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Upton Sinclair The Jungle Summary

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Upton Sinclair published a novel describing how unsanitary the meat packing houses in Chicago were. His publication resulted in the enactment of legislations that established more stern inspections of meat processing and packing houses. However, The Jungle resulted into a different consequence from what Upton intended. This is because Upton aimed that the book would shed light on the difficulty of workers in meat industry but ended up back firing. In this regard, the public ignored the need to improve workers’ welfare as described in the book but instead became more sensitively aware of the awful unsanitary conditions in the meat industry. The book’s description of contaminated, rotten, and diseased meat upset the public and ignited the enactment of new food safety laws. However, there is still an ongoing debate on whether the conditions were as unsanitary as Upton depicted or had he exaggerated the problem? …show more content…

Undeniably, this book led to a public outrage as the public reacted shockingly about the awful unsanitary conditions as well as falsely labeled meat packages. As a consequence, meat sales declined sharply. If the book’s story was untrue, the public outrage could never be experienced. What is more, the government inspection program that existed during the time was approved in 1891 and was not adequate to guarantee the safety and health of the country's meat supply. More specifically, the 1891 act only mandated inspection of meat planned for export, thereby leaving the US consumers at health

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