In 2013, Hugo Avalos-Chanon lost his life while working for DCS Sanitation Management. He was cleaning machinery in a meatpacking company when he fell into a machine which spontaneously turned on (Mayes). His coworkers heard his screams and tried to help, but it was too late. His legs were first to get ground up in the machine. Hugo Avalos-Chanon had lost his life at the age of forty-one. Like Avalos-Chanon, many have lost their lives in the meatpacking, meat processing companies, and in the fast food industries (Mayes). We are informed of the tragedies which take place in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. Sinclair and Schlosser wrote their books to inform the public about the working conditions that people …show more content…
Due to this fact, workers are mistreated and underpaid and aren’t seen as a crucial piece to the puzzle. In Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, the fast food industries present today have mastered this mindset. Fast food industries were responsible for one of the lowest minimum wages in the 90’s and it has only been decreasing (Schlosser 6). With wages at an all time low, the fast food industries were still trying to decrease wages even lower. The industries were working with Congressmen to deny rights to workers and cut wages further (8). Fast food workers are amongst the lowest paid workers. They are young, unskilled, untrained, and easily replaced (68). Most of the fast food employees work more than forty hours a week. However, they are cheated from getting overtime and are only paid for forty or even less than forty hours of work (81). As of result of the low wages and long work hours without pay, many fast food workers quit and find other jobs. Sadly, they aren’t always able to find a better job and they’ll end up working in another fast food restaurant and go through the same …show more content…
They face being injured on the job by the machines and by the sharp knives which they use much like they did in The Jungle (169). The assembly lines used much like they were used in The Jungle were constantly being sped up to amp up production. Schlosser says, “The unrelenting pressure of trying to keep up with the line has encouraged widespread methamphetamine use among meatpackers. Workers taking “crank” feel charged and self-confident, ready for anything” (174). They would get the drugs from their own bosses as pay for second shifts or for a certain price (174). The workers who used it did it for the rush, for the feeling of being able to get the job done faster. Employees at factories were getting high and putting themselves at a greater risk of getting
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, 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
Upton Sinclair’s classic The Jungle analyzes a variety of concerns varying from politics to working conditions in America's capitalist economy. Sinclair highlights key issues for the Progressive Era reform, while he uncovers significant corruption taking place with the country’s rapid industrialization. He was labeled a “muckraker” for exposing the system that privileges the powerful. Upton Sinclair states that the paramount goal for writing his book was to improve worker conditions, increase wages, and put democratic socialism as a major political party. The book shocked the public nation by uncovering the unhealthy standards in the meatpacking industry it also resulted in a congressional investigation.
In Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, “The Jungle,” he exposes corruption in business and government and its disastrous effects on a family from Lithuania. The novel follows immigrant Jurgis Rudkus as he struggles against the slow ANNIHILATION of his family and is REBORN after discovering that socialism as a cure away to all capitalism’s problems. The Jungle is an example of protest literature because it exposes in a muckraking style the DANGEROUS, INHUMAINE conditions that workers lived and worked in, corruption in business and politics and the unsanitary meat that was sold.
While The Jungle was by far Sinclair’s most famous work, what many are not aware of is the fact that The Jungle was initially written as an expose for a well-known socialist newspaper in the country, Appeal to Reason. Although Sinclair once said he were to write the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the labor movement”, he did so not by merely speculating what the meat packing industry was like, but by actually experiencing the lifestyle firsthand. Upton Sinclair went to the packing plants himself in order to truly gain the experience of what it was like to work in the stockyards as well as communicating directly with employees, laborers, social workers, and locals to truly grasp what life was like in a place like Packingtown. It was not until Sinclair was able to take all of his experiences in that he was able to sit down and write an accurate and to some, frightful expose of what the meat packing industry
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” gave the most in-depth description of the horrid truths about the way America’s food companies, “the only source of food for people living in the city,” are preparing the food they sell. “The Jungle” describes the terrible
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
Several years before and after the turn the turn of the twentieth century, America experienced a large influx of European immigration. These new citizens had come in search of the American dream of success, bolstered by promise of good fortune. Instead they found themselves beaten into failure by American industry. Upton Sinclair wanted to expose the cruelty and heartlessness endured by these ordinary workers. He chose to represent the industrial world through the meatpacking industry, where the rewards of progress were enjoyed only by the privileged, who exploited the powerless masses of workers. The Jungle is a novel and a work of investigative journalism; its primary purpose was to inform the general public about the dehumanization of American workers. However the novel was much more effective at exposing the unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking industry.
“I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit them in the stomach” (Sinclair). Upton Sinclair uses these words to describe the reaction his novel, The Jungle, received upon its first publication. Sinclair’s original purpose of The Jungle intends to illustrate the difficult challenges of immigrants in Chicago at the turn of the century, giving details and samples of abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry to highlight their troubles. Instead, the public demands government intervention against the atrocities and this public outcry leads to the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Elements of Naturalism exist throughout most of the text.
“The Jungle” novel was written by an American journalist/ novelist name Upton Sinclair in 1906. “The Jungle” made a big hit and became his best-selling novel because it revealed so well about the economical and social reality during that time. The book mainly described about how unsanitary the meat packing industry was operated in Chicago and the miserable life of the immigrants going along with the industry. Through the story around the life and family of Jurgis Rudjus, a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to America with the belief to change their life and live in a better condition, Sinclair expresses that “The Jungle” is a symbol of capitalism. Sinclair’s contempt for capitalist society is present throughout the novel, demonstrated in the eagerness of Jurgis to work, the constant struggle for survival of the workers in Packing town and the corruption of the man at all levels of the society. Also, the author promotes socialism as a standard political society to replace capitalism.
In the early twentieth century, at the height of the progressive movement, “Muckrakers” had uncovered many scandals and wrong doings in America, but none as big the scandals of Americas meatpacking industry. Rights and responsibilities were blatantly ignored by the industry in an attempt to turn out as much profit as possible. The meat packers did not care if poor working conditions led to sickness and death. They also did not care if the spoiled meat they sold was killing people. The following paper will discuss the many ways that rights and responsibilities were not being fulfilled by the meat packing industry.
In order for Sinclair to give accurate details in the book, he spent over a year researching and writing about the conditions on the meat packing plants in Chicago. This first hand experience allowed for Sinclair to see the plight of the “wage-slaves.” At the turn of the century, no laws were in place to protect the workers or to regulate the shipment of meat.The Jungle was originally serialized in a socialist newspaper, entitled Appeal to Reason. When the book was finally published in book form, it instigated a pure food movement, which brought about the Pure Food and Drug Act. George P.
2Volume 24, Number 1. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry [Internet]. Los Angeles, CA (USA): CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION; (fall) 2008 [cited 2014 Feb 16]. Available from: http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle-muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html
In 2000, there were 780 deaths and 130,000 disabling injuries in agriculture. The only industry that had more deaths was construction, with 1,220.”(Hansen and Donohoe 2003) “Migrant workers face numerous barriers to medical care, including lack of transportation, insurance, and sick leave, the threat or fear of wage or job loss, language barriers between MSFWs and health care providers, and limited clinic hours. ”(Hansen and Donohoe 2003) Traumatic injuries, food insecurity, infectious disease, chemical and pesticide related illness, dermatitis, dental, heat stress, respiratory conditions, musculoskeletal disorders, Hansen and Donohoe 2003; Wang, Myers et al.
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.