Upton Sinclair& The Muckrakers

The Jungle

mucklraklingNOUN

1. SEARCHING FOR AND EXPOSING REAL OR ALLEGED CORRUPTION, SCANDAL, OR THE LIKE, ESP. IN POLITICS.

2. SEARCHING FOR AND EXPOSING MISCONDUCT IN PUBLIC LIFE.

Muckraking:A form of social criticismUsually advocates for social reformAligned with the Progressive movementBecame widespread in the late 1800s and

early 1900s in print media (newspapers, newsletters, magazines, novels, etc.)

Though the term itself seems to have a negative connotation, it has helped better the quality of life for American people by exposing evil corporations

The Original GangstersThese are some of the more famous muckrakers

from the early Progressive era: Lincoln Steffens

The Shame of the Cities Exposed political corruption in major American cities

Ida M. Tarbell The History of the Standard Oil Company Exposed John Rockefeller’s violations of anti-trust

legislation

Upton Sinclair The Jungle Exposed unsafe and unsanitary conditions in meat-packing

factories

Disscus

Can you think of any modern day muckrakers?

Morgan Spurlock

His film Supersize Me criticized the fast food industry.

Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein

Unknown Washington Post reporters rose to national fame by being the only two writers in America to break the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation.

Michael Moore

A controversial idealist (as most muckrakers are), Moore has criticized everything from the national health care policy to the treatment of auto workers to the President’s role in the 9/11 attacks.

How is Upton Sinclair a muckracker?

“The pen

(again) is

mightier than the sword”

In 1906, Sinclair’s novel The Jungle drew outrage against the Chicago meatpacking industry for its arrogant disregard of basic health standards. This led to government regulation of food and drugs.

The JunglePublished in serial form in 1905 and as a novel in 1906.

Elicited a reaction from everyone in the country, including President Teddy Roosevelt.

The JungleAn expose of unsanitary conditions and deceitful practices of the meat-packing industry.

Contributed enormously to the passage of the Food and Drug Act of 1906.

From Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle“There would be meat that had

tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had trampled and spit uncounted billions

of germs. There would be meat stored in rooms and thousands of rats would

race about it..A man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep handfuls of dried rat dung.

These rats were nuisances, and packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then the

rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together…

                 

,

“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”The author had intended for the book to be less of an expose of the meat industry and more of an argument for socialism.

Notable as literature:1. Literature had not

previously had such a significant social impact.

2. Literature had not traditionally been told from the perspective of the weak or the dispossessed class.

-Takes place in Chicago’s “Packingtown” district and focuses on the conditions of the labourers and sanitization within slaughterhouses.

-

Sinclair went undercover and posed as a slaughterhouse employee for seven weeks before beginning the novel.

-Sinclair’s main message was one of socialism and to enlighten the American people about the way immigrant workers were being treated; the public instead focused on the vulgar descriptions of the meat being shipped to their homes.

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Video Links

International outrage over The Jungle

What impact did The Jungle have on the American people?

The power “of one paragraph”— Explain.

Reflections:Write a reaction to this introduction of The Jungle. Use detailed explanations to help your reader “feel” what you do.

— Explain.

Excerpt from The Jungle:“It seemed that he was working in the room where the men prepared the beef for canning, and the beef had lain in vats full of chemicals, and men with great forks speared it out and dumped it into trucks, to be taken to the canning-room. When they had speared out all they could reach, they emptied the vat on the floor, and then with shovels scraped up the balance and dumped it into the truck; this floor was filthy with manure tracked in from the streets, and with spit, and the accumulated dirt of years...” (p. 52)

Excerpt from The Jungle:“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped onto hoppers, and made over again for home consumption” (p. 126)

-Sinclair personally sent then President Theodore Roosevelt a copy of the novel, who was outraged at the atrocities being described and called for reform

-Legislation quickly passed the Pure Food and Drug Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act in 1906, the same year the book was published, and eventually helped to form the Food and Drug Administration

-Domestic and foreign sales of American meat products declined over 50% immediately following the release of the novel

While Upton Sinclair was most well-known for his social impact because of The Jungle, his other works would always live in the shadows. He tried to take bigger steps forward with his socialist agenda by running for Governor of California, but that did not materialize. Sinclair even opened his own socialist commune, but it was mysteriously burned to the ground within a year of its opening. Overall, Sinclair was a visionary for his time and his lasting effects will always be on the pages he left behind.

“Teddy Rooseve l t And The Progress ive Movement .” www.Pro jec tv iew.Org /c iccommunicat ion / r ick .Ppt

“Upton S inc la i r And The Effect He Had On Soc ie ty. ”

www.S l ideshare .Net /pe termarks /upton-s inc la i r -and- the -effect -he -had-on -soc ie ty

 

 

Works Cited