Introduction
The jungle was written in the year 1906 by an American journalist and novelist by the name Upton Sinclair. The author wrote this novel to be able to portray the lives that immigrants lived in the United States especially Chicago and other similar industrialized cities .Most of his readers were mainly concerned with his exposure to especially health violations and unsanitary practices that had for a long time been in the American meat packing industry. This was during the 20th century when he did this investigation for a socialist newspaper. The book also tries to depict about the working class poverty, how they lacked social support; their harsh working conditions and how they were hopeless. According to it most of these problems are as a course of deeply rooted corruption which is from the people in power. Sinclair for a long time was considered a muckraker or in other terms a journalist who never feared to expose corruption in the government and also in businesses. His first publication of the novel in serial form was in the year 1905 that was in the socialist newspaper after spending seven weeks gathering information .He worked incognito to gather firsthand information through working for a meat packing plant that was based in Chicago. The paper tries to analyze the book and some inner meaning to what the author meant.
The pure food and drug act which was passed in 1906 was supposed to protect the citizens against adulteration of food and also keep away any products that were not passed as healthy using scientific support. Upton Sinclair who was a muckraker had successfully made public awareness through his book about careless food preparation and his breakthrough was the case about the meat packing process which led to a lot of outcry in the country. Theodore Roosevelt was the president by then and he began a process of ensuring that the meat inspection act was changed and passed. At the end, the food and drug act was passed in 1906 and it defined better on the rules involving food adulteration. In the early 1900 the meat industry really needed to be regulated as also implied by Sinclair .Some scientific evidence had been brought by Dr Harvey W. Wiley who was the chief chemist in the department of agriculture. In her findings she published that there was wide spread use of harmful preservatives which were been used in the meat packing industry. Comparing this to today there is still a lot that needs to be done in regulating the meat processing. In a research done there is rise in vegetarians in America with an increase rate of about 19.4 percent per year and 31 percent out of the 52 percent of vegetarians cited there major reason for changing was the safety standards which they thought were still not to the level they should be .This does prove that the government still has to intervene and amend the food act and be more strict.
There was a lot of outcry from other governments in the world when a building in Bangladesh again collapsed after a fire break out which led to other factors been questioned like the working conditions of the workers. Exportation of jobs to third world countries has become very common with business owners with examples like Wal-Mart but is it ethical in any way is the question that remains unanswered. Most of the goods made in America come from Asian countries like Bangladesh and china. The definition sweat shop may remain broad and may describe a lot of things that are unreasonable such as authoritative overseer and unhealthy. From a what we would call business perspective the sweat shops are very lucrative to the owners since they capitalize on low wage which significantly reduces cost of production this is majorly with clothing companies as seen in the Bangladesh case GAP came with an initiative which analyst called it a sham which was a way of taking cover so that they cannot be crucified, since these companies have for a long time been criticized for their malpractices.
This is a confirmation that what Sinclair stood against still does exist, slavery these companies for a long time have neglected human rights which are the major factors of social and economic development such as low wages though most of these business argue that raising of labor standard costs leads to limitation of the number of jobs than would have been available to the poor but fair work must be considered a critical underpinning for social stability to be there. Meaning businesses that respect labor rights should be able to put more money to workers side which in return helps them to be able to live a better life and also be healthier and educate their children. In the Bangladesh case most of these garment workers are said to earn 37 dollars per month this compared to the economy and their needs is very small .It is not ethical as these businesses take the products back to their country where they sell at a very high price which in most times is almost 100 percent profit. All of this can be related to Sinclair’s book when he talks about a population of low class and mostly foreign people who were on the verge and dependent on opportunities and made people indulge in immorality. The slaves by then were taken for granted by their masters just like today where companies are ignoring the cry of these workers. These businesses in one way or another do help since they create a lot of jobs for the poor but still are unethical considering most of these jobs are not permanent and the biggest gainer is the owner.
Other books in the past have come up and led to change in legislation .Authors are known to be of great influence and change a lot the public’s view ,as they are known to be most of the time fearless, bold and talk about the situation as it is. As Sinclair fought for immigrants also did Sarah M Evans fight to women’s liberation in civil rights. Women for a long time had been harassed and been into slavery .Sarah liberated through her different books and led to creation of movement to fight for the women.by by 1980 results were been seen .some of her that she wrote are personal politics and born for liberty.
Conclusion
In conclusion the book can be viewed as an eye opener .Upton Sinclair as an author come out as a muckraker who is successful. The book portrays failure in capitalism which in the author’s own view is destructive, inhuman, brutal and also violent. It brings out the immigrants who come possessing the idealistic faith of the American dream but as time goes by it is eaten up by torture .Capitalism has been simply been portrayed as total evil from greedy destruction of the children to the public been sold for diseased meat .The government is seen trying its best after this book by reviewing the food and drug of 1906 and taking hard measures to curb this menace. On the other hand the authors agenda is seen to still prevail in the day to day community where people are have no human rights. It’s seen in the Bangladesh case where people are paid small wages which are not enough .This is unethical as the business owners are getting big profits at the workers cost. It joins other set of books which have also contributed to change in legislation issues and have been able to give the public an inner view of the government.
