The Terrible Working Conditions in Meat Packing Industries in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Both The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser explain the terrible working conditions in meat packing industries. Each have a goal they wish to tell. give details about the industries, and they both have important effects on society. The goal of both of these excerpts is to inform readers about the conditions of the meatpacking industries. Upton Sinclair had once said, ”I aimed for [the public’s] heart but hit them in their stomachs.” He had said this because he wanted to help the public stop terrible events happening in the factories but only made them feel sick from the food. Eric Schlosser shared stories about workers who were injured or had died on work duty. ‘..A co worker forgot to turn off a machine, lost two fingers, and went into shock” (177).

Schlosser, just as Sinclair, wanted to inform the public about meatpacking. Each author had to explain and add many details to support their point. Sinclair explained how humans ended up in the meat and no one cleaned it out. He described how workers used soap to get the smell of rot off the meat. Schlosser used storied from workers, such as people losing limbs or even dying while they worked. The effects The Jungle had was the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act to stop the contamination of food. It had also helped people learn about what could and was happening to the food people ate and how little care was put into keeping the meat clean.

Fast Food Nation‘s possible effects could be quite the same. Informing people that meatpacking industries are dangerous, not only to workers but the consumers as well, “I feel fine. determined to see the whole process, the world that’s been deliberately hidden,”(170) Schlosser had explained. Many people do not know about meatpacking industry unless they have read about it before or work in the factories, so he wanted people to read what he went through when he wrote the book. Both of the excerpts are important for learning about the food people eat and about the factories people work in. They help people find information on something that should be well known because it is part of the life they are living.