The beginning of the 20th century marked the beginnings of the Progressive Era, which brought about opposition towards wealthy bankers and political bosses that emerged as a result of the Gilded Age. Muckrakers, or journalists who attacked the corrupt leaders and government, increased significantly in numbers. One famous muckraker was Upton Sinclair, and he exposed the corrupted meat industry in his novel, The Jungle, which led to important government reforms such as the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Drug and Food Act.
In 1904, Sinclair was a writer for a socialist newspaper, and his task was to explore the poor working conditions in the meatpacking industry. He went to Chicago to interview many of the workers in stockyards and slaughterhouses and to explore the conditions there. Sinclair first produced an article in the newspaper to report his findings, but he wanted to delve even further. In the next year, Sinclair spent his time writing the legendary novel The Jungle, and he published it in 1906.
The Jungle is a fictional story that features Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant from Lithuania. In the book, Rudkus's pursues the American Dream and wants to start a new life in the United States. However, his dreams all becomes shattered by the poor conditions in the meat industry, and towards the end, Rudkus resorts to crimes and is in a horrible situation. Despite the negative portrayal and tone, the novel does end with hope and advocates for a shift towards socialism
At the time, the book mostly reflected what was going on in the meatpacking industry. Its primary goal was to unveil the difficult life of laborers to the public, but it instead had a different effect: more people started to read his work because they were concerned about the contaminated meat that was being produced. As Sinclair phrased it, "I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
As a result of the publishing of The Jungle, concern from the public increased drastically. Letters were sent to President Theodore Roosevelt about the contaminated meat, and this caught his attention. Roosevelt decided to bring Sinclair to the White House, and he "ordered a federal investigation." Within a few months, Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act as well as the Pure Drug and Food Act. These legislations increased regulation by the government with regards to the safety of food such as meat.
After the reforms, Sinclair continued to write novels and articles in favor of Progressive Era ideas. While his other works were not as famous as The Jungle, he had already changed America significantly. The Jungle demonstrates the power of literature and how something so small as a simple book can have a great impact on the country through government reforms and greater awareness from the public.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/obituaries/archives/upton-sinclair-meat-industry
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Jungle-novel-by-Sinclair#ref1243480
https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-jungle
Nice post Kevin! It's interesting to see how a piece of writing is able to make so much of an impact on society, and prompt the passage of many reforms such as the Meat Inspection Act by Roosevelt. However, because we frequently talk about it when reviewing history, and analyze the effects of it, I wanted to get a better understanding of the actual content in the book. I found that like you mentioned, it was actually a fictional work, and was composed of a series of consecutive tragedies that depicted the factory system beating down characters. On that same note, fictional works like the Great Gatsby were also able to incite reflection during the Roaring Twenties, so to what extent do books play a role in societal reforms and sentiments?
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