The Jungle by Upton Sinclair one of the most famous American novels ever written. Most people associate The Jungle with the federal legislation it provoked. Americans were horrified to learn about the terrible sanitation under which their meat products were packed. They were even more horrified to learn that the labels listing the ingredients in tinned meat products were full of lies. The revelation that rotten and diseased meat was sold without a single consideration for public health infuriated American citizens. They consumed meat containing the ground remains of poisoned rats and unfortunate workers who fell into the machinery. Within months of The Jungle's publication, the sale of meat products dropped dramatically. The public outcry of fury led to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, less than a year after the novel's publication.
             However, contrary to what many people believe, Sinclair did not write The Jungle to incite the American government into regulating the sanitation of the meat packing industry. Sinclair wrote his novel to provoke outrage over the miserable working conditions of industrial wage labor and to display the evils of capitalism as an economic system. He detailed the lack of sanitation in the factories in order to provoke sympathy and outrage for the impoverished factory workers. The germs and disease inside the meat packing establishments were indeed a public health concern, but it was far more of a concern for the workers. Sinclair portrays the various sicknesses they suffer as a result of their working environments.
             In the novel, Sinclair writes about Jurgis's Lithuanian immigrant family who moves into the disgusting tenements and meat packing factories of Chicago. There, they suffer the loss of all hopes of success and freedom in America. They find themselves forced into poverty in the city slums despite their efforts. Jurgis himself suffers misfortune after misfortune. He jo...