Has anyone read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair?

Question

Please don't spoil the book for me. I just want your opinions on the age of reform after/ during the Industrial Revolution. What are your thoughts on the past meat packaging industry? Thanks :)

Answer 1

Simply put workers were exploited by any means possible. The book does a good job of describing how horrible the conditions were for the people who were anywhere close to the meat packing industry during that time period.

Answer 2

I hope you have a strong stomach, because Upton Sinclair pulled no punches and in no way tried to minimize the squalid conditions.

While it exposed the sanitation--or more aptly the lack thereof--in the meat-packing industry, it also at the same time told a story of how hard life often was for immigrants, and how their ideals of a better life in America often shipwrecked on reality. However, it also acknowledges the sacrifices that these people made in order to make a better life for their children in spite of the conditions under which they themselves lived.

Among the secondary subjects of the novel are crime, prostitution, alcohol abuse, and other social problems of the time.

It's a brilliant work of fiction based on facts that were all too real, and one of the "muckraking" works of the early 20th century. These books and articles are invaluable for the light they shed on the conditions in various industries and how people, especially the poor and the newcomers, lived day to day.

Answer 3

Exposing the sanitation lapses in the meat packing industry changed the way that food was processed as well as the treatment of workers.

Prior to the publication of the book most people had no idea how unsanitary conditions were in the meat packing plants. When they were exposed the public demanded change and from that change came the establishment of the FDA.

Other worker reform came from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the photos of Jacob Riis in his work How the other half lives.

Answer 4

Yes - the meat industry was dangerous for the employees and the consumer

Answer 5

all of that was true upton sinclair worked there and dont worry aboyut it now there are random inspections all the time on the meat thats shipped out of there

Answer 6

can not say that I actually have, yet I do help unions. they are between the few procedures a popular student in college can bypass on to achieve fulfillment... with out college, with out going into debt for the subsequent decade or so. i have worked for each thing I actually have, and f*ck all and sundry that asserts i do not deserve it.