...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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...Piyarat Siripoksup HIS 17B Paper I October 23 2014 The rise of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century created many new industries, improved the economy, and made the United States a top destination for immigrants. Consequently, industrialization led to the exploitation of the working class and the rise of the socialism1. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair illustrated the fate of immigrants in Chicago in the meatpacking industry, the harsh realities of life in the city, and the truth about opportunity in America as a result of capitalism. Through vivid imagery, metaphors, and symbolism, Sinclair described the horrors of industrial capitalism through the portrayal of the poor working and living conditions and annihilation of the Rudkus...
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...national expansion in the U.S. Bryan also, like the cowardly lion who “watches over and protects the smaller animals in ‘a grand old forest’” (p. 49) Bryan only had political power over lesser politicians. 3. In the essay “She Couldn’t Have Done It,” how did Lizzie Borden’s gender and social standing influence the way she was treated by authorities? Lizzie Borden had a large amount of money meaning she probably had a good lawyer. In the Borden’s trial the jury ruled her out as the murderer due to her lack of size, height, and weight. Also, in 1892 “women were merely large babies” (page 55) meaning that women did not have the mental capacity to plot murder, and set out to kill people. 4. In the essay, “Living and Dying in Packingtown,” what reaction did Upton Sinclair hope to achieve with his muckraking? Upton Sinclair wanted nothing but to reveal the inhumanity of...
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...When the public read about all the problems that Sinclair portrayed in the novel, they went directly to the White House, wanting a reform in the food and labor industry. The current President, Theodore Roosevelt, invited Sinclair to the White House to discuss that matters that he addressed in his novel. After this meeting, Roosevelt ordered a special commission to search the slaughterhouses in Chicago. The commission took place in May 1906 and confirmed the horrors of the novel. For example, the commissioners witnessed workers take unclean carcasses and put them on the assembly line. They also criticized the meat-inspection laws that were in place, which only required the health of the animal to be confirmed at the time of slaughter. They saw a need for inspection at every stage of meat processing and rules that should require animal products to be wholesome and clean. After the commissioners’ report, President Roosevelt realized the food industry was in need of a dire change. He said to Congress that “a law is needed which will enable the inspectors of the [Federal] Government to inspect and supervise from the hoof to the can the preparation of the meat food product." Despite opposition from the big...
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...In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair describes the horrors of living in a capitalist society to make a compelling argument for socialism. Capitalism is where people compete to be higher than another. It is based on making a profit individually. Whereas Socialism is where things are discussed to meet everyones needs. In The Jungle, Sinclair uses examples of the living and working conditions, unfair wages, and the selfish people who trick the poor out of their money to show how capitalism is bad. The living and working conditions were not healthy or sanitary because the American corporations could afford to slack off on their responsibilities. The houses and working places were not being monitored by the state. Jurgis and his family were “foreign” to New York, and only heard good things of it. When they moved there, the living conditions were as bad, if not worse than where they came from. Jurgis and is family are forced to live in crowded boarding houses which had been built on land that was once a dump. Multiple families live together in crowded rooms in order the pay the high rents. They are easily swindled because of their naivety. Children have no place to play and end up playing in the dumps. The working conditions are also terrible. Jurgis works for a meat packing company and they are many workers hurt on the job. On top of that, the company is so unsanitary that some people died from these horrible conditions. Another terrible thing that goes on in the meat packing company...
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...the crack of dawn, go to work, come home at sundown, then do it all again the next day. Soon, months have passed without change. There is no time to play or spend it with family. Every second is spent on work and sleep. There can be nothing else but work, for without it one cannot survive. Work or die. Sinclair uses his story as an attempt to change horrible conditions workers face every day. Chicago is a jungle full of predators and prey; one must work and kill or be killed and forgotten. Though his story was compelling, Upton Sinclair ultimately fails to change people’s views on the unethical treatment of industrial workers at first. His use of underdeveloped characters and vivid descriptions allow readers to see the true horror and cost of the American Dream. This eye opener novel eventually helped pave the way for brighter, more safe working environments for people across the...
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...1906 and the Meat Inspection Act. Both laws complimented each other by strengthening and creating new and existing regulations for food additives and how they are labeled. This law later resulted in the formation of the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which is still active today (Constitutional Rights Foundation). In the end, Sinclair did not like the way the law’s regulations were approached. Staying true to his socialist views, he preferred the industries to stay city-owned instead of invasive government control. “He intended that the readers of The Jungle would distinguish that the horrors portrayed in his book were the result of corporate greed and that the meatpacking industry was merely a small part of capitalism—that the jungle was actually industrial capitalism” (Gilder Lehrman Indtitute). Sinclair stated: “The place which is here called The Jungle is not Packingtown, nor is it Chicago, nor is it Illinois, nor is it the United States—it is Civilization.” To Sinclair’s dismay, most readers simply to ignored his Socialist propaganda and only saw how awful the meat packing industry truly was. The gruesome realities that were once locked behind closed doors are now open. And although Upton Sinclair’s novel created anarchy in the meat packing industry, the uproar it caused led to many advancements in the safety and health of the food systems we have today. Sinclair’s first day in Chicago, he was said to have announced “I am Upton Sinclair, and I have come to...
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...for lectures and to illustrate pamphlets, magazine articles, and exhibitions. Through his photographs, Hine was able to inspire social change. His photos documenting the horrid conditions under which children were employed, made real the plight of these children” (Avilés). These photos gave a clear, non-argumentative picture of what was really going on in these working environments. They provided faces to the problem. By the 20th century, after the Supreme Court blocked the first attempt, laws were put into place to prevent child labor (Hansan). By the early 1900s, there were four main corporations representing the meat industry in the United States. The biggest was called ‘Packingtown,’ and was located in Chicago. Upton Sinclair, a socialist, was prompted by the workers’ strikes against Packingtown to write a book about the quality of life of the workers. It was about a fictional immigrant who came to Chicago to work in the meatpacking business ("Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry"). Sinclair’s writing painted a picture that was just as effective as a photograph: [T]he meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be...
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...Throughout this paper, I will be discussing about the meat packing industry during the 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...
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...be, an exposure of the negative effects of a capitalist society on the impoverished citizens, was Sinclair’s indictment a fair assessment. The novel The Jungle, follows the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his new family as they move to America in search of the wealth that they cannot get in Lithuania. They move to the states are quickly introduced to the hardships of poor immigrants in the United States. Somehow they make it to Chicago and find jobs in Packingtown. Jurgis found a job in the killing-beds in the slaughter houses in Chicago. The family tried to find jobs, buy a house, and live the life in America that they were told about. Sadly things start to fall apart when they start losing their jobs. Young Stanislovas loses some fingers due to being forced out into the harsh winter to walk to work, and Ona loses her life dying during the birth of her second child. The novel follows Jurgis as he comes over to America with big dreams, the will to work, and a family of provide for. Throughout the novel Jurgis begins to see the horrors of living in America as a poor immigrant, that maybe the things he was told back in Lithuania was a lie. By the end of the novel, Jurgis was broken and beaten before joining the Socialist party in Chicago. Jurgis’ plight is the plight of all poor immigrant of the time. Looking for jobs that just pay enough for them to scrape by and their exposure to poor working and living conditions threatened their lives every day and every night. The main objective...
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...power…it seemed a dream of wonder…employment for thousands upon thousands of men, of opportunity and freedom, of life and love and joy” (Sinclair 36). They would remain optimistic as Jurgis and other family members focused on getting jobs. They strive for happiness, but in the words of Freud, “…all the regulations of the universe run counter to it. One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be ‘happy’ is not included in the plan of ‘Creation’ (Freud 25). Jurgis beliefs: ambition, honesty, hard work and virtue are tested and tried on a daily basis. Instead of being the land of opportunity, it proved to be a land of opportunists who preyed on Jurgis, his immigrant family and the thousands like them who sought security in Packingtown. To achieve material success in even small ways, like getting a job, meant giving in to the “graft”, as several of the family members do when they pay someone in power for the privilege of a job. Freud claimed man thinks his neighbors are someone to “…satisfy their aggressiveness on… [And] exploit his capacity for work without compensation “(Freud 69). In the early twentieth century Chicago is filled with corruption and lawlessness, a society of people so desperate to get a leg up they take advantage of each other coldly, without a governing cultural super-ego to keep their behaviors in check. It is survival of the fittest mentality, profits before people; check your values and morals at the door. But Jurgis, an honest, hardworking man...
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...Harvey Wiley, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Federal Regulation of Food and Drugs By Anthony Gaughan Food and Drug Law Mr. Peter Barton Hutt Harvard Law School Winter 2004 Introduction In 1906 Congress passed two landmark pieces of legislation: the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The acts emerged from the reformist ethos of the Progressive Era, a time when the federal government took on a new and much more active role in the everyday lives of ordinary Americans. Of all the laws passed during the Progressive Era, no legislation proved more successful and more enduring than the 1906 food and drug legislation. The acts established the foundations of modern American food and drug law, and gave birth to the Food and Drug Administration. For the first time, the federal government assumed permanent and comprehensive responsibility for the health and safety of the American food and drug supply. Although the statutes have been revised many times since 1906, the essence of modern food and drug law remains consistent with the principles of federal responsibility for consumer safety that underlay the first statutes a century ago. The passage of the 1906 food and drug legislation stemmed from the actions of many people across the political landscape, ranging from Senator Albert Beveridge to socialist writer Upton Sinclair. But no indi- 1 viduals played a larger public role in the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act than Theodore...
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