...The Jungle The story begins with the traditional Lithuanian wedding of Jurgis and his sixteen year old bride, Ona. The wedding is one that they can barely afford, and sets the backdrop for the changes that they are just beginning to encounter in their new country. Immigrants with peasant backgrounds had begun to arrive in the United States during the late 1890's from places such as Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Lithuania . These people were ill equipped to deal with the harsh realities of urban living in America at the time. In his book Sinclair shows how capitalism creates pressures that undermine the traditional family life, cultural ties, and moral values that these immigrants had brought with them. With "literally not a month's wages between them and starvation" workingmen are under pressure to abandon their families, woman must sometimes choose between starvation and prostitution. Children are forced to work rather then attend school, just to keep starvation away for one more day. The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901, and for over a decade after that saw enormous growth, by 1912 they had over 1,200 elected public officials in the country, and during the election of that year had very good election results by their candidate Eugene Debs for President (Dickstein). The growth of the Socialist movement primarily took place in the vast heartland of the United States, as it was undergoing the strains of industrialization. The roots of this movement were based...
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...can't afford to pay for legal representation, or prejudice against certain ethnic groups in the legal system, Upton Sinclair shows the...
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...Upton Sinclair is well known for saying of his novel The Jungle, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” Written to expose exploitation of immigrants and child labor, it instead resulted in a national outcry over the condition of its own food supply, leading to a number of reforms to improve the supervision and standard of meat packing and food processing prior to reaching the consumer. However, there continue to be consumer concerns today – some more unfounded than others – regarding the safety and quality of food available for mass production and consumption. Though the specifics – ingestion of nitrates and antibiotics versus potato flour – may differ by time period, some root concerns such as purity and...
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