Upton Sinclair: A Voice For Food Safety Essay

As the story goes on Ona and her baby Antanas both die. Ona during child birth and Antanas will drowned in front of the house. Jurgis will then move out of the city to the suburbs leave all of his family behind. Later returning to Chicago and getting himself into a lot of trouble with the law. After some time of being in and out of jail Jurgis finally gets a job working at a hotel. He will become back in touch with his family that he left and begin to support them on what he makes by working at the hotel.

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,

People in this story live in a very dis honest world, it's a rough life and it's almost impossible to live comfortably and make an honest living. Jurgis tried to be an honest working man but all the frauds and dishonest people around him made an influence. You see the dishonesty throughout the book cover to cover. Jurgis has several encounters with people who constantly try to cheat him out of his money or are dishonest about their intentions. You can see one encounter in the early pages of the book when jurgis and his family first arrive to america, they're looking for kettles and pots for there new house and the man that they bought them from cheated them out of a few pots. You can also see this late story when jurgis is trying to get his 100 dollars changed the man he asked him to change it. The man took the money from him and changed him 95 cents.

In Foster’s writing, he believes the emphasis should be on the character’s personality being altered throughout the story, “No matter how large or small the action, the most important thing that characters can do is change, develop, learn, mature, call it what you will.” This change is seen in Jurgis, the father in this Lithuanian immigrant family, after coming back from jail for assaulting his wife’s boss, who sexually assaulted her. Before serving time, Jurgis has the persona of a hard working immigrant with the strong motivation to work as hard as he can to provide for his family. He never steals, participates in any illegal activities and promises his wife he will work even harder when they have any financial stress. Once out of jail, his wife and first child die in succession. The circumstance he’s put in, spirals his life out of control, leading him to squander his measly earnings to drink heavily, abandon his family, and turn to corruption and crime as a

Jurgis and Ona 's family buy a house in poor conditions and needs to pay rent for seven years. Unfornaletely, rent is extremely high and Antanus, a Jurgis old man, gets a job in the pickle room. Antanus old age became the reason why he couldn 't handle the job and ends up dying.

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair uncovers the horrors of working in the meatpacking district of Chicago. Sinclair acquired the inspiration to write The Jungle when he was sent into the stockyards to unveil the truth about the workingmen’s lives in Chicago. Sinclair’s story caused an uproar and led to him being labeled as a muckraker, a term that referred to journalists that documented the harsh conditions of workers during industrialization. He intended his novel to bring light to the socialist party, but instead the readers were more concerned about the diseased and mistreated meat that the were eating. Because of the upset, Sinclair’s novel led to the formation of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Sinclair published five novels between 1904 and 1906, but none were as influential or as popular as The Jungle. A silent movie was made as a film adaptation of this story in 1914. I have not read any of the other novels published by Upton Sinclair.

While the use of characterization takes place with numerous characters in the novel, it resonates most obviously with Jurgis. At the beginning of the novel Jurgis is portrayed as a very masculine, hardworking figure, as he speaks his famous quote “I will work harder.” As he begins to experience harsh work conditions, injury, and sickness, his optimistic nature slowly wears down. Eventually his pessimistic personality overrides the sanguine behavior he exhibited in earlier times, specifically with the death of his wife and the drowning of his son. All the treacherous occurrences in Jurgis’s life cause him to become a frequent visitor of saloons, as he craves even just a drop of alcohol. Though he did not have a large sum of money previously,

First, he, along with the rest of his family, joins a workers’ union. Although he was originally against the concept, first hand experience of factory life exposes Jurgis to the revolting environment and harsh treatment of employees which opens him up to the notion. Jurgis becomes a passionate member of the union who wears his membership button proudly and is tremendously motivated to advance workers’ rights. Eventually, after a series of tribulations, Jurgis joins the Socialist movement. In a particularly low moment of his life while living as a beggar, Jurgis is inspired by a speech he hears about Socialism. The speaker discusses his past obstacles that encourage him to strive toward a more powerful working class. Jurgis is rejuvenated in a way as he once again finds a cause worth fighting for. Jurgis feels the Socialists are genuinely dedicated to helping working class men like himself overcome the power of wealthy capitalists to in turn live better lives. Hence, he actively attends meetings and strives to convert others (Sinclair). Ultimately, Jurgis’s participation in the union and the Socialist movement demonstrates his endeavors to overcome the control of his oppressors. Through the union, he is determined to free workers from the power of immoral bosses who value profit over humanity. Those in high business positions are able to manipulate and abuse workers

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.

For many, the word “jungle” brings to mind a tropical overgrowth of dense vegetation and swooping, snake like vines, not the miserable, poverty-stricken Packingtown of industrial Chicago. However, in The Jungle, Upton Sinclair’s exposé of the meatpacking industry, many of the jungle’s primitive rules of survival govern the “urban jungle” of Chicago. Unaware of what they must do to survive, Jurgis and his family struggle to find the core values of the American dream that they naïvely believe in: acceptance, opportunity, hard work, and morality. Through their lives and surroundings, Sinclair displays how the occupants of Packingtown cast aside their moral values, in favor of greed, in order to survive.

Majority of the people in the novel are very dishonest because they are trying to make a living . Jack Duane was trying to make it by stealing . Jack is a safe cracker . He went with a easy way through life so at the end he gets caught . Jack was trying to get rich and have the American dream just like every other person . Jurgis in the beginning starts off as a honest man . He soon begins to see how everyone is dishonest and jumps over every one to get what they want . A lot of immigrants in Packingtown try to be honest they soon see it’s a tough life . As example Jurgis went to go break his hundred dollar bill and he gets robbed of his money . A lot of people saw how much people took advantage of the immigrants. Jurgis and his family saw all the decrease to the meatpacking industry. The spoiled meat would get turned into sausage . The people thought everything was fine because how it looked . Dishonest is in a lol of this novel but is found a lot in the meatpacking industry

A week after Ona gives birth, her bitter boss makes her return to work. She is very upset, and her health takes a turn for the worst. Though still working the family is stressed about making ends meet. Ona is forced into prostitution and raped by her boss. When Jurgis finds about about this, he is more than livid. Jurgis goes right to his face, and ends up brawling. The fight makes Jurgis go to jail, which he finds more enjoyable than being free due to the roof over his head and being fed well. While in jail, he begins making a friend who is extremely knowledgeable about the criminal underground. Jurgis saw the money to come with being a criminal, and saw it as the best way to provide for his struggling family. Hilldrup faces the same difficulty as Jurgis. He feels defeated, like he cannot prove himself, so he turns to money as a way of comfort, no matter the way he gets it. Yet, still no one wants to be apart of him at the end because he was a

and therefore it was easy for him to find a job. Together his family agrees to buy a house. Dismally, the sale was a deception and the house was run-down. The area the family lives in is filled with immigrants, crime and corruption. Their jobs are the lowest of the low and they are given no respect or sympathy by the middle or upper classes. "He has no wit to trace back the social crime to its far sources-he could not say that it is the thing men have called "the system" that is crushing him to the earth; that it is the packers, his masters, who has dealt their brutal will to him from the seat of justice”(The Jungle Ch 16). The men continually work in situations that risk their lives in order to help their families survive. Frustrated, Jurgis

People warn jurgis of the troubles he may face and the perils of working in the beef industry. He thinks if he just works hard hell make enough money and be successful. Life for jurgis quickly goes into a downward spiral as his family members such as Ona his beloved wife and their son Antanas die. Jurgis goes into a drunken fury he leaves the family, hops on a train and heads to the countryside. While in the countryside he becomes healthy again and as strong as he was when he had first arrived in packing town.

After going to a socialist party, Jurgis began to change his life again. He became a socialist and worked to help make people’s live better. Jurgis later became a citizen of the United States, and got involved in politics and attended union meetings. However, he still he gets cheated by a man in his job that told him what to do at the voting booth and marked the poll how the man explained to him to do it and then received money for that but later Jurgis learned that he had been exploited to one of the vote buying schemes. Jurgis and his family were cheated by company owner that did not pay them the right amount of money for the job they did instead that factory owner exploited them.