...Impacts of The Jungle on American Society As Judith Lewis Herman exhorted in her novel, Trauma and Recovery, "The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness” (“Trauma and Recovery Quotes”). However, a nationwide nerve was struck when the grotesque meat- packing industry was revealed by Upton Sinclair. He blazoned to Americans across the country the lurid details of the industry though his novel, The Jungle, a novel which changed American history. [This scathing review on the meat packing industry with socialist undertones brought an advent of great social and legal change to the United States.] With its stunning entrance into American literature in 1906, The Jungle created an uproar that has endured over a century since its publication. Upton Sinclair was an ardent proponent of socialism in America and yearned to reform the ailing country (Fogel). His novel was produced as a metaphor, comparing a jungle directly to the corrupt meat packing industry based in Chicago. Sinclair sought to expose the unknown atrocities hidden in the meat packing industry, which was not forced to obey any form of regulation (Shafer). Sinclair wrote that, “It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory” (Sinclair 56). This fictional piece of literature brought America to a screeching halt. Never before had such a bold statement been made about an industry that affected almost every single American. Upton’s...
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...epitomizes the immigrant success story. While Carnegie was a firm believer in the importance of philanthropy and the potential of the laboring class, the rise of business and industry created a widening gap between the rich in the poor by the late nineteenth century. This discrepancy of wealth and unjust activity within business and political enterprises became commonly discussed in writings of the day. Over the course of seven weeks in 1904, journalist Upton Sinclair entered Chicago’s meatpacking industry and...
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...as one of the five classifications with the highest injury rates (Sparks Companies, 1999). Now almost forty years later the industry is still considered one of the most dangerous. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the meat and meat products industry had the nation’s highest industrial injury for the five consecutive years from 1980 to 1985 (U.S. Department of Labor, 1988). Much the same as it was in 1943 (Horowitz, 2008). It was into this arena that Human Rights Watch decided to step. On its website Human Rights Watch describes itself as an independent organization dedicated to protecting human rights by exposing violations and trying to end abuses (Human Rights Watch, N.D.). Their 2005 study of three American meat packing plants revealed what they claim to be unsafe working conditions; intimidation of union organizers; denial of worker’s compensation claims for on the job injuries; and the exploitation of worker’ immigrations status to prevent complaints (Gonzalez, 2005). As a result of their investigation Human Rights Watch (2005) arrived at...
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...The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was one of the few works of art in American history to have a massive and important impact on society. Sinclair was part of an era when people witnessed all that was wrong and corrupt in business and politics, they stood up against it. The Jungle was criticizing the wage of the working people. Upton Sinclair revels intense representations of the shocking lack of hygiene involved in the labor field such as the meatpacking industry in Chicago. After this was exposed it resulted in public outrage to the point where the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act was passed by congress. The Jungle became part of the era when the industry was quickly progressing and millions of immigrants moved to the...
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...Sinclair wrote The Jungle with hopes to achieve better working conditions all around the United States, but also to show the corruption and evil that come with capitalism. His book was an instant best seller and caused massive reform of the meatpacking industry, however, this reform was focused on health concerns rather than concerns for the workers. “‘I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach,’ he said.” (BLACKWELL) Living and Dying in Packingtown, Chicago opens into the struggles of life at home for immigrant family with the painful death of their child, Kristoforas, who had eaten some tubercular beef which was unfit for export. The family could not afford a grave so the mother, Elzbieta, went in tears to beg from their local neighbors for a proper burial. This opening brings the reader instantly into the situation this family is in and what dire state of poverty they faced. Jurgis, having no job and a family to feed, went to the dreaded fertilizer plants which were talked about mostly in feared rumor. “Few visitors ever saw them, and the few who did would come out looking like Dante, of whom the peasants declared that he had been into hell.” (p. 74) Only the desperate resort to working at the fertilizer plants which was where all the “tankage” and waste products were sent to be used. In these cellars, there was no natural light and the air was filled with suffocating fertilizer dust. Despite breathing through a handkerchief, entering would cause...
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...of thick, brightly colored plants and trees containing various types of animals. However, the book The Jungle is a novel written by the American journalist and muckraker Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to expose the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the meatpacking industry of Chicago. So how do the two relate? The novel's title symbolizes the competitive nature of capitalism. The life of living in Packingtown is like living in a jungle, in which the strong prey on the weak and all living things are engaged in a violent, brutal fight for survival. In the book, you only see the use of the word "jungle" once. This being when Jurgis has been drinking and decides to sleep with a prostitute. The novel also seems to compare Jurgis' sexual desire to that of a beast in the jungle. Therefore associating jungles with uncontrolled desires. This being said, the awful conditions of the workers in Packingtown are the result of the uncontrollable human desire for money. The Jungle is about bringing to light human greed and the social damage it does. The images of "beasts" that live in the jungle also depicts violence and brutality – another huge theme of Sinclair's analysis of life in Packingtown. Sinclair describes capitalism as destructive because he shows it...
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...In the 1900s , meat industry workers worked in awful conditions . A muckraker named Upton Sinclair exposed the meat industry in his book “ The Jungle “ . A muckraker is someone who seeks out the secrets of business or scandel and exposes them for the public to see . Sinclair himself was a writer . The meat produced in the plants was extremely unsanitary . When they first read it , the public was absolutely horrified . In the slaughterhouses , there would be meat that had tumbled onto the floor , in dirt and sawdust , and had billions of germs on it . When it rained , water would fall onto it through cracks in the ceiling . Rats would often gather round the meat , and the meat itself was often covered in rat waste . Dead rats would be thrown...
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...The meatpacking industry has changed over the years, for good, and then back to bad. Prior to the 1920s, meatpacking plants were one of the worst places to work and served gruesome meat. Once Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, people started to take notice of the horrible conditions that the meatpacking industry had. President Roosevelt even sent out a representative to see if the conditions were really that bad, and he reported back that some of the conditions were even worse than Sinclair had described. Sinclair had written in The Jungle a list of practices that would be used in the plant: “The routine slaughter of diseased animals, the use of chemicals such as borax and glycerine to disguise the smell of spoiled beef, the deliberate mislabeling of canned meat, the tendency of workers to urinate and defecate on the kill floor” (Schlosser 204). Recalling meat back then was never a thought in these companies’ minds. Whatever way made the most money was the practice they...
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...remain at the mercy of their employers. The efforts, if they can be called that, amount to for the most part, empty suggestions when actions are long overdue. The early sixties found the meat packing industry cutting wages in half and dropping many benefits. Unions no longer had the hold needed to protect the worker. Workers were for the most part immigrants from Mexico who accepted the meatpackers’ low wages and tried to successfully keep pace with the high speed operation of which the industry demanded. More and faster production left workers extremely vulnerable to an industry already fraught with accidents. Kutalik called it a “meaner industry.” Crisis was inevitable as the meatpacking industry restructured, closing old, union controlled, urban plants while setting up newer non-union plants and recruiting cheap immigrant labor. With the rise of the fast food business and the population explosion following World War II, there were demands for more and more meat products. Opportunists in the meat packing business took...
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...Eric Schlosser recounts one slaughterhouse employee’s experience in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal more than any other -- Kenny Dobbins’s. Dobbins endured multiple traumatic tragedies at the expense of loyalty to his employer, Monfort Meatpacking. He was dealt with notorious injustice. The meatpacking industry is infamously oppressive and abusive. Everyday, workers without proper training are being engaged in dangerous factories and are being critically injured. They are treated inhumanely as if they are disposable. In this non-fictional book, Schlosser uses Dobbins as an example of the extreme maltreatment of meatpacking employees, promoting the notion that the fast food industry is corrupt. Dobbins had a tough childhood, having had an abusive step-father and left home at thirteen years old. He was illiterate, getting by on various odd jobs, and he wound up at the Monfort...
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...economic, and political problems. Eventually, the social reformers were successful, because of the changes brought to the workplace and the betterment of living conditions in large cities. During the early 1890’s, many companies had poor working conditions. These included long workdays, child labor, and no payment for injuries on the job. Social reformers used muckraking, or digging up scandalous information, to put the word out about these issues. One famous muckraker was Upton Sinclair, writer for the Chicago Tribune and author of The Jungle. His works, particularly The Jungle exposed the terrible working conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago. This novel upset many, as it portrayed the awful lives of the men who worked at the plants. In addition to this revealing novel, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire also occurred. This fire was caused by smoking within the factory, and caused the deaths of many women, as the door was locked and the fire escape was blocked. This tragic event was an eye opener, and caused many reforms in the way workers must be treated. For example, the Adamson Act limited the workday to only eight hours. This was also made law by Holden vs. Hardy, while a law was passed in Oregon stating women could work only eight hours a day. During this time, the Bureau of Labor Children’s Bureau was formed, and child labor was outlawed by the Keating- Owen Act. Though this bill was eventually repealed, it set an important precedent for child labor. Another...
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...Industrial Revolution in the late 19th to 29th century. I would like to expand on the environmental consequences of the meat packing industry, the cruel treatment of the workers, and the epidemic diseases that occurred due to the unsanitary environment of the industries. The meat packing industry was a ground turning point of U.S history, which symbolized meat as a symbol of man’s conquest over nature and the environment. Meatpacking industries were largely concentrated in large cities such as Chicago, New York, Ohio, and Kansas City. The big four companies were known as the Armour, Swift, Morris, and National Packing companies. Live animals would be shipped via railroads and sent directly to the factories in the city, ready to be sliced and prepared. This was during the Industrial Revolution , a time when powerful monopolies and companies took control of U.S.: Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, including meat packing industry. Cincinnati, Ohio originally was the center of the meat processing industry. Environmentally, the industry gained benefits due to the plants located near the Ohio River, allowing easy transport of goods. However, Chicago replaced Cincinnati and demonstrated new unique advantages with the emergence of refrigerated railroad cars, allowing convenient transportation facilities throughout different cities. Despite the fact that the exterior of meat packing industries seemed powerful and rich, the true interior revealed grueling shady harsh atmosphere. It revealed how...
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...Introduction According to the Human Rights Watch, “the meat packing industry is considered as the most dangerous job factory job in America.” (Human Rights Watch, 2005). People employed in slaughterhouses are exposed many types of hazards on a daily basis that can jeopardize their health. Since the 1900s, there has been a significant incline in the demand for meat within the United States, which requires more people to work in production. (2013). A majority of these employees are classified as being a minority, having low socioeconomic status, and living in poverty. The conditions of these slaughterhouses are hazardous and dangerous and many employees are prone to exposure to more diseases due to the high rate of unsanitary factors such as animal bodily fluid on floors, hooks, walls, and tools. Injuries often occur in this work environment are due to quick speeds of the process lines and the amount of time employees are given to slaughter each animal. (Food Empowerment Project, 2014). These employees are also vastly underpaid. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “In May 2012, the median annual wage for slaughterers and meat packers was $24,330. The median annual wage for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers was $22,830 in May 2012.” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). These people endanger their lives every day due to the high volume of work, extended hours, and contact with biological, physical, and chemical agents. This environmental injustice raises...
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...Emily Andes Mr. Hardy AP English 3 Period 2 Literary Analysis Essay The Jungle and Fast Food Nation have become two worldwide known books for exposing the meat industry, and both were able to change the viewpoints of many people on what they eat. With the meat sales sky rocketing since 1961, our society can thank the inspections and production side of the meat industry. The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was one of the first books to uncover the gruesome side of the meat packing factories. With this book the world was introduced to the exposed side of the meat factories in unsanitary conditions. Of course, Sinclair’s intention was not to write The Jungle in an effort to unveil the dirty side to the meat packing factories, but it was intended to be a love story between a young couple immigrating from Lithuania to the United States. Along with The Jungle is Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The statistical side of this book was also intended to expose the meat industry but by humiliating fast food restaurants and where their meat products were coming from. People were appalled by the facts this book gave, and they began having new perspectives on fast food. Overall, Fast Food Nation appeals to readers’ senses of ethos pathos and logos then The Jungle does. First of all, Schlosser does a much better job of convincing people to change their views on fast food products and all meat products in general. His diction choices are pedantic and factual, his details become emotional...
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...manufactures needed to come up with a way to preserve this food while it is on the long route to get to the cities. They began to hire chemists to find ways to preserve the food, because there were not many laws that dealt with the distribution and preparation of food products they were able to put preservatives in the food. However, if the meat spoiled they would also put a dye in it to make the color back to normal and would sell the spoiled meat. The meat packing industry was one of the worst. The meat was often prepared from diseased animals and shoveled around on dirty floors without being cleaned or sanitized. The tables they cut the meat on were rarely cleaned and often dirty. Upton Sinclair knew about the disgusting ways that the meatpacking industry was producing their meat and he wrote the novel The Jungle which showed the public what was in their...
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