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
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,
After the clean-up, U. S. meat is imported by many countries, opening fresh markets for the packers. Upton Sinclair is supposed to be. to have said that he aimed at the public's heart, and by. accident. He hit it in the stomach.
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.
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.
Ida Tarbell, another noted muckraker, wrote a number of articles for McClure's, some of which were gathered in her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company. Muckraking appeared in fiction as well. David Graham Phillips, 4 who began his career as a newspaperman, went on to write muckraking magazine articles and eventually novels about contemporary economic, political, and social problems such as insurance scandals, state and municipal corruption, shady Wall Street dealings, slum life, and women's emancipation. Perhaps the best-known muckraking novel was Upton Sinclair's 5
The people who read it were so appalled by the disgusting filth, and the actual ingredients of the processed meat. The book provided the final drive for way for the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act and truth in labeling all passed by President Theodore Roosevelt. Also in the story, Sinclair concerns the readers with the abuse of immigrant workers, both men and women. This is partially why he uses the story of the man moving from Lithuania to America.
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.
Muckraking was a powerful journalistic force, whose supporters made it so. Muckraking was the practice of writers and critics exposing corrupt politicians and business practices. President Theodore Roosevelt made the term "muck-raker" popular. He once said The man with the muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; who was offered a celestial crown for his muckrake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake himself the filth of the floor. Some, like Roosevelt, viewed methods of muckrakers such as Ida Tarbell, Ray S. Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair as these types of people.
The Jungle. One of the most famous muckrakers, Upton Sinclair, published The Jungle in 1906, and it immediately became an international best-seller. Sinclair, who had joined the Socialist party in 1903 originally wrote The Jungle for the socialist magazine, The Appeal to Reason (Constitutional Rights Foundation). He spent time in the Chicago meatpacking district so he could truly see what was going on. What Sinclair witnessed was appalling. He saw sausage that had traveled to and from Europe, poisoned bread and dead rats being put in the hopper that ground the sausage. Instead of smoking the sausage, they preserved the meat with borax and used gelatin to color it (Sinclair 168-169). Although Sinclair wrote The Jungle to show his readers the evils of capitalism, people were more appalled at the disgusting and unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking industry.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.