Upton Sinclair The Jungle Analysis

Dream to Reality The American Dream has been a phrase used since the beginning of the United States. Immigrants travel to the U.S. in search of freedom, jobs, and a reasonable way of life. However, this is not always the case. Immigrants are treated very poor. They live in the slums, do the most dangerous work and are not treated as American citizens. This way of life is seen the most in the meat packing industry. This industry was the lowest of jobs that no one wanted but the immigrants were forced into taking it to provide for their families. The meat packing industry started in the early 1900’s. In 1904, Upton Sinclair, a novelist traveled to Chicago to gather information about the terrible things and abused that happened in the meat packing industry. In Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, Sinclair argues the horrors of the meat packing industry and how corrupt capitalism has become. From the chapter, “Living and Dying in Packingtown, Chicago”, Sinclair studies the lives of the workers and writes about their struggles. The author claims three main points that are crucial to understanding the industry. The first argument is the conditions and sickness, then the meat …show more content…
Sinclair asserts that, “meat from Europe that was mouldy and white would be dosed with borax and glycerine and dumped into the hopper to be consumed by households” (Sinclair p. 78). Sinclair uses this example to really show how terrible the meat industry is. Moldy, white, chemically infused meat is being sold and consumed by American citizens. The author also explains how meat would be dumped on floor and be stepped on spit at, water would leak on it and rats would run all over it (Sinclair p. 78). Almost all the meat in Packingtown was uneatable. The examples that Sinclair use show how corrupt the American food department is. There are no rules or regulations to how the meat is produced and how the people are