1. Chandler Alt
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Olivia Ron
May 4th, 2015

2. In Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, Chicago Illinois is home to a wild and
ferocious meat packing plant called Packingtown. Upton Sinclair described Packingtown as “the
greatest aggregation of labor and capitol ever gathered in one place.” (Sinclair,8) This massive
Packingtown is the workplace of a Lithuanian party and thousands of other immigrants, still very
new to America. The Jungle describes a period of over many years in which a group of friends
suffer never-ending anguish until they are eventually destroyed. The main destroyer of this family
is the filthy meatpacking plant in which they are employed. This novel portrays the severe abuses
of power in not only Packingtown, but in the United States as a whole. The Jungle by Upton
Sinclair had a massive impact on society and the meat industry in America. This book brought to
light the truth of the meat industry, which was horrid. Three important points we must look at
when evaluating this novel are the food trade, meaning what each worker is required to do and
under what conditions, food safety, regarding the healthiness and wholesomeness of the food
that the meatpackers sold, and how the times have changed from then to now for the better. A
final consideration when reading The Jungle is the tremendous social implications these three
previous points bring about. Upton Sinclair uses the meat industry to reveal a larger evil, which is
capitalism. Overall the trade, food safety, changes in times, and social implications featured in
The Jungle are what made it such an important book to the meat industry and America as a
whole. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair brought a new light to the meat industry and changed it for
the better ultimately.
As Jurgis Rudkus and his friends begin work in the Chicago meatpacking plant
Packingtown, they begin to see and understand the greatness and the hardships of the meat
trade in early 20th century Chicago. “There is over a square mile of space in the yards, and more
than half of it is occupied by cattle pens; north and south as far as the eye can reach there
stretches a sea of pens. And they were all filled… Here and there ran long alleys, blocked at
intervals by gates; Jokubas told them that the number of these gates was twenty-five thousand.”
(Sinclair, 36) This quote found in chapter three describes the sheer mass and the sheer size of
the meatpacking plant, Packingtown. In this instant the party of Lithuanians was being shown
around Packingtown, as they would soon start work there. As the novel progresses we learn of
the huge demand for meat and food for the ever-growing country.

3. Chicago was the hub of the meat industry and was subject to a great demand of meat
products. Out of this massive demand for meat Packingtown was born. The meat industry of the
time was profit driven and so was Packingtown. ““They don’t waste anything here.” said the
guide…they use everything about the hog except the squeal.” (Sinclair, 38) As the guide led the
group he spoke of the great wonders and great efficiency the plant used when slaughtering hogs.
Although this quote is describing the slaughter of hogs in Packingtown, this is how the plant
worked in every aspect and this is how the meat trade of the day was run. Packingtown was run
as a cutthroat business focused on maximum profits and maximum efficiency at the cost of the
hogs, and the low level workers.
Jurgis, Ona (Jurgis’ wife), Marija (Ona’s cousin), Dede Antanas (Jurgis’ father), Jonas
(another member of the party), and his younger brother of only fourteen Stanislovas, were all
employed by the ruthless plant Packingtown. By trade, these people worked in the plant as can
painters, cleaners of guts on the killing beds and other monotonous single tasked jobs. The
fourteen-year-old Stanislovas worked in a can filling station. His sole job was to place a single
can beneath a great machine that then filled the can with lard. All day the young boy would stand
and place cans from sun up to sun down. At the time no such child labor laws existed.
Stanislovas lied to a boss claiming he was sixteen. Many bosses would overlook the fact that
many children lied about their ages in order to get cheaper work. Children were paid only one-
third of what an adult male was. This was a grim fact of working in the fast paced, enormous
Packingtown, not only with Stanislovis, but the entire party were given low level and skilless jobs.
This was unfortunately a very common situation in the early 20th century meat
trade. Immigrants were normally ignorant of American business and trade. This left them at a
strong disadvantage and often left at their mercy of their bosses. They were forced to work under
any conditions with the threat of “losing their place.” Every morning thousands of other jobless
immigrants crowded around the gates of Packingtown in search of a job. Due to this extreme
level of competition and due to fear of being replaced, workers were forced to labor under any
condition. “Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, it was fated that he should stand upon a
certain square foot of floor from seven in the morning until noon, and again from half-past twelve
till half-past five, making never a motion and thinking never a thought, save for the setting of lard
cans. In summer the stench of the warm lard would be nauseating, and in the winter the cans
would all but freeze to his naked little fingers in the unheated cellar. Half of the year it would be
dark as night when he went in to work, and dark as night again when he came out, and so he
would never know what the sun looked like on week-days. And for this, at the end of the week, he
would carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour.”
(Sinclair, 76) This quote describes the daily grind of young Stanislovas, but each and every low
level worker at Packingtown endured similar hardships. For fear of being fired, many people
wasted away each day at work in horrible conditions. Under these horrible conditions accidents

4. would occur in the plant and people were disabled, injured and even killed on a daily basis. The
realities of the meatpacking industry in this period of time were unfortunate and cruel.
Work was filled with suffering not only on a physical level, but on a mental level as well.
Mental stress would eat away at the immigrant workers. Continuous worries filled their heads.
The workers received no support from bosses or owners, they were left to fend for themselves in
the jungle of Packingtown Bosses who were much smarter continually scammed and cheated
many workers out of money. This led to a tremendous amount emotional, physical and mental
stress on workers.
As a whole, the meat trade in this book was not a good one to be in. The only chance of
making good wages in Packingtown was for the men who cheated and stole their way to the top
of the power food chain. Workers were abused, taken advantage of, intimidated and left defeated
of all physical and mental strength. A job in Packingtown, as Jurgis and his party would soon find
out, was destructive work to a person and their health. The meatpacking trade was a vicious
cauldron of greed and filth, filled to the brim with incredible abuses of power at the expense of the
common worker and consumer.
Another, arguably worse aspect of work given prominence to in The Jungle is the food
safety of the meatpacking plant. Not only did Packingtown remain in itself filthy and in poor
hygiene, but the food in which they shipped out, sold, and fed to American citizens was unhealthy
and unfit for eating. According to United States Department of agriculture’s strategic plan
framework United States citizens and citizens of the world are to be given healthy and nourishing
food. “USDA has created a strategic plan to implement its vision… enhancing food safety by
taking steps to reduce the prevalence of foodborne hazards from farm to table, improving nutrition
and health by providing food assistance and nutrition education and promotion, and managing
and protecting America's public” (USDA, Strategic Plan Framework) Although the USDA and
other governing agencies regarding food safety existed during the early twentieth century they
were scarcely listened to and obeyed. “Before the carcass was admitted here, however, it had to
pass a government inspector, who sat in the doorway and felt of the glands in the neck for
tuberculosis. This government inspector did not have the manner of a man who was worked to
death; he was apparently not haunted by a fear that the hog might get by him before he had
finished his testing. If you were a sociable person, he was quite willing to enter into conversation
with you, and to explain to you the deadly nature of the ptomaines which are found in tubercular
pork; and while he was talking with you could hardly be so ungrateful as to notice that a dozen
carcasses were passing him untouched. This inspector wore a blue uniform, with brass buttons,
and he gave an atmosphere of authority to the scene, and, as it were, put the stamp of official
approval upon the things which were done in Durham's.” (Sinclair, 40) This instance within the
novel shows us as readers the clear flaws that lied in the meatpacking industry of the time. Often
these inspectors could be bribed. The owner of the meatpacking plant Packingtown saw it

5. profitable to sell hazardous meat. The public had no idea that it was diseased, so it was sold to
them as “nutritious” food. The propelling agent of everything in Packingtown was profits. Every
single station within the factory cut corners regarding hygiene in order to boost profits. Rather
than discarding, or making another use of a downed or diseased carcass, it was sold as “healthy”
and “nutritious” food. This practice had not only a negative affect on consumers, but on
employees as well. At the time in which this novel was written, most of the American public
remained ignorant to the dangers of germs and other deadly pathogens and viruses. The
meatpackers would use this ignorance to their advantage and sell diseased meat. Although this
boosted profits, it was an immoral practice, which killed thousands every single year. The food
safety of the time overall was plain awful and far below the good and clean food of today.
With the publishing of this novel in 1906 came public knowledge about the filthiness of
the meat industry. The Jungle not only exposed an industry of deceit and filth, but it raised public
awareness in regard to food safety The exposing of this evil is important to the understanding of
the great social and legal influence this text had on society. Soon after the publishing of this work,
within the same year, President Theodore Roosevelt and congress passed the Pure Food and
Drug act. The purpose of this act was to protect the public against adulteration of food and from
products identified as healthful without scientific support. Although the original Act was amended
multiple times, this book prompted new food safety legislation, legislation that is still being
improved to this very day. Many of these laws not only ensure safe and healthy food for
consumers to eat, but these laws also prevent corruption within the meat industry. As seen in the
following excerpt, bosses knew the sick food in which they were serving people. ‘To Jurgis the
packers had been equivalent to fate; Ostrinski showed him that they were the Beef Trust. They
were a gigantic combination of capital, which had crushed all opposition, and overthrown the laws
of the land, and was preying upon the people.” (Sinclair, 326) In most instances it can be agreed
that seeing the filth and seeing hazardous food served and failing to prevent the serving is just as
great an evil as serving the hazardous food. This is the essence of the change in the meat
industry from the past to present. Not only is healthy and wholesome food served, but it is now
served in a transparent and legal way. In The Jungle portrays the meat industry to be a monster
hiding beneath a veil of brick walls outside of the factory. Although most modern meat factories
are not typically open to the public completely, they are still open to the eyes of regulatory and
government agencies. In order for a meat factory today to even exist it must be scrutinized and
evaluated by many eyes in order to ensure that wholesome products come from the plant. Not
only are modern meat factories serving wholesome food but they are also taking steps on a daily
basis to prevent the growth of anything harmful to the human body. With attention to detail meat
factories now have plans and preventative measures to prevent the existence of harmful bacteria,
molds and yeasts, viruses and deadly protozoa. According to Sinclair, no attention was given to
cleanliness or healthiness in the early 20th century meat industry. Nothing could be more untrue

6. about the modern meat industry, factories are now places that remain sterile and places which
support and provide good healthy working conditions for employees. “The U.S. food processing
sector is extensively regulated by state and federal agencies. Federal agencies dominate the
regulatory oversight: USDA FSIS for the meat and poultry processing businesses and FDA for all
other food processing businesses. State agencies also have an active role in overseeing food
processing businesses within their respective states, but their role is in collaboration with the
federal agencies.” (N.D.S.U.) This fact makes clear that every single meat processing facility in
the United States is strictly watched and monitored by governing agencies. This ensures food
safety and cleanliness.
In conclusion, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was without a doubt an influential novel.
Three important points to analyze when reading this novel are the meat trade and how it is run as
a whole, food safety, and how the times have changed from 1906 to now. With these three points
we must also consider the massive social implications of the novel. This novel brought about
legislation that improved the meat industry in America, such as the Pure Food and Drug Act of
1906. This novel also brought about change in workers rights. This text allows modern reader to
see how fortunate American’s are to have a clean and updated and nourishing meat industry.

7. Sources:
Saxowski, David. "Regulation of the U.S. Food Processing Sector." Ag.NDSU.edu. North Dakota
State University, 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
USDA. "Mission Statement | USDA." Mission Statement | USDA. USDA, 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 03
May 2015.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Cambridge, MA: R. Bentley, 1971. Print.