The Jungle

Upton Sinclair was the most prolific writer in the history of America. He did most of his work focusing on how the politicians are corrupting the United States and how it will be made a better place; he also wanted political and social reform. The jungle was published in the 1906.it was a grim indication that led the government to a regulation of the food industry inspection.

The jungle was specifically written to draw the government's attention to the working condition faced by laborers in America. Especially the immigrants like"jurgis" who came from Lithuanian, and had no choice but to work long hours and will take whatever wages they get. The novel covers the economic system that destroyed jurgis and his family treating them like the very cattle that were slaughtered in the Chicago stockyard.

At the fist half of the book Sinclair narrated what has become the meatpacking legacy by telling the detail of diseased meat shoveled off the dirty floor into sausage grinder and injured people preparing meat. The other half showed how Jurgis Ruckus, lost his house and family, strike out on his own, nearly starving on the street, unable to find work. There were many immigrants during the twentieth century who came into America at that time so that employers could offer wages for unskilled workers who are willing to do miserable jobs like working in the meat packing industry.

Sinclair was very plain in describing the nature of the food the Americans were consuming due to the nature of the parking house experience. Sinclair wanted to expose the exploitation of the poor and oppressed in America. His description of contaminated meats drew more attention, where spoiled harms are treated with formaldehydes and sausage made out of rotten meats. His aim of writing the jungle is to introduce the people to socialism because the rich who owned industries are using their wealth to take advantage of the poor citizens.

Sinclair explained how the workers who worked in the meat-parking stockyard were also in danger when he said, "in its way as horrible as the killing-beds, the workers in each of them had their own peculiar diseases." Even the employers who worked in the stockyard were very sick each with its own stage of diseases from the rotten meat they were parking.

The description of the smell in the meat house was a horrible experience to the reader who actually did not witness the insident"it is an elemental odor, raw and crude, it is rich, almost sensual and strong.