The Jungle

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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The Jungle was written by Upton Sinclair was written to expose what the citizens of the united states should know but had been left in the dark about during the industrialization period. Sinclair was a muckraker during the early 1900?s and along with many others wrote to get a new food and drug bill entered to the senate. People like Sinclair were very influential to America?s citizens. Without muckrakers like Sinclair citizens often times wouldn?t know any background information about the products they were buying. The works of Sinclair along with others have greatly affected our lives, now all food products have to list what their product is made of, and we can contribute the beginning of the F.A.A. and U.S.D.A. to the work of Sinclair.

Sinclair writes the story in third person about the main character Jurgis Rudkis and his lover Ona Lakoszaite. Both work in the factories of Chicago, commonly referred to as Packingtown.

The story is told through them and quickly tells the reader about the working conditions these citizens experience. They also explain to us the problems of the factories. The meat is oven left for much longer than sanitary and when it should be thrown out is used in other ways. Freezers are not used at the time and other means of sanitary are necessary. To conserve money, greedy factory owners do not care about the product they produce just that they are making money on it.

Sinclair explained in depth what was going on in these factories so that the citizens would stop it. Sinclair explained that when meat was no longer good for consumption it was moldy and white and would be mixed with borax and glycerin. These turned the previously colored meat to a white color and it would later be...