The book is centred around jurgis, a jejune lithuanian immigrant and his travails through this dreadful industry. The jungle, americas most influential proletarian novel, emerged from a sevenweek investigation of chicagos slaughterhouses. If the public still persisted in advocating for a law that would protect them from consuming potentially tainted meat products, even when faced with the doubtful realism of key aspects of the novel, such as its. Nov 19, 2014 the jungle by upton sinclair is a vivid and moving account of the meat processing and slaughtering industry in the early 1900s. An expose of the american meatpacking industry and the horrors. This packing list for the amazon jungle takes into account advice from rainforest expeditions, as well as the following.
Upton sinclair wrote the jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meatpacking industry. The jungle, a 1906 novel by upton sinclair, is full of graphic descriptions of the poor conditions workers and cattle endured in the chicago meatpacking industry. The author, upton sinclair, selling copies of the fig leaf edition of another of his muckraking novels, oil. New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars. While animals are a point of focus of this book, i wouldnt call slaughterhouse an animal rights or vegan work. The packing book reveals the secrets of packing efficiently, with timesaving tips, techniques, and technologies. This legislation put forth strict cleanliness requirements for meat packers and created the program of federal meat inspection still used today. This source also went indepth and gave details about the disgusting practices used in meatpacking industry. The jungle by upton sinclair student critique 1539 words 7 pages. An ardent activist, champion of political reform, novelist, and progressive journalist, upton sinclair is perhaps best known today forthe jungle his devastating expose of the meatpacking industry. Impact of sinclairs the jungle on food safety nprs melissa block speaks with morris dickstein of the city university of new york about upton sinclairs book the. Of the butchers and floorsmen, the beefboners and trimmers, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person. Jun 30, 2016 upton sinclair, whose muckraking changed the meat industry.
The horrors of the meatpacking industry theme in the jungle. The jungle by upton sinclair book summary minute book report. The federal governments dietary guidelines urge us to eat more fruits and vegetables and less cholesterolrich food that is, meat and dairy products. President theodore roosevelt signed two historic bills aimed at regulating the food and drug industries into. The meat packing industry grew with the construction of the railroads and methods of refrigeration for meat preservation. A protest novel he privately published in 1906, the book was a shocking revelation of intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the chicago stockyards.
Prohibition members of the womens christian temperance union fought for this cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and asking saloon keepers to stop selling alcohol. Born on september 20th, 1878, in baltimore, maryland, upton sinclair was a muckraker an american journalist or writer who sought out to initiate social and political reforms. Packing house conditions in the book there were many disturbing things that were said happened in the packing house. Conditions in meatpacking plants 1906, by upton sinclair. Working conditions in the new urban industrial zones were wretched, and a progressive reform movement soon grew out of the need to address the health and welfare of the american worker. Meat packing regulation gone virtually unmentioned in legal scholarship. Itll be hot and humid, with unpredictable rain showers. Excerpts from the jungle by upton sinclair 10 pointssection 1let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world.
During the summer the packing houses were in full activity again, and jurgis made more money. Railroads made possible the transport of stock to central points for processing, and the transport of products. Sinclair hoped the novel would awaken americans to the evils of capitalism. Disneys savvy marketing of the jungle book the new. Vivid and eyeopening novel concerning the exploitation and grinding poverty of workers in the chicago meatpacking factories of the 1920s. The jungle book mowglis brothers now rann the kite brings home the night that mang the bat sets free the herds are shut in byre and hut for loosed till dawn are we. The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock.
It is secondary because it was written by someone who wasnt alive during the publication of the jungle and it was published way later also. This paper will address american meat processing in the aftermath of upton sinclairs book the jungle. Vivid and eyeopening novel concerning the exploitation and grinding poverty of workers in the chicago meat packing factories of the 1920s. But because roosevelt distrusted its close ties to the meatpacking. Roosevelt invited sinclair to the white house, then ordered a federal investigation. The cattle yards that seems to go on forever, and a view of the packing plants in the distance. The jungle is a wellinformed critique on the social, political, and economic issues of the food industry and the rapidly developing capitalist society of the earl 20th century.
He told how dead rats were shoveled into sausagegrinding machines. The jungle is a novel by upton sinclair, published serially in 1905 and as a book in 1906. One of the main concerns of the meatpacking industry was the high number of illnesses that arose, among meatpackers and consumers. Dangers, tensions lurk in meatpacking industry nbc news. Start studying chapter 17 progressive era study guide. If a man were to arrive at work only a single minute late, he would be docked a whole hours pay.
He called it the jungle, filled it with page after page of nauseating detail he had researched about the meatpacking industry, and dropped it on an astonished nation in 1906. The books assertions were confirmed in the neillreynolds report, commissioned by president theodore roosevelt in 1906. The disgusting industry of meatpacking meat packing. Photographs from chicagos meatpacking industry, circa 1900. Upton sinclairs the jungle and the meatpacking industry. One of the main concerns of the meat packing industry was the high number of illnesses that arose, among meat packers and consumers.
As you read, youll be linked to summaries and detailed analysis of quotes and themes. Sinclairs book was so moving and troubling that it inspired the establishment of the food and drug administration, a federal agency that is to this day responsible for regulating. The jungle is a wellinformed critique on the social, political, and economic issues of the food industry and the rapidly developing. An example of the kind of housing in which the rudkus family probably found themselves in packingtown chicago, c. However, his fictional account of the meat packing industry was used by the meat packing industry itself to have the regulation scheme they had been lobbying for finally rammed through. You scarcely noticed it at firstit sunk into your consciousness. In 1906, upton sinclairs novel the jungle uncovered harrowing conditions inside americas meat packing plants and initiated a period of transformation in the nations meat industry. This edition also addresses new carryon security concerns and. This source also went indepth and gave details about the disgusting practices used in meat packing industry. Packing consultant judith gilford describes her famed bundle method step by step, so that every carryon hopeful can achieve wrinklefree, spacesaving perfection. What did the jungle reveal about the meatpacking industry. The general rule of thumb for packing clothes for the jungle is not to overpack, so ideally you take one set of clothes for the day and one for the night. In the books most famous passage, sinclair even wrote of laborers falling.
The jungle by upton sinclair is a vivid and moving account of the meat processing and slaughtering industry in the early 1900s. His novel, the jungle 1906, a shocking expose of the unsanitary and dangerous conditions in the plants, was an. About a month after the jungle was published, the white house started receiving 100 letters a day demanding a federal cleanup of the meat industry, alden whitman wrote in sinclairs obituary. Chapter 2 quotes all the sordid suggestions of the place were gonein the twilight it was a vision of power.
Conditions in meatpacking plants 1906, by upton sinclairthe explosive growth of american industry in the late nineteenth century caused a similar expansion in the work force. Upton sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from california. The fact that the jungle featured an unsympathetic protagonist and unbelievable characters didnt deter the reading public, who turned the book into a bestseller and whose outcry against the meat packing industrys low standards resulted in the 1906 pure food and drug act. Sinclairs book was so moving and troubling that it inspired the establishment of the food and drug administration, a federal agency that is to this day responsible for regulating and supervising the food, tobacco, dietary supplement, and pharmaceutical industries in the u. This greater part of the entire meat industry is primarily focused on producing meat for human consumption, but it also yields a variety of byproducts including hides, feathers, dried blood, and. Read the book in 1905, author upton sinclair published the novel titled the jungle, taking aim at the brutalization and exploitation of workers in a chicago meatpacking house. In 1906, sinclair wrote the jungle, which was a book to protest the meatpacking industry.
Slaughterhouse is a book about the other reality behind our demand for cheap meat, and lots of it. They were trying to save their souls and who but a fool could fail to see that all that was the matter with their. It is a sound, a sound made up of ten thousand little sounds. Roosevelt responded to this book by appointing a commission to investigate the meatpacking industry.
Upton sinclairs novel about immigrant workers in chicagos meatpacking plants shocked readers when it was first published in 1906. The publication of the jungle two years later caused a public uproarabout the widespread contamination of meat, not the mistreatment of meatpacking workers. As a result, the government would step in and pass legislation that protected consumers from consuming unsafe food. How upton sinclairs the jungle unintentionally spurred food. Meatpacking regulation gone virtually unmentioned in legal scholarship. Since sinclair was a socialist, his goal was to nationalize the whole market, not regulate it. The themetracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of the horrors of the meatpacking industry appears in each chapter of the jungle. The the jungle quotes below all refer to the symbol of packingtown. This year is the centennial of upton sinclairs novel, the jungle, the story of a lithuanian immigrant newly arrived to the united states who seeks work in chicagos gruesome meatpacking industry. There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside.
He called it the jungle, filled it with page after page of nauseating detail he had researched about the meat packing industry, and dropped it on an astonished nation in 1906. Workers did not practice good hygiene while working with raw meat, and were careless about the quality of the meat they were packing. Excerpts from the jungle by upton sinclair 10 points section 1let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world. The jungle, a 1906 novel by upton sinclair, is full of graphic descriptions of the poor conditions workers and cattle endured in the chicago meat packing industry. It is probably indisputable that upton sinclair s the jungle, the story of a lithuanian immigrant family confronting the brutality of chicagos meat racket, was the most influential novel of. Upton sinclairs the jungle constitutional rights foundation. An instant bestseller, sinclairs book reeked with the stink of the chicago stockyards.
Jan 16, 2012 men and women making sausages in one of the packing houses. If your clothes get wet during the day then you still have some dry clothes for the night. An ardent activist, champion of political reform, novelist, and progressive journalist, upton sinclair is perhaps best known today for the junglehis devastating expose of the meatpacking industry. Sinclair set the jungle in the meatpacking district and stockyards of. Remarkably, the book still seems applicable as social criticism 100 years later. The law was partly a response to the publication of upton sinclairs the jungle, an expose of the chicago meat packing industry, as well as to other progressive era muckraking publications of the day. While there are already hints that things are not well with this couple ona has to go to work the next day or else it will ruin us. It was the filthy conditions, described in nauseating detailand the threat they posed to meat consumersthat caused a public furor. What were the problems in meat packaging factories in the. Ill be in a boat 7 hours each way to get to and from the lodges. In upton sinclairs the jungle, how did the meat packing. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.
As in when rats were killed around the packing house they would be mixed in the sausage. This year is the centennial of upton sinclairs novel, the jungle, the story of a lithuanian immigrant newly arrived to the united states who seeks work in chicagos gruesome meat packing industry. May 12, 2016 the jungle exposed the horrors of the meatpacking industry. A century after upton sinclair published the jungle in 1906, the industry that produces the meat for america still faces some of the same tensions. A protest novel he privately published in 1906, the book was a shocking revelation of intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working. The jungle and the meat packing industry today ufcw. He did not make so much, however, as he had the previous summer, for the packers took on more hands. The jungle exposed the horrors of the meatpacking industry. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one. Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the united states in chicago and similar industrialized cities. It is true that the main character of the book at one point goes to work in a meat packing plant, and its disgusting, and when the book was published apparently.
He and his family live near the stockyards and meatpacking district where many immigrants, who do. Based on the novel by upton sinclair, this is a video of a possible movie trailer for the book. The book begins with his wife ona and his wedding feast. Nov 15, 2012 since sinclair was a socialist, his goal was to nationalize the whole market, not regulate it. Jan 14, 2014 upton sinclairs book the jungle shed light on the labor conditions in the chicago stockyards helping lead to labor reform and establish work standards that still are the bedrock for workplace safety today. The book the jungle was introduced as a novel by upton sinclair was financed and published with his own money. Although sinclair wrote the novel to expose the brutal exploitation of poor immigrant workers, the public reacted most.
This is a tragic story about a lithuanian family led by a man named jurgis and their trials in packingtowns meat packing industry. Jun 21, 2012 this packing list for the amazon jungle takes into account advice from rainforest expeditions, as well as the following. However, most readers were more concerned with several passages exposing health violations and unsanitary practices in the american m. Before the turn of the 20th century, a major reform movement had emerged in the united states. President theodore roosevelt signed two historic bills aimed at. His primary purpose in describing the meat industry and its working conditions was to advance socialism in the united states.
Upton sinclair, whose muckraking changed the meat industry. He wrote his first book, springtime and harvest, in 1901, which was a story of two lovers, inspired by his first unhappy marrige. The jungle is a 1906 novel by the american journalist and novelist upton sinclair. The treatment of workers in this book was appalling. In 1904, sinclair had spent seven weeks gathering information while working incognito in the meatpacking plants of the chicago stockyards for the newspaper. Apr 24, 2006 a century after upton sinclair published the jungle in 1906, the industry that produces the meat for america still faces some of the same tensions and troubles that the muckraking author exposed.
Researching the book in 1904, upton sinclair interviewed fellow socialists, settlement house officials, health inspectors, and the workers themselves, who smuggled him into meatpacking plants so he could view conditions firsthand. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Chapter 17 progressive era study guide flashcards quizlet. When upton sinclair set out to write his 1906 novel the jungle, he was. Get an answer for in upton sinclairs the jungle, how did the meat packing industry treat meat that smelled bad. The two are dancing at their wedding feast in chicagos meatpacking district, packingtown. Five months after sinclair published his book, the jungle, president theodore roosevelt signed the meat inspection act and the pure food and drug act into law. This is the hour of pride and power, talon and tush and claw. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in the jungle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The jungle revealed the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry.