The Accidental Muckraking Novel “I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
-Upton Sinclair
What is a muckraking novel? Well, a muckraking novel is one that is trying to bring awareness to problems like child labor and improper working conditions. The goal of these novels is to try to bring about change (Alchin). Though The Jungle was not supposed to be a muckraking novel, it became one of the best examples of one. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair writes about the journey of immigrants in America and about the horrors of the meatpacking industry. Although the book did not achieve exactly what Sinclair wanted, it did lead to the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act (“About The Jungle”). The
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He supported the statements made in The Jungle by using facts, public figures, and laws. That was one of the techniques he used that made The Jungle a muckraking novel. Sinclair also exposed the problems in the meatpacking industry to try and change the poor working conditions, another thing muckraking novels try to do. Even though it becomes more of a propaganda novel in the end, it differs from a propaganda novel because Sinclair was open to bias (“About The Jungle”).
Another reason why The Jungle is considered a muckraking novel is the change the novel brought. In the book, Sinclair talks about the meatpacking industry and how horrible the working conditions were. He tells about how many men lost fingers, crippled their backs, and were infected with tuberculosis. He says that the men ate where they worked, and there was no soap, water, and sometimes, no toilets. He even goes to explain how the workers would package rotten meat when there was no meat inspector around as well as how some men fell into lard vats.
“men...fell into the vats...till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf
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President Roosevelt had a special commission check Chicago’s slaughterhouses. The commission's report confirmed almost everything that Sinclair had wrote about. After this, Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 which stopped any bad meat from entering the country and also passed the Pure Food and Drug Act which banned the mislabeling of any products. Though Congress did not fix the problems that the workers faced, Sinclair’s book brought about a lot of change in the meatpacking industry and achieved the purpose of a muckraking novel. Though it was not Sinclair’s original intention, the reform it brought was great for working conditions all over America (Costly). The Jungle brought about great change in the American meatpacking industry. Upton Sinclair opened up the eyes of people all over America. His novel became a classic muckraking story that started the reformation of meat in America. Without Sinclair, those horribles things that were going in the packing houses would still be happening. Though Sinclair did not originally intend for all this to happen, the people of America should be grateful to the change his book brought
During the early 1900s, the changing views on human rights redefined the standards of society and government in America. When Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle, it immediately affected American society and American federal policy, although Sinclair had hoped to bring about a different reaction.
The novel follows a family of immigrants from Lithuania working in a meatpacking factory, and as the novel progresses, the reader learns of the revolting conditions within the factories. Sinclair’s The Jungle illustrates the concept of Bitzer’s “Rhetorical Situation” and Emerson’s quote quite effectively. For instance, the horrendous safety and health conditions of the packing factories were the exigencies that Upton Sinclair was making clear to the reader. The rhetorical audience that Sinclair aimed to influence with his novel was Congress and the president, as both had to agree in order to establish health and safety bills to better the conditions within factories. Sinclair’s efforts did not go unnoticed as in 1906 both the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug act were approved by both Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt (Cherny,
Upon his 1906 publishing of The Jungle, Sinclair was coined as an avid “muckraker” when President Roosevelt addressed an audience in April of that year. When asked whether or not the novel provided a realistic account of workers conditions within the Chicago meat packing industry, Roosevelt accused Sinclair of being a liar in an attempt to discredit him. A large part of this was credited to Roosevelt’s personal distaste for Sinclair’s apparent link to the Socialist party but, Roosevelt was also unaware that Sinclair had worked undercover at the plant to gather first hand and accurate accounts. The Jungle shined light on the poor working conditions of workers in a meat packing facility. Throughout the novel, Sinclair gave gruesome examples of what workers went through each and every day. Each department of the facility was faced with its own risks and challenges, “There were the wool pluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands of the pickle men; for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid to loosen the wool, and then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with
Upton Sinclair's Purpose in Writing The Jungle Upton Sinclair wrote this book for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, he tries to awaken the reader to the terrible. living conditions of immigrants in the cities around the turn of the century. Chicago has the most potent examples of these. conditions.
In The Jungle, Sinclair deeply understands his subjects and can make the plots real for the reader. Even in a small section of the book, Sinclair makes me feel, imagine and contemplate his words. Chapters 18 through 23, were chapters that Sinclair took time and effort to write and make it to perfection. In my own perspective, I think he achieved this accomplishment and made these chapters a realistic event.
The Jungle, the 1906 exposé of the Chicago meatpacking industry. The novel focuses on an immigrant family and sympathetically and realistically describes their struggles with loan sharks and others who take advantage of their innocence. More importantly, Sinclair graphically describes the brutal working conditions of those who find work in the stockyards. Sinclair's description of the main character's
In the late 1800s to the early 1900s people there were people called “Muckrakers”. These were the people that uncovered the ugly truth of things like meatpacking apartments. One of the books written was Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle. Their goals were to uncover a problem to the public then try to eliminate it. In the Progressive Era, muckrakers tried to point out things that no one else knew about. Muckrakers were very influential people during the Progressive Era.
The theme in books by Sinclair Lewis1 relates to the time in which they were written. In both Babbit (1922) and Main Street (1920) Lewis shows us the American culture of the 1920's. He writes about the growing cities, the small towns, the common American man, the strong American need to conform, cultural integration, morals (or lack of in some cases), and he touches upon the women lib movement. All of these and more successfully describe the 1920's.
Muckrakers are known as reporters that investigate and also a writer during the Progressive Era, which occurred around 1890 to 1920. The Muckrakers wrote about the how the society was and how corruption it was by exposing, in order to make changes in the society. There were many Muckrakers back in the Progressive Era, the most talked about was a man named, Upton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle” in 1096. The book talked about a meatpacking industry which took place in Chicago and it revealed the working conditions and unsanitary conditions of the industry. One of the main character in the book named Jurgis Rudkus, exposed tons of details while working inside of the meatpacking industry. Furthermore, in 1906, due to Upton
Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, wrote this novel to unveil the atrocious working conditions and the contaminated meat in meat-packing workhouses. It was pathos that enabled his book to horrify hundreds of people and to encourage them to take a stand against these meat-packing companies. To obtain the awareness of people, he incorporated a descriptive style to his writing. Ample amounts of imagery, including active verbs, abstract and tangible nouns, and precise adjectives compelled readers to be appalled. Durham, the leading Chicago meat packer, was illustrated, “having piles of meat... handfuls of dried dung of rats...rivers of hot blood, and carloads of moist flesh, and soap caldrons, craters of hell.” ( Sinclair 139). His description
He also chose to be a serious novelist and a journalist. Sinclair got married to Meta Fuller in 1900 and had a son named David the next year. Sinclair was not happy in his marriage with her. Though this lead to his first novel Springtime and Harvest which was publishing in 1901. Sinclair would go on to writing many unfamous novels ranging from being about Wall Street to the Civil War to autobiographies. These novels were failures for Sinclair but he still continued to write novels. Sinclair’s work all weren’t very famous until he wrote a novel called The Jungle. This novel was well known thanks to Sinclair’s political convictions. The Jungle brought in a lot of fame and started the boom about mistreatment in the meat factories as well as socialism. The Jungle was a top seller and was translated into seventeen different languages. Sinclair started the Helicon Hall but it was burned downed and he was forced to give up this plan. He still made numerous amounts of novels such as The Metropolis, King Coal, and The goose step. Although famous, most of Sinclair’s fiction books weren’t as
Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle" is a good representation of life in the early 1900s that uncovered the horrifying working conditions and the way American meat packing industrial facilities worked at the turn of the twentieth century. It is a troubling look at life previously that prompted the government to venture in and make new regulations for the meat industry, that are still set up today. And it is Sinclair's wonderful contribution to literature and social reform that made this no shun conceivable. This book stands out amongst some of the most impactful books in American history, since this book alone really brought an immediate and lasting change to the meat processing industry that improved life for all Americans. I do not know if any other signal book has without question done that. Even though Upton Sinclair wrote this peace of literature for reasons other than to clean up the meat packing industry, it still has changed the way our country operates.
Capitalism underwent a severe attack at the hands of Upton Sinclair in this novel. By showing the misery that capitalism brought the immigrants through working conditions, living conditions, social conditions, and the overall impossibility to thrive in this new world, Sinclair opened the door for what he believed was the solution: socialism. With the details of the meatpacking industry, the government investigated and the public cried out in disgust and anger. The novel was responsible for the passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. With the impact that Sinclair must have known this book would have, it is interesting that he also apparently tried to make it fuction as propaganda against capitalism and pro-socialism.
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
How The Jungle Influenced Social Reform and Socialism Beginning in the late 19th century, many people became concerned with many social problems resulting from the industrialization period of the United States. People began to demand reform. The writing of the book The Jungleby Upton Sinclair was one of the most influential tools used to reform many American industries. In this book, Sinclair focuses on the unsanitary conditions and corruption that was involved in the Chicago meat packing industry.