The Jungle - Exposing the Meatpacking Industry

1. In your opinion, which specific details in this excerpt most convincingly highlight problems in the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s? Why? Use specific passages and quote. Analyze at least five details. 

A. Cleanliness of the meat industry - it goes on for a whole paragraph talking about all of the gross things that happened to the meat that went into sausages.

B. The smell of meat - in the passage it talks about how sometimes the smell of some of these meats was so horrible that no man could stand to be in a room with the can of it. They solved this problem by altering it chemically and changing the scent.

C. Lack of inspection - it said that the person who inspected the hogs would miss about a dozen pigs at a time just talking to people, telling them what he did and why it was important. Of those dozen he missed, one of them could have contained tuberculosis.

D. The presentation of the meat - If people saw the meat in it's condition before it was chemically altered, people would have freaked out because the meat was from all sorts of different places and wasn't 100% meat. They solved this problem by figuring out how to change the color of everything so it was all brown, and in turn resembled meat so that no one would know the difference. 

E. The meat - The meat itself was a problem because it would go bad, so they figured out ways on how to fix this debacle. They would pickle the meat, and freeze it, and make it into sausages. Meat "never" went bad after scientists figured out these "genius" solutions.

2. What is the overall tone of the story?

The overall tone of this story is very serious and very informative.

3. Based on your reading of this excerpt, why do you think Sinclair titled his novel The Jungle?

I think Sinclair titled this novel "The Jungle" because the meat industry itself was very complex... like a jungle. It's a metaphor describing his thoughts on this line of work/business. 

Challenges of Urbanization

The People: why were the three groups below drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest? 

1. Immigrants - Immigrants were drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest because cities were the cheapest and most convenient places to live. They also offered great opportunities for steady jobs for unskilled workers in factories and mills.



2. Farmers - 



3. African-Americans  - African Americans were drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest such as Chicago and Detroit in an effort to escape racial violence, economic hardship and political oppression. 

The Problems: What was done in response to the following five problems? 

4. Lack of safe and efficient transportation

In response to the problem of lack of safe and efficient transportation, there were many innovations in transit. Street cars and electric subways were introduced to the world.

5. Unsafe drinking water

To address this issue of unsafe drinking water, filtration systems and chlorination were introduced.

6. Lack of sanitation 

Due to the lack of sanitation, sewage lines and sanitation departments were created. Also, private contractors (scavengers) were hired to collect garbage, sweep the streets, and clean outhouses.


7. Fire Hazards

To fix the problem of fire hazards, fire departments were invented, buildings weren't made of wood but rather with inflammable material such as brick, stone, or concrete.

Immigration

1. What major areas or countries of the world were immigrants coming from?


Immigrants were mainly coming from western & northern Europe.


2. What were the two major immigration processing stations in the United States?


Ellis Island & Angel Island were the two major immigration processing stations in the United States.


3. Define Melting Pot.


The term "Melting Pot" was used to describe the United States, because it was meant in the sense that the United States was a mixture of people of many different races and cultures who blended together by abandoning their native languages and customs and taking up American ways.


4. Define Nativism.


Nativism is overt favoritism towards native-born Americans.


5. According to the Immigration Restriction League, list the desirable immigrants.


Anglo-Saxons... British, German, Scandinavian, historically free, energetic & progressive.


6. According to the Immigration Restriction League, list the “wrong” immigrants.


Slavic, Latin, Asiatic, historically down-trodden & stagnant.


7. Why did nativists’ sometimes object to an immigrant’s religious background?


Nativists sometimes objected to an immigrant's religious background because many nativists were protestant and thought that the Roman Catholic & Jew immigrants would undermine the democratic institutions established by the country's protestant founders.


8. Why was the Chinese Exclusion Act passed?


The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed because many nativists were afraid that their jobs would be taken by the Chinese immigrants due to the fact that they accepted lower than average wages.