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 is that the government officials were not careful enough with the products they were inspecting. For example,when the official might chose to tell someone about "the deadly nature of the ptomaines which are found in tubercular pork; and while he was talking [...] a dozen carcasses were passing him untouched" . The inspector should be more careful with what he was inspecting. This excerpt most convincingly highlights a problem because it talks about how deadly something could be and how careful precautions were not taken with it.
B. "The men would look at each other, laughing nervously, and the women would stand with hands clenched, and the blood rushing to their faces, and the tears starting in their eyes" is an excerpt that convincingly shows a problem by showing how awful the work conditions were. People could be physically hurt by the noise. The author describes the people with the physical characteristics of a dead person, which highlights the problem effectively because ti as if saying that the work conditions could kill someone.
C. "The meat that was taken out of pickle would often be found sour, and how they would rub it up with soda to take away the smell, and sell it to be eaten on free-lunch counters; also of all the miracles of chemistry which they performed" shows the problem with how the meatpacking industry could manipulate food in any way they pleased and then pass it off as something else. This is without any regulation. Presenting this problem in a way that shows how the public could be tricked so easily was effective because it scares people about the problem because they believe that they could be tricked.
D. "There was no longer Number One, Two, and Three Grade—there was only Number One Grade" shows how quality ratings could be eliminated. This meant that there was no way to tell the quality of anything, so the public could not make their own decisions and try to obtain items that were sure to be of a high quality. Again, presenting this problem this way was convincing because it made people afraid that they could not control what they bought. clearly this was a problem.
E. "The packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one" shows the problems with sanitation and that the workers did not care about the effects of their work. The public depended on the food being prepared by the workers and there was no way to prevent against eating such things such as poisoned bread. This was clearly a problem.
2. What is the overall tone of the story?
The overall tone of the story is disgust, but also a little objective. The author states that people were appalled by the noise and that someone is amazed, but does not really have an emotional attachment to those statements. The author states the facts that are disgusting with a hint of disgust, but never actually criticizes the factory with his own opinion. So the mood is straightforward, but the author's choice to include the shocking facts hints that the tone might be a little disgusted
3. Based on your reading of this excerpt, why do you think Sinclair titled his novel The Jungle?
Sinclair titles his novel The Jungle because that gives the impression that the meat packing business was a wild one. It implies that the business was barbaric and people in it go about their jobs like animals. There is little order or sanitation and it is almost everyone for himself. Sinclair viewed the meatpacking industry in that way, so he titled his novel The Jungle.
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