vered with boils. “It was a nasty job killing these, for when you plunged you knife into them they would burst and splash foul-smelling stuff in your face,” (The Jungle, page 99). According to law, diseased meat could not be sold out of the state. However, there were no laws restricting its sale inside the state. As a result, the tuberculosis-infected hog meat never left Packingtown. It was sold to the meat workers at inflated prices. Another thing that shocked me while reading the novel was the cruelty to animals. The animals were packed in freight cars, and shipped across the country. Many of them died on the trip. Once reaching Packingtown, each hog had a chain fastened around its leg, was hoisted into the air, and carried into a room where its throat was slit. When the cattle reached Packingtown, they were stunned by electric shock, and dropped onto a conveyor belt, where a man with a sledgehammer pierced their skulls. These animals existed in very poor conditions, especially the cattle that developed boils.Progressivism was a period of American history that focused on improving working conditions, improving the way of life, exposing corruption, expanding democracy and making reforms was the main idea of this period. Many of the citizens granted and demanded a change in numerous areas such as business, labor, economy, consumers and an increase of democracy.The Meat Inspection Act was also passed because of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. The Meat Inspection Act regulated that all food must be inspected, prohibited the use of addictive drugs in prescription medicine and required proper labels on food and drugs.Now that I have read The Jungle, I am amazed that our country survived to be the world superpower it is today. I am even more amazed that we did not all die from eating food made in such poor conditions. The novel did not persuade me to become a Socialist, but I did consider being a vegetarian. Alth...
