Sinclair 's The Jungle And Schlosser 's Fast Food Nation

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written to expose the brutality faced by the workers in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair wanted to show people what was really going on in the factory because few people were informed about these companies work conditions. He wanted to show the public that meat was “ diseased, rotten, and contaminated” (Willie).” This revelation shocked the, public which later led to the creation of the federal laws on food and safety. Sinclair strongly shows the failure of capitalism in the meatpacking industry which he viewed as inhumane, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent (Willie).”

Upton Sinclair discusses how workers had no building where they could perform hygienic practices such as washing their hands and thus led to them “washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage”. This reveals that individuals were exploited to these unsanitary conditions, not to mention hazardous, when some of their job roles led to several, if not all, individuals losing a limb or resulting in multiple severe wounds. The excerpt “The Jungle”- Upton Sinclair- 1906- Working Conditions reveals several roles within the meatpacking industry that each consists of their own risks of injuries and diseases. For example, butchers often missed their thumb from constantly slicing meat, men in cooking rooms worked in rooms where as time passes, the development of tuberculosis occurs, men in chilling rooms had a high chance of catching the special disease called rheumatism.

In the book The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, It states that “there would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had trampled and spit (Document D).” Gross. As you can see, the factory conditions are absolutely horrendous, and let me tell you, it gets worse. Upton Sinclair had went to the factory and reported that “water from leaky roofs would drip over the meat, and thousands of rats would race about on it. A man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats (Document D).”

In the book The Jungle, Upton Sinclair portrays the life of a Lithuanian family and begins working in the unhealthy and unsanitary meat packing plants. Sinclair is part of the socialist party. Sinclair’s diction, imagery, and anaphora help expose the harsh, unhealthy working conditions that the workers faced in the meatpacking industry in order to put in laws that regulate the working conditions. Sinclair’s overall purpose is to promote Socialism to help the immigrants and others working get the fair and just treatment that they deserve.

In 1906, a book started taking the nation by storm. The book was titled The Jungle and it was written by Upton Sinclair, a muckraker who exposed corrupt government and business practices. He infiltrated Chicago meat packing industries and documented the exploited lives of the workers. However, more people were concerned with the unsanitary practices in the meat industry. This led to reforms such as the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Despite the reforms that have taken place over the past century, there are still many problems with the meat packing industry. It harms the workers, endangers the consumers, and has negative effects on the environment.

Upton Sinclair, who was an undercover journalist, wrote The Jungle which exposed the Chicago Meat Company’s numerous health issues with their products. The company did everything they could to conserve money. For example, they purposely used spoiled and molded meat and through neglect allowed dead mice to find their way into their meat grinders. The owners of the the meat packing company denied what was occuring in their factories for the sole purpose of profit, nothing could alter their opinions on the state of their facilities. Wooden-headedness led to the Chicago Meat Company ignoring the state of unhygienic conditions present in their

In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, Sinclair reveals his attitude towards the the meat industry by saying it is unsanitary, treats their employees unfavorably, and makes everyone who works there dislike it and it is not what the immigrants thought it would be like. Throughout the book, Sinclair uses may qoutes telling about the difficulties that the employees that worked at the meat industry had to go through. During the Industrial Revolution, the rules regarding cleanest in a working place were much different than they ever have been. In The Jungle, Sinclair describes how dirty and repulsive the true meat industry was.

The lack of oversight in politics allowed industries to circumvent controversy and take advantage of the american people. Furthermore businesses such as the meat industry were able to sell unhealthy meat to the people. As well the meat industry provided unsanitary and harsh working conditions in which nobody could work in. For example in “The Jungle” Sinclair describes the horrific process in the meat industry and the reality of the business. In a meat packing factory a family has to deal with the harsh working conditions: “And yet, in spite of this, there would be hams found spoiled, some of them with an odor so bad that a man could hardly bear to be in the room with them” (160 Sinclair). The meatpackers revolting and toxic hygiene practice serves as a metaphor for the exploitive labor

Sinclair’s poetic imagery concerning the dead animals was to represent the fate of the workers, and instead made the reader sick to their stomach (Wilson). This misinterpretation, however, was powerful force which demanded an immediate change. The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act passed in 1906, and led to the development of the federal Food and Drug Administration (Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle). With the publication of The Jungle, Sinclair became internationally famous and even more involved in social issues. He went on to muckrake the steel and glass-making industry as well as continuing to lobby for meatpacking

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair depicts the atrocities of the unskilled labor work environment in the early 1900s. Sinclair is considered to be a muckraker for uncovering the filth and abuse associated in the meatpacking industry (Upton Sinclair Biography). A muckraker is defined as, “One who inquires into and publishes scandal and allegations of corruption among political and business leaders” (muckraker). Muckrakers sought out controversies to expose scandals that harmed the average American. Sinclair intended to expose the poor working conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago. This inquiry was rooted in Sinclair’s Socialist views. The New World Encyclopedia describes Socialism as, “A broad array of doctrines

     While the works of Upton Sinclair are not widely read today because of their primacy of social change rather than aesthetic pleasure, works like The Jungle are important to understand in relation to the society that produced them.  Sinclair was considered a part of the muckraking era, an era when social critics observed all that was wrong and corrupt in business and politics and responded against it.  The Jungle was written primarily as a harsh indictment of wage slavery, but its vivid depictions of the deplorable lack of sanitation involved in the meatpacking industry in Chicago resulted in public outrage to the point where Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection

Sinclair’s writing started to become very eminent in the early 1900’s, and by the age of 16 his book The Jungle changes the food industry forever. In 1905 Sinclair was hired to work in “Packingtown” Chicago for a meat processing company for a pay of $500 ( $13,513.51 today’s money) (Upton Sinclair Hits Readers in the Stomach). For two months Sinclair worked in the meatpacking industry, afterwards, he went into solitude for nine months to write about the details of the industry. “The meat would be shoveled into carts,

. A. Upton Sinclair wrote, “The Jungle”, to expose the appalling working conditions in the meatpacking industry.

Fast food restaurants exude bright colors, distribute meals with toys, and create a sense of happiness, but what truly goes on behind the scenes of this magical industry? In Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the authors use similar rhetorical strategies to reveal the motives and unconventional practices of the food industry. Schlosser conveys his purpose through the utilization of pathos, ethos, anecdotes and imagery as compared to Sinclair who uses historical references and figurative language as well as imagery and pathos.

In the 20th century, factory jobs were one of the most sought after by immigrants and members of the American lower class. These jobs were often in unsafe conditions, with long working hours, and very poor paying salaries. In 1906, Upton Sinclair released a narrative entitled The Jungle, a description of immigrant working conditions in the meat packing and production industry. It was intended to reach out to the average American and inform them of the conditions in which immigrants lived and