The Jungle

            Upton Sinclair gears his book, "The Jungle, toward informing the American public about the socialist reform of the time. Instead, it brought the entire nation to its feet, when they found out just what they and there children were eating. This book describes the life of a Lithuanian family who struggle to get by in Chicago. Most of the story revolves around the life of Jurgis Rudkus and the obstacles he faces while trying to achieve the so-called American Dream. Although this book is a work of fiction, many of the problems that take place are true to the time. In addition, many outcomes were able to come from Sinclair's book, these outcomes assisted with the ongoing changes of a growing nation. The historical realities and the positive outcomes of the book made many politicians look at how their nation was going in a downward spiral to poverty and made them change the nation to a safer place.
             Usually fictional books seldom relate to the real world, but Sinclair was able to cover many realities of the time. For instance, the working conditions in the early 1900's were not the greatest. He was able to describe the horror that took place while Jurgis was working at his many jobs. What shocked most American's are how people worked and the conditions at the meat packing plants. The man who was supposed to be checking animals for tuberculosis would sometimes miss some of the animals because he was carrying on a conversation. This could mean that many animals went past him who might have the disease without him even knowing. Rats would also fall into the meat and the men would not even bother to pick them out or even wash their hands while handling the meat. Unsanitary conditions of the whole town of Packingtown made many members of Jurgis's family sick, one of the children even died from illness caused by the town. This may seem horrible the way people worked, but the way they lived was even worse.