The+Making+of+a+Negro+Ghetto

[|I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.] -**Upton Sinclair**, //on his novel, "The Jungle" (1906)//

MJM. Upton Sinclair’s quote above captures both his intent in writing the famous novel, __The Jungle__ as well as the public reaction to it. It is important to note that the significance of a quote is not only the contents in the words but also the state of society in which it was said. Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore Maryland in 1878 to a middle class family but because of the wealthy status of his grandparents his was able to bear witness to the dichotomy of the class system and the drastic difference between the rich and the poor. When he went to New York City to continue his education he still was plagued by the lifestyle of the laboring class. When he published __The Jungle__ in 1906 it was meant to illustrate to the rest of society the deplorable working and living conditions. The book itself followed the journey of an immigrant named Jurgis, his wife, his son and the rest of their family as they travelled to the United States. Sinclair tried to appeal to readers emotionally by portraying a tiny home without heat, a woman who worked until the day she gave birth as well as the death of a child. Little was done for the laboring and immigrant Americans directly after the book was published but it did have a huge impact none the less. The descriptions of the crowding of animals into the slaughterhouses and the cruel way in which they were killed were not the only aspects that alarmed the public. The contents and disgusting manner in which the meat was processed was all fuel to the fire that culminated in the novel with a young toddler dying from contaminated sausage. The president himself read __The Jungle__ and was so alarmed by the contents that he created a research board to find out the reality of the meat packing industry. Their finding relayed that the situation was not as bad as Sinclair portrayed, but was in fact even worse. The biggest impact of Sinclair’s book, and part that is seen in the second half of his quote, was government regulation of the food industry as well as the establishment of health standards by the implementation of the Pure Food and Drug Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act. Although Sinclair did not incite the change that he was aiming for he was still successful in helping American society and health. (Please excuse the placement of this post but I figured it was better off being online somewhere than no where at all.) could have followed APPARTS a little closer in terms of audience checked 11/14