children’s health (Basu, Kaushik, and Pham Hoang Van. "The Economics of Child Labor" The Economics of Child Labor (1998): 412-27. Print.).

Readers were not concerned with the treatment of workers, as portrayed by The Jungle, because they really didn't care for the working class, or more specifically, immigrants. However, readers were shocked when they discovered exactly how their meat was processed and prepared. Sinclair used just as much, if not more, gruesome detail in describing the products the American public was consuming, as he did when describing the workplace, living conditions, politics, society and Chicago's scenery. In a futile attempt to build up the readers' sympathy toward the wage-slaves, Sinclair also details the process in which foods not related to the meat-packing industry are prepared. For example, he writes, "their pale blue milk...was watered, and doctored with formaldehyde."

The Gilded Age is defined as the time between the Civil War and World War I, during which the United States population grew quickly and the economy prospered greatly. However, it is also known to be cluttered with political corruption and corporate financial misleadings, in which the rich grew very wealthy and the poor were basically peasants. The economic growth of the nation was highly influenced by the availability of land and technological innovations promised through multiple acts passed throughout the time period, and, as a result, there were many negative changes in the social standing of minorities.

With the growth of cities and factories, citizens began to see unsafe and filthy conditions that progressives tackled to change. Muckrakers, journalists who exposed both government and corporations for their corruption, caused the most waves in change regarding consumer protection. Although at times the pieces by muckrakers were exaggerated, they were able to generate public awareness on issues that would have otherwise been swept under the carpet. One of the most notable pieces was “The Jungle, “by Upton Sinclair. Although he had originally wanted to expose the harsh conditions faced by immigrants throughout industrialized parts of America, he inadvertently exposed the meat industry for their unsanitary practices. Upton Sinclair made the public very aware of what is actually in their meat.

The 1860s to 1920s was known as the gilded age in the United States of America. Immigrants moved to the U.S. to have a better life but when they arrived, they an unexpected situation. In the gilded age, Robber barons or business owners made a tremendous amount of money. Most of them accomplished this by using monopolies and trusts which led them to gain power and money. While money was flowing in the United States, the lower class population lived in tenements, where diseases would spread fast and comfort was not available. Workers had to work more than twelve hours a day and they could lose parts of their bodies in the machines and therefore get fired. Children worked as much as their parents did. They were in a position of

The American colonists were justified in waging war and breaking away from Britain. In fact, they had every right to fight against the British. They were justified because of unjust laws and a parliament of tyranny.

Eastern cities were booming in industrial growth and for many in the upper class, this time was the highest of highs. But for many others, the Gilded Age was the lowest of lows. Moving westward, farmers were in debt; losing work and money, Native Americans were fighting for their lands and traditions, and newcomers were trying to strike it rich. Every region was fighting for something and their values were dependent on what they were fighting

Back in the 1900?s, the food was not the healthiest or cleanest you would see nowadays. From Upton Sinclair?s book entitled ?The Jungle? written in the 1906, had called the nation?s concentration to abuses by the meat-packing industry. Sinclair disguised himself as a worker in a Chicago meat-packing plant to observe harmful and unsanitary practices. In the factory, to kill rats, Sinclair wrote, ?the packers would put poisoned bread out for them, they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.? Hence, that would be the meat made for the public to eat. Many people did not consider that the meat industries actually did this, for example, former President Roosevelt doubted Sinclair?s viewpoints, and however, he ordered an investigation of meatpacking practices. The investigation report shocked him that he demanded more health and sanitary laws. In June 1906,

This time period of the Gilded Age was between the Civil War and World War I. The Gilded Age was an age of vast transformations for the United States. With the U.S. population and economy growing quickly, there were a lot of political corruption, corporate financial misdealings, and many wealthy people who lived very fancy lives. The Gilded Age also brought over a vast number of immigrants to our shores. This era showed the true meaning of the “American dream” and also the suffering it brought with it. Between 1865-1900 the Gilded Age was a time period when rapid growth occurred, especially in the North and West; however, the industrial workers focused on bettering the system while farmers were trying to be as successful as the industry. Therefore, their improvement to better themselves had similar industrialization.

It is clear to see that in the picture of child labor, from document #10, that children were unhappy. They were also unsafe because of the harsh working conditions. These places are dangerous for adults and even more dangerous for kids. According to The Apostate, by Jack London, he started work before the age of 10. Jack said, “I started working when I was younger than him.” He was talking about his 10-year old brother. Imagine kids younger than 10 working in factories.

It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of mean and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go in the hoppers together.”# There was nothing the packers would not do to make a profit, if meat went bad they would pickle it or make sausage out of it, “there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white-it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption.”# The Packers took no responsibilities for the sickness that these meats caused. It was not uncommon for people to die from sickness they had gotten from eating bad meat, this is also an issue in “The Jungle” when a young family member suddenly dies one morning, “it was the smoked sausage he had eaten that morning-which may have been made out of some of the tubercular pork that was condemned unfit for export.”# Disease was also a factor for the workers, as quoted from the book “Meat and Men “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world.”# It was also not uncommon for people to fall into the vats and become lard. “The public revolted at the

In many countries, child labor is part of culture and anchored in traditional attitudes. Child laborers suffer extremely high illness and injury rates in underground mines, opencast mines, and quarries. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old break up rocks, and wash, sieve, and carry ore.

For most of human history, life remained pretty much the same. The conditions of living were almost completely stagnant, and there was no such thing as economic growth to the general public. This all changed when two different events occurred that greatly impacted the course of history. The first of these being the British industrial revolution in 1750, and then the more prominent American industrial revolution in 1870. Acting like a catalyst, these two events created a boom of economic growth unlike anything the world had ever seen. As certain nations have continued to expand, an important question that arises is, is economic growth beneficial or harmful to society? Economic growth as defined as: “An increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time (The Oxford American College Dictionary)” is in no way a bad thing for society. The issue with this comes from the way we as humans use such this broad definition of economic growth as an indicator of wellbeing and happiness within a country, leading to misuse of wealth, as well as misplaced focus on important areas of life.

Economic Growth is caused by improvements in the quantity and in the quality of the factors of production such as human capital (labour) and capital stock. Indeed, it permit to enhance the productivity of an economy and thus its creation of wealth.