Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and the Pure Food and Drug Act Essay

Upton Sinclair’s â€Å"The Jungle† and the Pure Food and Drug Act Upton Sinclair’s â€Å"The Jungle,† gave the most in-depth description of the horrid truths about the way America’s food companies, â€Å"the only source of food for people living in the city,† are preparing the food they sell. â€Å"The Jungle† describes the terrible conditions of a Lithuanian family that moved to the US, and had to work, live, and die for the food companies in Chicago. â€Å"The Jungle† spurred a movement in the American people to do something about the problems facing the American food supply. Because of the growing concern about the quality of food in America the government took action to prevent further problems. Thus the Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed to fix the problems. The Food and Drug Act was a true example of how the people of our nation influenced the government to take action, to solve a growing problem effecting the American people. â€Å"The Jungle† talks about a couple who move to an area of Chicago, â€Å"known as Packtown,† from Lithuania. Packtown is the center of Chicago’s meat packing industry. It is a hard, dangerous, and filthy place where it is difficult to find a job. Some relatives of the couple and themselves get a house, but find out it is a swindle. Expenses increase and forces the children of the family to find work like the adults. Jobs in Packtown are back-breaking , unsafe, and have no regard for individual workers. The oldest of the family gets a job, but it is to difficult for the old man and he quickly dies. The man of the couple, â€Å"Jurgis,† is forced to work in an unheated packing house during the winter. Jurgis is injured and cant work for three months receiving no pay. One of the children dies of food poisoning. Jurgis joins a union and slowly begins to understand the way politics and bribery that control Packingtown. After attacking the boss of his wife for making her sleep with him, Jurgis is put in jail for a month. While in Jail the family has been evicted from there home and is living in a run-down boardinghouse. When Jurgis returns home he finds his wife in premature labor, and in the process of giving birth the child and her. Jurgis disappears on a drinking binge. With the help of a wealthy woman who takes and interest in the family, Jurgis finds a job at a steel mill. He is renewed in hope dedicating himself to Antanas, â€Å"his ... ...lightly to violating its new laws. From respectable authorities on the subject, and the 1906 Food and Drugs Act itself, gave paticual understanding of the events effecting that time period, a understanding of certain points in the novel â€Å"The Jungle†, and how the government went about solving the nation’s going problem, has lead myself to agree that Upton Sinclairs’s â€Å"The Jungle† had a major role in moving the government to clean up the food supply. Which by the approval of the 1906 Food and Drugs Act, the government succeeded in solving the problem. â€Å"The Jungle† showed to the nation the scam of biblical antiquity, that was effecting there very lives. It rallied the people to make the government find a solution to prevent further sicknesses and deaths because of greedy capitalists. The government set forth the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 in response which regulated and examined products developed by food and drug companies. Upton Sinclair provided the motive, and the government supplied the solution. Because of the these two forces we, in our day in time, can rest assured that our food and drugs are of the very top quality, and purity for human consumption.