The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

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THE JUNGLE

In 1906 Upton Sinclair 's historical novel the Jungle originally sounded the clarion call about the horrendous abuses which characterized the meat packing industry at the time . The book raised awareness about the horrendous practices in the meat factories . It was a catalyst for social and political change as the government created laws to abolish the practice of abusing immigrant labour and selling tainted meat

Sinclair 's novel narrated the story of poor immigrants who worked in meat packaging factories for very

low wages . Since the immigrants did not speak or understand English it was very easy for the factory owners to cheat them out of their wages . The workers worked long hard hours for meagre wages which were often cut and were also not paid for any extra or partial work they did . The workers were forced to work at increased pay and this factor combined with the fact that most of these workers were unskilled resulted in a high incidence of injury "And , for this at the end of the week , he will carry home three dollars to his family being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour (Sinclair , 85

The books give horrendous accounts of the animals being shackled and led to the slaughterhouse . In Sinclair 's book the animals are knocked unconscious by the knocker and then lead to another person who slits their throat . Relentless , remorseless , it was all his protests , his screams , were nothing...