The Jungle
Meatpacking industry exposé
*The Jungle* is Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel exposing brutal conditions in the American meatpacking industry.
Though Sinclair intended to build sympathy for immigrant workers, readers fixated on the unsanitary food processing, prompting the Pure Food and Drug Act.
Sinclair later remarked: I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.
- meatpackingProcessing livestock into food
- ChicagoMajor Illinois metropolis
- immigrantsThose settling abroad
- LithuanianBaltic nation's people/language
tenements · naturalism · muckraking · American Dream · disillusionment · survival · poverty · exploitation
Illness prevention through handling
- FDAU.S. health regulator
- inspectionFormal assessment of condition
- regulationOfficial rules governing conduct
- muckrakingInvestigative reporting on corruption
legislation · labor rights · progressivism · activism · advocacy · social change · whistleblowing · exposure
Processing livestock into food
- slaughterhouseAnimal killing facility
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- assembly lineSequential workstation manufacturing
- machineryCollective mechanical equipment
workers · labor · stockyards · processing · canning · butchering · refrigeration · conveyor
Lacking proper cleanliness
- rat poisonToxic substance targeting rodents
- tuberculosisMycobacterial lung disease
- injuryPhysical or psychological harm
- amputationSurgical limb removal
death · poverty · starvation · child labor · desperation · squalor · suffering · hopelessness
Upton Sinclair
- meatpackingProcessing livestock into food
- ChicagoMajor Illinois metropolis
- immigrantsThose settling abroad
Lithuanian · tenements · naturalism · muckraking · American Dream · disillusionment · survival · poverty · exploitation · working class
food safety
Illness prevention through handling
- FDAU.S. health regulator
- inspectionFormal assessment of condition
- regulationOfficial rules governing conduct
muckraking · legislation · labor rights · progressivism · activism · advocacy · social change · whistleblowing · exposure · sanitation
meatpacking
Processing livestock into food
- slaughterhouseAnimal killing facility
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- assembly lineSequential workstation manufacturing
machinery · workers · labor · stockyards · processing · canning · butchering · refrigeration · conveyor · production
unsanitary
Lacking proper cleanliness
- rat poisonToxic substance targeting rodents
- tuberculosisMycobacterial lung disease
- injuryPhysical or psychological harm
amputation · death · poverty · starvation · child labor · desperation · squalor · suffering · hopelessness · dehumanization
- Labor LiteratureGrapes of Wrath, labor exploitation
- Reform Writingmuckraking, exposés, investigative reports, slave narratives, manifestos
- Proletarian NovelsMother, Union Square
- Classic BooksPride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, Moby-Dick, Great Expectations
- 1900s LiteratureThe Time Machine, War of the Worlds, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray
- American BooksTo Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Catch-22, Walden
The JungleAtlas Shrugged
Objectivist epic novel
The Fountainhead · Pollyanna · The Great Gatsby · escapist literature · dime novels
The JungleWalden
Massachusetts pond and memoir
nature writing · romantic fiction · Pollyanna · utopian fiction · Wind in the Willows
jungle, jungles, jungly, junglelike, junglefowl, concrete jungle