Meat-Packing Industry In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a book about meat production, and so much more. The Jungle follows the fictional story of Jurgis Rudkus' family, who are Lithuanian immigrants trying to make a living in Chicago. Throughout the book they are exposed to the nauseating work conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industries, corrupt politicians, and many more challenges. Jurgis constantly faces the problems that the American capitalist society has brought upon him and at the end of the book he is convinced that socialism is the solution. The focus that Sinclair wrote for this book is the reveal of the meat packing industry. Since this book was such a big hit for readers and Sinclair, this novel made him famous and still till this day this particular book is read through all history and english classes around the world. This novel will continue to be a historical …show more content…
What I mean by everything that the workers did to the animals, is how in the novel every specific thing they did to the pigs is told by Jurgis perspective. For example, “Neither squeals of hogs nor tears of visitors made any difference to them; one by one they hooked up the hogs, and one by one with the swift stroke they slit their throats” (page 29). This is explaining how bad the meat packing industry jobs really where, and how badly they treated the hogs or pigs. Another example, is “one scaped the outside of a leg; another scraped the inside of the same leg. One with a swift stroke cut the throat; another with two swift strokes severed the head, which fell to the floor and vanished through a hole. Another made a slit down the body; a second opened the body wider; a third with a saw cut the breastbone…” (page 30). All of this is explaining how Jurgis saw everything the workers did and how he found it in some ways