What was the outcome of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"?

Essay by amstudentUniversity, Bachelor's December 2002

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Upton's Sinclair's The Jungle was a novel based on one employee who worked for a Chicago's meat-packing factory. This detailed novel described horrendous conditions and gruesome visions of contaminated meat. This brought forth significant changes within the meat-packing industry. America's business of canned meat was declining within the country as well as the world. Lack of trust and controversy surrounding the meat-industry caused President Roosevelt and Congress to take initiative of the situation. This began a series of events which eventually developed the Pure Food and Drug Administration Act.

Upton Sinclair's novel described the daily routines of the meat-packing industry. Poisoned carcasses are only the lighter half of what was occurring within the factories in Chicago. Jurgis was an employee of a factory in which Sinclair described. Sinclair gave a detailed description of specific conditions. An example is how employees cleaned their hands with water that was also used for the sausages.

There was also the meat left on the floor with saw dust and spit which was grounded up and caned for consumers to purchase. Certain types of meat had specific names which informed employees what it was consumed of. There was the process of "giving them thirty per cent" which was spoiled ham's odor destroyed by a powerful pickle thus making it presentable to the consumer. There was the "Number Three Grade" meat which was spoiled smoked ham. Eventually they extracted the bone and created a hole that was inserted with a "white-hot iron" and after that, the Number Three Grade meat was now known as the Number One Grade meat. Once this idea was used, there was no longer the separation of Number one, two or three meats; they eventually just became Number One Grade meat. Nicknames for types of meat were the "boneless hams"...