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Poor Working Conditions In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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The Jungle Paper The Jungle is a novel written by Upton Sinclair. It is about a Lithuanian family that immigrates to America during the early 1900’s. When they arrive in Packingtown, Chicago, they are hopeful and excited for their new life. In reality, life in America was not all that it was advertised to be. During this time period, life was not only difficult for immigrants, but for American citizens too. There are many problems Sinclair addresses in The Jungle but one problem, he focuses on is poor working conditions such as an unsanitary workplace, long working hours, and no safety precautions. Poor working conditions are present throughout the novel, whether a character is experiencing it or Sinclair explains it. One example is when the main character, Jurgis Rudkus, is hired at Brown’s Meat Factory as someone who mops meat guts into a hole in the floor (Sinclair, 163). He is so excited to have work, that he does not realize how unsanitary his job is. The floors of the factory and the employees are covered in blood all day. Also, during the spring and summer months the meat factories get awfully warm. (Sinclair, 398) Employees are surrounded by warm spoiled meat, which can cause diseases in the workers and the consumers. Workers did not even have a place to wash …show more content…

Employees are forced to work for long periods of time without breaks and less pay. This especially affects Jurgis and his family because their main source of income has been cut. Ona, Jurgis's wife, has also just had a baby and because he is at work for so long he is not able to spend time with his baby. (Sinclair, 420) The laborers in Packingtown are worked at a greater speed, but also working for a long time. (428) Because of this, their wages would increase and decrease rapidly. This made their family constantly worrying about how much money they had. After working for so long, workers begin to become reckless, hurting themselves and causing

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