Many facets of Upton Sinclair’s book relate and portray different parts of the meatpacking industry. Many believe the title itself relates back to the cruelty seen in the business. The story follows a man named Jurgis who had recently moved from Lithuania to a Chicago suburb, called Packingtown in reference to Chicago’s meatpacking district in the early 1900s. With him, Jurgis brought eleven of his family members, including his father, his young wife named Ona, and Ona’s stepmother, step-uncle, cousin and six of her stepbrothers and sisters. This aspect of the story relates to the actual strike because the majority of the packing plant’s workers were immigrants. They would get a cheap four-bedroom house together that they could barely afford.
…show more content…
Many sections in the book, where Upton focused on the germ-ridden environment or the filthy food processes, made people question the food produced by the company. For example, one excerpt …show more content…
To resolve the hysteria, Sinclair was invited to the White House to discuss the conditions with President Roosevelt. Roosevelt then commissioned an investigation into the meatpacking plants. Later found that most of Sinclair’s claims were true and laws were made to change the food quality. On June 30th, 1906, only a few months after the release of the jungle, “Roosevelt signed a law regulating foods and drugs… the same day he signed the Meat Inspection Act.” Further inspections would be made into the food quality; however, the working conditions and laborer treatment was never properly addressed. Therefore, the fight for fair treatment continued.
Despite the tragic and horrific portrayals of the conditions and treatment of workers within the meat-packing industry, The Jungle did not directly affect the labor problems that it was intended to. Instead, the only direct result of the novel was the sanitary policies in the work place. Sinclair himself summed up his novels impact with a single famed quote: “I aimed for the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the
Many sections in the book, where Upton focused on the germ-ridden environment or the filthy food processes, made people question the food produced by the company. For example, one excerpt …show more content…
To resolve the hysteria, Sinclair was invited to the White House to discuss the conditions with President Roosevelt. Roosevelt then commissioned an investigation into the meatpacking plants. Later found that most of Sinclair’s claims were true and laws were made to change the food quality. On June 30th, 1906, only a few months after the release of the jungle, “Roosevelt signed a law regulating foods and drugs… the same day he signed the Meat Inspection Act.” Further inspections would be made into the food quality; however, the working conditions and laborer treatment was never properly addressed. Therefore, the fight for fair treatment continued.
Despite the tragic and horrific portrayals of the conditions and treatment of workers within the meat-packing industry, The Jungle did not directly affect the labor problems that it was intended to. Instead, the only direct result of the novel was the sanitary policies in the work place. Sinclair himself summed up his novels impact with a single famed quote: “I aimed for the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the