In the early 1900’s, the conditions in the slaughterhouses were ghastly. First of all, the basic surroundings of the workers were horrid. The floors of the killing floors were layered in blood. It smelled bad and was unsanitary. Also, there were blood-curdling screeches of dying animals constantly ringing throughout Union Stockyards ("Slaughterhouse to the World" 5). Hours in the stockyards were awfully long and had excruciating temperature circumstances. Workdays were ten to twelve hours and were from Monday to Saturday. The hot, summer weather caused temperatures inside the packing plants to get scorching. This was partly due to poor ventilation. In contrast, during the winter, it became freezing because there was a lack of insulation ("Slaughterhouse to the World" 5). …show more content…
Speeding up was led by a laborer who set the pace of work. They gradually increased the tempo of which the assembly line moved. It allowed thousands of animals to process ("Slaughterhouse to the World" 4). The grueling work pushed the laborers to their physical and mental limits. Those who couldn’t keep up were easily replaced by the abundance of workers available (Sinclair 71). Along with poor natural conditions, there were numerous machine malfunctions. There was a report of a steam hoist collapsing through a floor. Also, accounts of boilers and rendering tanks exploding were told. A man named Fred Prill had his arm stuck in sausage rollers, and it had to be amputated. Finally, a worker fell into a rendering tank and was “…boiled almost to jelly” (Carrol 121). The packers did not give any health benefits to the workers either ("Slaughterhouse to the World" 5). Furthermore, the meat manufactured was as disgusting as the work conditions. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Chicago packers supplied food. They produced Tinned
There was so much pressure to keep their jobs that workers would comply to working the hazardous machines. Even the best worker is prone to make mistakes, but for the workers operating these machines making a mistake was disastrous. This was the price the workers had to pay to make a living, they had to gamble their own life in order to make low wages that could not even support their own
After reading “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, Theodore Roosevelt passed a few acts to ensure a safer and sanitary environment where livestock is slaughtered and processed. “The Jungle” shows the working class and their lack of social support, the loss of hope among the workers and unsanitary working and living conditions, for example, working environments were covered in blood, meat scraps, and dirty water. The book follows a man as he observes the meat industry as its horrific faults. He noticed the workers lost their fingers in the meat and the workers used bathrooms next to where the meat was processed occasionally doing their business on the floor. There was a chapter describing the meat being piled on the floor carrying sawdust, dead rats,
The book, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection describes how Upton Sinclair stated how he had hoped to draw his readers’ attention to “the conditions under which toilers get their bread,” and how there are, “corrupt federal meat inspectors, unsanitary slaughter houses, tubercular cattle, and the packers’ unscrupulous business practices”(Document 4). The authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle are expressing how meat factory workers are making terrible, unsanitary food. They’re pointing out that not even the meat inspectors care for the condition the meat is in. In other words, just as long as they’re making a profit, the inspectors could care less about the meat’s quality. However, consumer products soon took a turn for the better when the Meat Inspection Act was finally passed.
One of the problems that the people faced was working in dangerous and unsanitary work conditions. In the early 20th century many meatpacking industry 's were unsanitary and dangerous. Upton Sinclair, a young socialist journalist and novelist, spent weeks investigating the topic in Chicago. Once Upton uncovered these appalling facts he soon later
Instead, big companies are choosing to risk their client’s health by feeding animals what they are not supposed to eat and pumping them with e Coli and stuffing them in a tiny barn where they can’t flap a wing and are forced to stand in feces which may or may not be their own . In The Jungle, they described how they treated dead animal meat, now just imagine how they must have treated the alive animals. This next quote is describing how they kept the meat . “Every Spring they did it; and in the barrels there would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water- and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast” (Pg. 143, The Jungle)
In early 1900, specifically, 1906, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written. This novel told the story of a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in a filthy Chicago meatpacking plant. It exposed the meatpacking industry by stating their vile practices not only towards their meat but their workers as well. This was a result of the combination of many immigrants in the United States to pursue a better life, and the fact that many big industries were looking for ways to maximize their profit.
Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food. Body 1: The meat packing industry’s working conditions were much worse in the 1900’s than they are today. In the novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, working conditions were horrible for immigrants who were employed in these factories. People in these factories were worked very hard and used up till they could not work anymore. In the novel Jurgis broke his ankle because of the unsafe
In the Brown’s factory Teta Elizabeth’s Son Stainslovas catches Frost bite his ear lobes falls off and 3 joints in his fingers becomes damaged because he works at the lard machine. Most of these machines were managed by unskilled immigrants. Second, most of the factories were unsanitary. The fog was so high in the factory that if you were to cut a piece of meat you would probably cut your hand off.
Schlosser shows us the secret between packaging plants, meat houses, and fast food restaurants. The meat in the burger you are holding right now was mass produced in factories and in disgusting environments. They also mistreat the animals in these plants as well. Brutality is shown as well as cruelty to animals. These factories are unsafe and put mostly put every living thing inside at danger.
LYDDIE Lydia (Lyddie) Worthen, a thirteen-year-old begins working in the Lowell textile mill to pay off her family’s debt. In Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, every girl has the choice of signing the petition Diana Goss is circulating. The air in the factory is murky and dense, the sound coming from the looms are unbearable, as well as the unfair hours and pay on the job. Lyddie should sign the petition, for the treatment she and many other girls received on their job are unjust.
The Jungle In the literary work, The Jungle, the author, Upton Sinclair makes a commentary on the deceitful and dark truth of the American dream. This was achieved by using the canned meat that was produced in Packingtown as a symbol to represent the dream that all the immigrants had about their new lives in America. As the story progresses, the reader, along with the protagonist, Jurgis will discover that the American dream lies cloaked behind a shroud of beautiful lies that masks the vile truths that are the American dream and the canned “beef” processed by the corrupt meat business in Packingtown.
Revealing the harsh treatment of meatpacking workers and showing the reality of the disgusting conditions found in butchery shops to the public, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle became an enduring classic by American readers throughout the early twentieth century the prompted the later creation of the Federal Drug Administration. In the early 1900s, America was explosively transitioning from an agricultural society to a thriving manufacturing-based nation. As production demand in factories grew throughout the country, the work force needed to run those factories also expanded. A new type of demanding and dangerous work became prevalent throughout the nation, as immigrants coming into the “Land of Opportunity” found themselves desperate
Rhetorical Analysis “Down on the factory farm” The last thing that comes to our mind when we order a piece of steak at a restaurant is how that animal we are about to eat was being treated while they were alive. According to author Peter Singer’s article "Down on the factory farm” he questions what happened to your dinner when it was still an animal? He argues about the use and abuse of animals raised for our consumption. In Singer’s article he states personal facts and convincing statistics to raise a legitimate argument.
History does not always convey the absolute truth. It offers only one side of the story. The strong and powerful voices always drown out the sounds of the weak and beaten. The winner’s word will always be taken over the loser’s. The content that lies within the textbooks was not written by the defeated.
Technological Advancements in Warfare and their Effects on Mental Health Humans are extremely social creatures. People have an unparalleled capacity to empathize and recognize the emotions of others. However, extreme trauma can severely compromise this ability, particularly trauma inflicted by warfare. As a result of his first hand experience with the government 's use of technology in warfare, Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five loses his ability to control his social interactions, becoming apathetic and disconnected with the world around him, a phenomenon not uncommon amongst those who have seen the immediate devastation of modern warfare technology.