netw rks
NAME _______________________________________ DATE _______________ CLASS _________
Analyzing Primary Sources Activity
netw rks
The Progressive Movement, 1890–1920 The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair Background Upton Sinclair was an American novelist whose work often focused on social and political messages. Born in 1878, Sinclair worked primarily as a journalist until he published his most successful novel, The Jungle, in 1906. The Jungle caught public attention with its vivid portrayals of the unsanitary conditions in the American meat industry, inspiring reform and regulation. However, Sinclair’s major focus in the novel was on the lives of the impoverished, particularly immigrants, who suffered from overwork and underpay in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair followed up this novel with several others focused on social ills, and became actively involved in the socialist reform movement.
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.
Sinclair’s other politically charged works include Oil!, about the Teapot Dome Scandal, Boston, based on the Sacco-Vanzetti case, and the antifascist Lanny Budd series of novels. While some of these works were very popular at the time they were published, none is today as widely remembered as The Jungle.
Directions: Read the following excerpts from The Jungle. Then answer the questions that follow.
"Promptly at seven o’clock this same Monday morning they will every one of them have to be in their places at Durham’s or Brown’s or Jones’s, each in his working clothes. If one of them be a minute late, he will be docked an hour’s pay, and if he be many minutes late, he will be apt to find his brass check turned to the wall, which will send him out to join the hungry mob that waits every morning at the gates of the packing-houses, from six o’clock until nearly half-past eight. There is no exception to this rule, not even little Ona—who has asked for a holiday the day after her wedding-day, a holiday without pay, and been refused. While there are so many who are anxious to work as you wish, there is no occasion for incommoding yourself with those who must work otherwise."
United States History and Geography: Modern Times
NAME _______________________________________ DATE _______________ CLASS _________
Analyzing Primary Sources Activity Cont.
netw rks
The Progressive Movement, 1890–1920
Critical Thinking 1.
How do the policies regarding time off and tardiness described in the first excerpt compare to most jobs today?
2.
In the second excerpt, what circumstances contribute to the household’s impoverished situation?
3.
How does the working situation described in the first excerpt help you understand the poverty described in the second excerpt?
4.
Sinclair was disappointed that his novel became more influential for its depiction of the meatpacking industry than its depiction of urban poverty. Which of these situations do you find more disturbing, and why?
United States History and Geography: Modern Times
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.
"Ona was now making about thirty dollars a month, and Stanislovas about thirteen. To add to this there was the board of Jonas and Marija, about fortyfive dollars. Deducting from this the rent, interest, and instalments on the furniture, they had left sixty dollars, and deducting the coal, they had fifty. They did without everything that human beings could do without; they went in old and ragged clothing, that left them at the mercy of the cold, and when the children’s shoes wore out, they tied them up with string. Half invalid as she was, Ona would do herself harm by walking in the rain and cold when she ought to have ridden; they bought literally nothing but food—and still they could not keep alive on fifty dollars a month. They might have done it, if only they could have gotten pure food, and at fair prices; or if only they had known what to get—if they had not been so pitifully ignorant! But they had come to a new country, where everything was different, including the food. They had always been accustomed to eat a great deal of smoked sausage, and how could they know that what they bought in America was not the same—that its color was made by chemicals, and its smoky flavor by more chemicals, and that it was full of "potato-flour" besides? Potatoflour is the waste of potato after the starch and alcohol have been extracted ; it has no more food value than so much wood, and as its use as a food adulterant is a penal offence in Europe, thousands of tons of it are shipped to America every year. It was amazing what quantities of food such as this were needed every day, by eleven hungry persons. A dollar sixty-five a day was simply not enough to feed them, and there was no use trying; and so each week they made an inroad upon the pitiful little bank-account that Ona had begun. Because the account was in her name, it was possible for her to keep this a secret from her husband, and to keep the heartsickness of it for her own."
Analyzing Primary Sources Activity
netw rks
The Progressive Movement, 1890–1920 The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair Background Upton Sinclair was an American novelist whose work often focused on social and political messages. Born in 1878, Sinclair worked primarily as a journalist until he published his most successful novel, The Jungle, in 1906. The Jungle caught public attention with its vivid portrayals of the unsanitary conditions in the American meat industry, inspiring reform and regulation. However, Sinclair’s major focus in the novel was on the lives of the impoverished, particularly immigrants, who suffered from overwork and underpay in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair followed up this novel with several others focused on social ills, and became actively involved in the socialist reform movement.
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.
Sinclair’s other politically charged works include Oil!, about the Teapot Dome Scandal, Boston, based on the Sacco-Vanzetti case, and the antifascist Lanny Budd series of novels. While some of these works were very popular at the time they were published, none is today as widely remembered as The Jungle.
Directions: Read the following excerpts from The Jungle. Then answer the questions that follow.
"Promptly at seven o’clock this same Monday morning they will every one of them have to be in their places at Durham’s or Brown’s or Jones’s, each in his working clothes. If one of them be a minute late, he will be docked an hour’s pay, and if he be many minutes late, he will be apt to find his brass check turned to the wall, which will send him out to join the hungry mob that waits every morning at the gates of the packing-houses, from six o’clock until nearly half-past eight. There is no exception to this rule, not even little Ona—who has asked for a holiday the day after her wedding-day, a holiday without pay, and been refused. While there are so many who are anxious to work as you wish, there is no occasion for incommoding yourself with those who must work otherwise."
United States History and Geography: Modern Times
NAME _______________________________________ DATE _______________ CLASS _________
Analyzing Primary Sources Activity Cont.
netw rks
The Progressive Movement, 1890–1920
Critical Thinking 1.
How do the policies regarding time off and tardiness described in the first excerpt compare to most jobs today?
2.
In the second excerpt, what circumstances contribute to the household’s impoverished situation?
3.
How does the working situation described in the first excerpt help you understand the poverty described in the second excerpt?
4.
Sinclair was disappointed that his novel became more influential for its depiction of the meatpacking industry than its depiction of urban poverty. Which of these situations do you find more disturbing, and why?
United States History and Geography: Modern Times
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.
"Ona was now making about thirty dollars a month, and Stanislovas about thirteen. To add to this there was the board of Jonas and Marija, about fortyfive dollars. Deducting from this the rent, interest, and instalments on the furniture, they had left sixty dollars, and deducting the coal, they had fifty. They did without everything that human beings could do without; they went in old and ragged clothing, that left them at the mercy of the cold, and when the children’s shoes wore out, they tied them up with string. Half invalid as she was, Ona would do herself harm by walking in the rain and cold when she ought to have ridden; they bought literally nothing but food—and still they could not keep alive on fifty dollars a month. They might have done it, if only they could have gotten pure food, and at fair prices; or if only they had known what to get—if they had not been so pitifully ignorant! But they had come to a new country, where everything was different, including the food. They had always been accustomed to eat a great deal of smoked sausage, and how could they know that what they bought in America was not the same—that its color was made by chemicals, and its smoky flavor by more chemicals, and that it was full of "potato-flour" besides? Potatoflour is the waste of potato after the starch and alcohol have been extracted ; it has no more food value than so much wood, and as its use as a food adulterant is a penal offence in Europe, thousands of tons of it are shipped to America every year. It was amazing what quantities of food such as this were needed every day, by eleven hungry persons. A dollar sixty-five a day was simply not enough to feed them, and there was no use trying; and so each week they made an inroad upon the pitiful little bank-account that Ona had begun. Because the account was in her name, it was possible for her to keep this a secret from her husband, and to keep the heartsickness of it for her own."
