Analyzing The Evils Of Children In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

In her speech addressing the National American Woman Suffrage Association on the topic of child labor, Florence Kelley bases her argument, through the use of logos, cacophony, and rhetorical questions on the ethical merit against child labor. Establishing her main arguments, and introducing the topic at hand, Kelley provides statistical evidence by which she conveys the pandemic of child labor. By stating that, “We have, in this country, two million children who are earning their bread,” she establishes the idea that child labor is widespread throughout the union and further notes the idea by describing the alarming trend of low wage-earning children growing as a demographic. She also notes it is especially common for girls between the ages

“With one member trimming beef in a cannery, and another working in a sausage factory, the family had a first-hand knowledge of the great Packingtown swindles” (par.1). This statement from Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, introduces trust from a family because of their own personal knowledge . The Jungle, features an immigrant family trying to survive in 1900’s Chicago meat packing district. In the story, Sinclair’s goal is to expose the miserable life of immigrants who work in factories. To accomplish this goal, the author conveys rhetorical strategies such as diction, pathos, and metaphors.

In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair presents a wide range of corruption involving, blacklisting, political scams, and the mishandling of meat. During the early 20th century, immigrants in America were exposed to many forms of corruption. The Jungle is based in Packingtown, Chicago, a very crowded city. Here, lived an excess amount of very poor immigrants. As they were immigrants, they often did not realize they were taken advantage of until it was too late--if ever. This was because many of them did not speak English, did not understand our government laws, or rules of their community, or were extremely poor, making them desperate for things like low-paying jobs.

As the rate of industrialization in America grew during the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, child labor became more and more common. The rapid growth of the economy and the vast amounts of poor immigrants during the Industrial Age in America justified the work of children as young as the age of three. By 1900, over two million children were employed. However, the risks of involving child labor greatly outweighed the positives; child labor was inhumane, cruel, and caused physical deformities among children. Children typically worked in coal mines, mills, and factories which contained many life-threatening hazards. For instance, “Francis Lance, 5 years old, 41 inches high” shows a five year old boy risking his

In the early 1900s, food safety was an incredibly unfamiliar and overlooked part of America’s food industry. Written by muckraker Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, was a controversial novel that depicted the harsh living and working conditions of immigrants working in the food industry. After the release of The Jungle, thousands of meat-eating Americans were horrified at what had been happening in factories. Disgusting yet accurate details presented in The Jungle were the basis for the creation of laws to stop food production from becoming so unsanitary.

“During the 1800s there were few laws in Britain regulating the employment of children. Elizabeth Bentley testified before a parliamentary committee investigating conditions among child laborers in Britain’s textile industry.”(Document 7) Child labor was among the worst non -laws among factories and business owners. Children were forced to work long hours and as a result never obtained and education. Kids also were treated badly if they didn’t do as they were told. “Between 1908 - 1912 Lewis Hine worked as the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). During this time he documented child labor in American industry in an effort to support the NCLC’s efforts to end the practice” (Document 8). In a picture that Lewis Hine took in a factory showed bad result of child labor. The child he took a picture of was shown working wit absolutely no shoes on and that was obviously not safe for them to be doing. Kids were also working dangerous achiness that could possibly sever a hand. Child labor cause death, lack of education, and possibly severed

Florence Kelley uses many rhetorical devices and strategies to convey her message about child labor and working conditions for women in the early 1900’s. Kelley uses each device effectively to produce a very powerful strategy. This strategy convinces the reader about her view and persuades them to take action.

The industrial revolution was a time of immense progress. It marked an era of technological advancements and a changing society, yet also a period smeared with unfair and unsafe working conditions. The history is filled with stories of people suffering, being injured, and even dying, all in the process of creating goods for the changing consumer culture. Thousands looked past the suffering, condoled themselves with the goods they purchased at economical prices all at the expense of the working class, a class that had no other choice than to work in the dark, dangerous factories to feed their family. While the consumer culture in this time could look past the anguish of those in the working class, progressives could not. They watched children

“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time” (Grace Abbott). The issue of child labor has been around for centuries. Its standing in our world has been irrevocably stained in our history and unfortunately, our present. Many great minds have assessed this horrific issue and its effect on our homes, societies, and ultimately, our world.

In Florence Kelley’s speech, through her use of parallel structure and detailed description to describe the conditions of child labor, anecdotes that relay its prominence, appeals to emotion and motherhood, she conveys an effective message that child labor is unjust.

The Industrialization had bloom during the late 1800s early 1900s. This big growth was a positive and negative impact in the United States history. This began the devastating practice of child labor. Children would work in factories for very long hours be paid very low wages or not even be paid. According to Harold Goldstein, ‘’it had been accepted as a norm, employment of young children gradually came to be viewed as harmful and exploitative in the United States.’’ The evolution of the United States Industrialization began child labor, which forced children to live very different lives than children live today.

The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair was an expose on the life of those who lived in Packingtown, Chicago. Packingtown was where most of the people who was looking for work lived, it was a very crowded city. Job openings were scarce and most of the jobs were very unsafe. Most of the people in this part of town were poor, so they did not really have much doubts of food,. The Jungle exposed the horrific work conditions, the poor food quality, and the deceitfulness of the business owners.

Essayist, Florence Kelley, once wrote, “For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil!” (Kelley 92-96). This quote can be traced back to her account, in which she presents before the National American Suffrage Association in Philadelphia in 1905. In it, she vividly depicts the horrors of child labor, providing countless reports, varying child labor laws throughout the states and ultimately, a solution to the dilemma. In author Florence Kelley’s essay … , she employs logos and rhetorical questions, in order to fortify her stance on child labor.

The testimonies give us a brief snapshot of the condition in which children worked. Conditions were hazardous and grueling. They worked long hours for little pay. Most of them could not read or write and they could not attend school because they needed to work. They suffered from malnutrition and exhaustion. They were innocent children that were locked up in factories, like they had committed a crime. There was no concern or accountability for the welfare of children. The realities are that they were treated severe with little to no regard to their well-being.

Work is required to earn the money to provide the necessities of life, but this duty should never be given to children. In her speech, Florence Kelley uses logos, pathos, and a shift to voting rights to build her argument of why child labor laws need to be enforced nationwide.