Working Conditions And Laws In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Working Conditions & Laws
The Jungle is a vivid novel and I’m going to expose one of the major themes that I found to be unimaginable. It tells the tale of immigrants who were subjected to barbarian working conditions with absolutely no labor laws, I’m also going to use the text book entitled America a Concise History to describe how awful these working conditions were and the changes in labor laws it had in American society. This book describes major problems and changes of what was happening in America at this specific time in American history.
The working conditions in The Jungle describe in deep descriptive detail what was happening in America and was pioneering a new path for change. ”Popular journalism rose to prominence and helped build rising sympathy for reform” (Henretta, Edwards, Self Pg. 595). This novel played an important role in journalism written by Upton Sinclair in opening the eyes of our government’s law makers. At the time these working conditions were being allowed by government because at this time the nation was growing and government supported big business. This is not only immoral because a government convened by the people for the people should never forget the reason the government exists to make a better place for its citizenry to break free from Tierney not to be oppressed by big business or corporations, the United States government represents the people not its own interests this is why this is inconceivable because this democratic government is in place today for its people not big business or corporations. The U.S. government was put in place to do the will of the people.
“Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opp...

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...nd frankly an alien to these primitive working conditions. "And, for this, at the end of the week, he will carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour-just about his proper share of the million and three quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States."(Sinclair pg. 85). I could not imagine myself being subjected to these ridiculous working conditions. I could not picture my kids at such young ages being forced to work like slaves in order to survive or to eat there next meal. In this day and age labor laws, health codes, and fire codes are so complex that this way of life are from the stone age and today are unheard of. Employers in modern times would not only be fined but they would possibly lose their business or be thrown in prison because as of today it is a crime rightfully so.

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