Preview

Harsh And Inhumane Living Conditions In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
84 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Harsh And Inhumane Living Conditions In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
The Jungle was an 1906 novel written by author Upton Sinclair. The book was wrote to help portray all the harsh and inhumane living conditions. It also exploited to unsanitary conditions of the meat factories and meat packing industries
During the Progressive Era journalism and photography was a growing trend in the workforce. It was the name given to investigative journalist looking to dig up scandalous information on famous or local people. Men like S.S McClure sought out to expose major corporations and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    What kind of family would want to leave behind everything, and move to a strange far away city, that they almost know nothing about? Now just hold on a second, it might seem cool to move to a new exciting place, but that’s not the case for the Rudkus household. To them, Jurgis, Ona, and Marija, it was indeed exciting moving to Chicago in the late 1800’s, to have a chance to. They soon find out that Chicago is making things hard to make a better living, than back in Lithuania were they used to live. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, describes how alcoholism, poverty, and people in positions of authority had a negative impact on the lives of immigrants.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In February 1906, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group published the novel called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This novel exposed the plight of immigrants working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. It depicted the severe working conditions of the meatpacking industries employees in Chicago and also described the unsanitary factory conditions that they had to work through during a daily basis. For example, some of the unacceptable conditions that were described were the mislabeled canned meats, meat supplies contaminated by human remains, thousands of rats, and water from leaky roofs dripping over the meat. This is just one of many horrific conditions that were going on in Chicago. All of these alarming conditions…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “How the Other Half Lives” targeted the minds of wealthy citizens as a way to get them to open their eyes to what others just like them were forced to live through. Jacob Riis pointed out that there were single family dwellings that shared side walls with other houses, they were called tenements and were overcrowded and unsanitary. Riis was able to project a very concerned tone and empathize with the people that suffered with poverty, because he too himself knows what it feels like to experience such an battle. Through the pictures in his book, America was able to see what little the government did to help financially unstable people. Riis along with fellow muckrakers Upton Sinclair with his novel “The Jungle” which shed light on disgusting and filthy conditions surrounding the production of food products, and Jane Addams who created the Hull Houses as a way to provide…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many corruptions during late 19th century to early 20th centuries, such as political corruption, law corruption, social corruption and economic corruption. In this book, Sinclair uses one event to show the law corruption and economic corruption. When Jurgis finds out One was raped by her boss, Connor, he was extremely angry so he beats Connor. In the court, the judge only listens to what Connor said and he doesn’t care about Jurgis’s explanation (97). As a result, Jurgis needs to stay in jail for thirty days, but Connor doesn’t get any punishment at all even though his sin is more serious than Jurgis. Both of Jurgis and Connor are guilty, but the law doesn’t apply to upper-class people. Sinclair uses this event to show us the legal…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upton Sinclair had always insisted that The Jungle was misread but did he ever think it could have been miswritten? The style of writing is not effective when addressing issues in a capitalistic society but proves to be very effective when exposing the secrets of the meatpacking industry. The novel is not remembered for being a classic work in literature but rather an important book in history in that it changed the way America looked at food in the early part of the century.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The title of this book is called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The length of this book is thirty-six chapters, the uncensored edition marking it three hundred and thirty-five pages long. Originally published on February 26,1906, the uncensored issue was published in 2003 over eighty years later. This book was about a young man and women have migrated from Lithuania to Chicago in search for a better life. They soon learn that in Packingtown, the center of Lithuania has no jobs available and the conditions are rough. In the process of their wedding arrangements Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite they come to an understanding that they are in more than hundred dollars in debt to the saloonkeeper. Everyone ends up having to look for a job because…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair, and it first appeared in a Socialist newspaper. It has become a classic not only for the heart-rending story in the pages, but because of deeper social and political commentary within it. It tells a sad story of the harsh realities that awaited many immigrants as they came over to America in the early 1900’s. It is not known how much of this is based on truth, and how much was for an entertaining aspect or to hook the reader. At the time of the story America was blooming and industrializing. It was becoming the talk of the world, and many foreigners were coming over with…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book The Jungle was introduced as a novel by Upton Sinclair was financed and published with his own money. Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California. He was born on 20 September 1878 in Baltimore Md. He was the only child of Priscilla Harden and Upton Beall Sinclair. Upton Sinclair’s childhood was lived in poverty, one where his father was an alcoholic, his job as an alcohol salesman most likely contributed to his disease. And although his own family was extremely poor, he spent periods of time living with his wealthy grandparents. By living from one end of the extreme to the other he argued that this is what turned him into a socialist.1…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair takes the reader on a journey through the inadequate factory conditions throughout the industrial revolution. The Jungle introduced us to the the Rudkus family, with the father (Jurgis) being the main character of the book. Upton Sinclair uses this family to show how extremely terrible the environment was for new immigrants into America. As the story begins to unravel Upton becomes frustrated with the capitalist society; He had been cheated plenty of times out of work and medical care. With two people in his family who has already passed (due to environmental conditions), the climax of the story begins when young Antana’s dies in Chapter 21, he then realizes just how much capitalism is destroying his family and…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some people view capitalism as an evil form of government, and favor Socialism. One of these people being Upton Sinclair, author of the novel The Jungle. In the novel The Jungle, Upton Sinclair illustrates capitalism as evil and goes out of his way to show how awful a capitalist country can be. He writes about a Lithuanian family who comes to America in hopes of a better life, but their dreams are soon crushed by the reality of the countries capitalist ways. As soon as the family arrives to Packingtown, Chicago they realize how awful the living and working conditions are. The main characters, Jurgis and Ona get married and have a child. One of the family members, Marija, even begins prostituting to help support the family.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Jungle Book is a book written by Rudyard Kipling. This book tells a story about animals and people living together in the jungle. It takes place in India where a baby boy is raised by a pack of wolves that found him alone in the jungle. In this story there are many different animals that help teach Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves, all the ways of living in the jungle.…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jungle, an enticing novel that comments on the poor conditions for the workers and products in the meatpacking industry. The main character, Jurgis, goes through many hardships throughout his life like, the death of his wife and two children, losing his jobs many times and being injured and screwed over. He slowly loses his idealistic “American Dream” state of mind. Many of Jugis’ problems have something to do with the greed and corruption of others. When looking through the psychological lens, it becomes apparent that Upton Sinclair does not believe that capitalism and the “American Dream” can coincide.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair has a plot like no other; the book is unique and teaches many how The Jungle got its name. The Jungle is a story on how two “soon to be” newlyweds and their families move to Chicago to seek opportunity at a new and better life than what they had in Lithuania. The main character Jurgis embarks on the journey to find a job to support his family while every man and their…

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The industrial revolution of the 1800's had a dramatic effect on economic and social life around the world. The industrialization economy shifted from agricultural to manufacturing as the logical corollary of technological advancements and efficient energy production. Factories could produce rapidly, which meant prices greatly decreased. Immigrants came in large numbers in hopes of starting new lives, but most encountered harsh working conditions accompanied by a few rights. In 1906 Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a novel about the meat packing industry; this novel describes the horrors of a young immigrant named Jurgis Rudkus who came to America seeking freedom and opportunity, yet he was met with poverty and dangerous working environments…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This was a crucial step towards ensuring the safety and quality of food and drugs for the American public since the 1900’s. Furthermore, unsanitary working conditions in meat factories were very common in the 1900’s, but soon changed after journalists exposed these conditions. The Jungle was a novel written by Upton Sinclair in 1906. He was a muckraker, a journalist who exposed corruption in the U.S. Siclair exposed the unsanitary meat packing conditions in Chicago slaughterhouses. It exposed the harsh realities faced by workers and the lack of proper food safety…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays