The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were difficult time, from the end of the civil war to the beginning of the industrial revolution, the moments in that era reflected an unsettled and constantly changing America. The time mirrored an immeasurable amount of conflict and growth, two contradictory actions that rose into one great development in American history. An important part of America's industrial and inner expansions was the formations and operation of the Chicago stockyards. The Chicago stockyards signified the evolution of American industrialization, and a promise of what America could be as a leading world economy. The stockyards also indicated the social justice of the working class people, the hardships that faced working class America, and the position the government should take on insuring public health safety in food and drugs. All of these issues were explicitly written about in Upton Sinclair's' novel, The Jungle, a novel written by an American who saw the problems that existed in the American working class, in the stockyards and beyond. He recognized the ways in which the government shunned and neglected the

The Jungle revolves around a Lithuanian family emigrating from Europe, coming to America with bright hopes and dreams of an American life here. They make their way to Chicago, hearing that there is a lot of work to be found with the new industrialization occurring. They come and live in the Bridgeport area, just north of the yards with many other people of Slavic heritage. Jurgis, the main character, finds work on the killing room floor in the stockyards. His family buys a house under fraudulent conditions, and ends up losing the house shortly after the joy of owning one sets in. Jurgis and his fiancee have a wedding, and she isn't even allowed to leave her job for her own wedding. His wife had two children, first a boy, and while giving birth to the second one four years later they both die during childbirth. Jurgis family falls apart, and later his little boy was trampled to death on the streets of Packingtown. Finally, all hope is lost, for him and his family. The importance of The Jungle is the desperation that is seemingly inevitable to anyone who comes to live in Packingtown, and the portrayal of the stockyards. From page 92 in The Jungle, "Jurgis had come there, and thought he was going to make himself useful, and rise and become a skilled man; but he would soon find out his error-for nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work." Not only was Jurgis desperate with the spark of hope that had died, but it also implied that everything was corrupt. From page 37, "This government inspector did not have the manner of a man who was worker to death; he was apparently not haunted by a fear that the hog might get by him before he was finished testing. If you were a sociable person, he was quite willing to enter into conversation with you, and to explain to you the deadly nature of the ptomaine's which are found in tubercular pork; and while he was talking with you, you could hardly be so ungrateful as to notice that a dozen carcass were passing him." This was one of the many quotes out of The Jungle that made people aware of what was really going on in the Chicago stockyards, as well as every other meat packing and processing plant in America.

Employment in the stockyards was forever growing, and the turnover rate for employment positions was great. Roughly 50,000 people were employed in the stockyards area, slowly creating a flourishing urban community in and around the stockyards ("The Chicago Stock Yards on the Eve of the CIO", Leslie F. Orear). Twenty percent of the work force in the yards were woman, usually holding designated "woman only" jobs such as package handling positions. Woman were typically paid ten cents an hour less that men, which was a significant amount less in the time period. Although many American born citizens worked in the yards, the majority of the workers were immigrants.

Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore on September 20, 1878. He was the only child of Upton and Priscilla Sinclair, born into a very political family. His great-grandfather was an American navel commander in the war of 1812, and his father fought in the Confederate Navy during the Civil War. Although all of his uncles were somehow associated with the government, his father was a lowly hat salesman who became a family disgrace. Sinclair read from the age of five, and was an intelligent child and advocate reader. He was said to have covered eight years of school in only three years, proving that he was a brilliant young boy. Sinclair was raised an Episcopalian, and although later in life he became a religious skeptic, he never lost his faith in God. Sinclair entered the City College of New York at fourteen years old, where he got his BA when he was only nineteen years old. From there he went to graduate school at Columbia University, focusing his studies on writing and journalism. Sinclair was considered a muckraking journalist, meaning a journalist who dug up stories that were conterversal or unexpose

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sinclair's' Jungle, Queen Mary, Upton Sinclair's', Social Justice, Armour Company, Garfield Park, Jungle Jurgis, Drug Act, Volume II, Lake Michigan, chicago stockyards, social justice, stockyards chicago, upton sinclair, jungle novel, meat products, leslie orear, industrial revolution, center world, armour company, meat-processing center world, chicago stock yards, history volume ii, drug act 1906, workers chicago stockyards,
Approximate Word count = 2991
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)