Response Paper #1- 28 February 2014

The text I am reviewing is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I chose this text as it is the most recent text I have read. I read it in my history class this semester and I have always loved history. The main topic of this text was the horrible conditions and negative effects of industrialization and capitalism. The main reason Sinclair wrote it was to be propaganda for the socialist party at the time of this book’s publication in 1905. It all centers on the experiences of a fictitious immigrant family that has just arrived in part of Chicago known as packing town, to start a new life and make money. It goes on to point out the horrible living conditions of most immigrants and how they are often greatly mistreated by other people in the neighborhood and owners of the factories they work at. The battle between workers and unions with management in this time period. The horrible working conditions for long hours and low pay. The corruption in politics, the police, and the owners of the factories. At the end of the text, when the main character has lost everything and is at rock bottom, he wanders into a socialist rally. He then becomes a prominent member of the socialist party and then seems to have all the answers to life. I do believe this text relates to current events and experiences. Today, the gap between the wealthy and everyone else is growing slowly but surely. In the text, the gap was enormous and people banded together to try and get rid of that gap through social and political reform. Today, we need just as much energy need to be brought to today’s problems. We have just as much or even more problems than previous generations did with our economy, space travel, and our planet. Then just the same problems with the wealthy controlling everything from the economy to politics. I cannot say that I read the same type of texts on my own time, but I am interested in solving our problems so we don’t leave them for later generations to fix. I wish I had the skills to solve some of these problems so I can fix them and make a brighter future for future generations. I think the book was a very poorly written book and didn’t accomplish its original task. Sinclair wrote it to inspire people to join the socialist party. The main thing the populace took from this text was the horrible conditions our food goes through in being prepared and stored. This text inspired the president, Theodore Roosevelt, to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 which would lead to our current Food and Drug Administration. The FDA’s primary function is the promotion of public health. The book didn’t accomplish the reform it set out to do, but it did lead to an important reform which we still have today.