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. One problem in the meatpacking industry was how poorly they treated the animals about to be killed for their meat. For example, "There were high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony" This quote obviously shows how scared the pigs were as they were hanging from only one of their legs. This is such a convincing quote because of the image it can put in your head, very persuasive.
B. Another example of the animals being treated poorly was, "until there was a double line of them, each dangling by a foot and kicking in frenzy" which clearly shows how awful these pigs were treated. Mind you, they were still alive while this was happening, it's one thing to kill them for meat, it's another thing to torture them. Yet again, this is such convincing evidence because of the image it can put in your mind of the pigs being dangled by their feet, helplessly squealing.
C. An obvious problem the meat packing industry had was the health department. There was a government inspector that was supposed to check each pig for tuberculosis. This seems like such a great thing because no one would want people getting sick from eating diseased pork, but it didn't work out that way. This inspector was easily distracted, as shown by, "while he was talking with you you could hardly be so ungrateful as to notice that a dozen carcasses were passing him untouched." meaning that the inspector wouldn't check the pigs if he was too busy having a conversation. This is convincing because it shows how much the people really cared about their customers if they didn't even have the common courtesy to check to see if the pigs were ridden with disease.
D. Another problem the meat packing industry had was sanitation. The workers there seemed as though they had no idea what cleanliness was, as proven by, "There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage" This is absolutely repulsive. This water would be mixed in with the sausage, the water that dirty mens' hands had been washed in. This is a convincing problem because people actually ended up eating what was on some workers hands, that is disgusting.
E.Lastly, the meat packing industry had a problem with rats. There was always rats in their work place spoiling their "good" meat. "There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats." This quote is a good indication of how many rats this place really did have. This also falls under the category of sanitation, which is really bad as i previously mentioned. This is convincing because, yet again, people were eating this meat, that had had rat poop on it, and little rat feet stomp all over it, which is really gross to even imagine.
2. What is the overall tone of the story?
The overall tone of the story seems to be "Anti-meat packaging industry" because of all of the problems being mentioned in the story. Also, using imagery and guilt is a persuasive technique this author used to seem to get people to feel bad about eating meat. Perhaps she was a vegetarian trying to get everyone to stop buying meat because of a ll of the problems this place had.
3. Based on your reading of this excerpt, why do you think Sinclair titled his novel The Jungle?
There are plenty of good reasons why this excerpt could've been named "The Jungle" One reason could be for how unsanitary this place was. The jungle is not necessarily the cleanest place, so it could be a comparison between a jungle and the work place. Also, implying that the workplace is disgusting. Another reason why it could've been called "The Jungle" is because of the attitudes within the workplace. The workers had no problem with the torture that the animals were going through, which could be compared to the attitude of a lion. A lion is "The King of the Jungle" and it doesn't matter to him what he eats because he has no guilt. Again, this is very similar to the attitude of the worker's in this place.
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