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It’s a Jungle Out There


Kim Edmondson


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Upton Sinclair's portrayal of slaughterhouses in Chicago in the early 1900's raised public awareness of corruption in the meat industry and prompted Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. This lesson introduces students to The Jungle and how the novel led to public outcry and the eventual legislation.


Sinclair, Upton.   The Jungle, New York: Penguin Putnam, 1906.  (excerpt)

Swift, Jonathan.  A Modest Proposal, Dublin: 1729.  (excerpt)

Teacher prepared handouts: (Notes for teacher)

  1. Meat Inspection Act
  2. Pure Food and Drug Act

Political Cartoons (teacher's choice)

Drawing paper/pens


90 minutes


3Y3


How did Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle lead to new legislation regarding business practices?


10 Minutes. Students should read the excerpt from Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal then write a paragraph answering the following question: Do you think the solution to feeding and housing the poor which Swift proposed had any effect on the public's view of how these people, especially the children, were treated? Why or why not?


10 minutes. Review interpreting political cartoons with students. Using a cartoon of the teacher's choice, preferably one from the Progressive Era, show students how to use the SOS technique to interpret the cartoon

S-What is the Subject of the cartoon?

O-What is the artist's opinion of the subject?

S-How did the artist use Symbols in the cartoon?

Teachers might want to review more than one cartoon to make sure students understand the review process.

Note: Examples of political cartoons can be found at the following websites:

http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/

http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/berrymanframes.html

http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/political_cartoons.html


30 Minutes. Pass out excerpts from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. As a class, read through the excerpt drawing attention to and discussing the graphic representations of how Sinclair described the processing of meat in the Chicago slaughterhouses (paragraphs 3-4, 6, 10-11). The class should be able to answer the discussion questions at the end of the excerpt. Then pass out Notes handouts from the legislation passed in response to Sinclair's novel. (See Linked Files). Discuss how these laws were directly related to the descriptions in the novel.

 

20 Minutes. Pass out copies of the tree diagram. Students should list examples of the unsanitary conditions in the processing of meat as described by Sinclair. Following the completion of the diagram, have students write a paragraph discussing how these descriptions led to Congress passing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.


20 Minutes. Students are to draw their own political cartoon about The Jungle and the meat scare. Cartoons should contain references to the meat scare, the federal government and the resulting legislation. The final cartoon should be done in black ink on white 8.5x11 inch paper.


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Tree Diagram_3Y3 Edmondson
Notes on the Pure Food and Drug Act 1906 3Y3_Edmon
Notes on the Meat Inspection Act 1906 3Y3_Edmondso
Excerpt from The Jungle 3Y3_Edmondson
Excerpt from A Modest Proposal_3Y3 Edmondson

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