The Jungle Essay example

People have no idea what occurs in the canning room at Durham’s. The chemists advertise mushroom catsup. In reality, the men who made these don’t even know what they look like. They would put animal 's body parts that humans wouldn 't eat into the cans. “ "De-vyled" ham was made out of the waste ends of smoked beef that was too small to be sliced by the machines; also tripe, dyed with chemicals so, that it would not show white . Finally the hard cartilaginous gullets of beef, after the tongues, had been cut out” (Sinclair).” mixing all these animal parts they created a new mixture which tasted like something, then sold it which would earn them a great amount of wealth.They gave cows tuberculous to make them gain weight quickly. They were putting the horses in the canned food, later banned the practice because the newspaper exposed them. Now it is against the law (Sinclair).”

Upton Sinclair was the author of a book called "The Jungle". His book was designed to bring light to the conditions of those who canned meat in Chicago, but his foul descriptions of the unsanitary food, and the vile slaughterhouses resonated with his readers much more.

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.

This endeavor lead to the creation of the FDA and also the requirement that companies list what is going in the food that they are purchasing. Document B states the ill conditions meat was placed in prior to the chopping of the meat: “Meat scraps were also found being shoveled into receptacles from dirty floors where they were left to lie until again shoveled into barrels or into machines for chopping. These floors, it must be noted, were in most cases damp and soggy, in dark ill-ventilated rooms…”(Neill-Reynolds Report,

The authority supporting this view can be derived for the case of Hobbs v Winchester Corporation [1910] where the butcher was guilty because the meat he tried to sell was unfit for human consumptions.

There were no toilets, so human and rat excrement wound up in the meat, along with the rats themselves. These unsanitary details moved readers far more than the injustices inflicted on the workers. Other examples include the rechurning of rancid butter, the cutting of ice from polluted water and the doctoring of milk with formaldehyde. The average consumer was shocked to know that the “pure beef” was in fact contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Imagine

The jungle delved deep in the plight of the immigrants while shedding light on the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing industry and revealing the oppressive corrupt capitalist system. It exposed may truisms to the American public about the working class conditions at work, home and in religious settings. Although all the ingredients were used to expose a capitalist society in the end what resulted was something less than what Upton Sinclair expected. His book had law making and historical importance, but only to 8 or so pages that detailed the most gruesome aspects of working in the meat packing plant.

company, and that they were paid by the United States government to ensure that all the diseased meat was kept

Laborers were forced to work in filthy facilities that had no lighting or place to wash their hands and materials. The dangers of the consumption of food and the unsafe and disease-ridden procedures the meatpacking and food agencies were performing needed to be addressed to the public. Likewise, muckrakers and journalists were people who reinforced public awareness on the food scam and heightened the ideals they were accompanying to. Finally, after the ongoing scandal, the public’s outcry sought Congress’s attention and the Pure Food and Drug Act along with the Meat Inspection Act were considered to prevent the sale, manufacture, and transportation of misbranded goods that were harmful to the human health and welfare. After months of debate between the Senate and the House, the act was signed by Roosevelt to protect the public and ensure that natural food was being processed to purchasers. In consequence to the new act passed, meat and food industries were required to provide hygienic and practicable conditions for their employees, regulate the standards of the products, and inspect the processing plants and food before

Sinclair’s writing started to become very eminent in the early 1900’s, and by the age of 16 his book The Jungle changes the food industry forever. In 1905 Sinclair was hired to work in “Packingtown” Chicago for a meat processing company for a pay of $500 ( $13,513.51 today’s money) (Upton Sinclair Hits Readers in the Stomach). For two months Sinclair worked in the meatpacking industry, afterwards, he went into solitude for nine months to write about the details of the industry. “The meat would be shoveled into carts,

B. Packing houses products such as, rat dropping & etc, were eventually finding its way in hams, sausages, and cans of meat.

     In the early twentieth century, at the height of the progressive movement, “Muckrakers” had uncovered many scandals and wrong doings in America, but none as big the scandals of Americas meatpacking industry. Rights and responsibilities were blatantly ignored by the industry in an attempt to turn out as much profit as possible. The meat packers did not care if poor working conditions led to sickness and death. They also did not care if the spoiled meat they sold was killing people. The following paper will discuss the many ways that rights and responsibilities were not being fulfilled by the meat packing industry.

The government did this through the Pure Food and Drug Act was one reform which helped public health by stopping the manufacturing of spoiled or misbranded items. Another successful reform which expanded consumer protection was the Meat Inspection Act passed in 1906. This act increased public health greatly and was passed due to Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle. The book brought forth the hidden secrets of how meat was processed and kept. Neill Reynolds Report shows how really bad the meat processing business was. The meat was usually rotten and was just placed on the dirty floor, where it was barely washed. (Document 2) His report tried to get the attention of the public and the government. It showed the horrors of how the meat packing industry was. The Meat Inspection Act was successful because it forced the meat packing industry to change its ways to meet the health conditions of the

Contrary to what might have been thought, the main group that wanted tougher meat inspection laws were the major meat packers. J. Ogden Armour argued that the major packers favored government meat inspection on two major points. Firstly, Armour indicated that it would be commercially disadvantageous for a packer to evade government meat inspection as no packer could do interstate or export business without the seal of quality on it from the government. Furthermore, he explained that no major packer would accept meat from a minor packer except such meats had been inspected by the government. Armour’s second point was that government’s inspection created an assurance to the public that meats being purchased and consumed were safe.

American novelist Upton Sinclair wrote a book we all know as The Jungle, which portrays the harsh conditions and terrible lives of immigrants in the United States. In doing so, Sinclair exposes the meat industry’s harsh working conditions, health violations, and unsanitary practices. The Jungle is one example where the communication of a message generated a profound effect on the world. The novel uses rhetorical devices, a distinct tone, and three modes of persuasion to prove the meat industry’s overall lack of sanitation.