Comparing The Jungle 'And Pilgrim's Rake'

During the Progressive Era, writers and investigative reporters known as Muckrakers wrote about political corruption and injustices among known leaders in the government. They also raised awareness in social and economic issues. They received this name from president Theodore Roosevelt in reference to “The Man With the Muck Rake” in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim's Progress” which states that a rake was used to dig up fifth and muck. The writers and journalist were not to fond of the term “muckraker” but they would let Theodore Roosevelt prerogative term “muckraker” be seen as a badge of honor. Muckrakers exposed these corrupt leaders through popular magazines and their own books. Some of the most famous muckrakers like, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell,
His book described the disease, spoiled, and contaminated meat which stunned the public which led to new federal food laws. The book is his fictionalized story of Chicago’s Packingtown. The title was the reflection of the how he saw the cruelty in meat-packing industry. The main character, “Jurgis” took the job at the Durham thinking this would help better his life, but this job was based on Armour & Co., the leading Chicago meat packer. He witnessed how the company would make the assembly line much faster and still pay workers the same amount of money. Also, how the company cheated workers out of their money by not paying them for working part of their hours. Men who worked there had skin diseases, tuberculosis and some had bad backs for carrying 100 pounds of meats. Also, men were spitting and coughing up blood near the meat station and plus the company had no restroom so they would urinate on the floor. For lunch, workers did not have an area to eat so they ate at their work area. The next chapter of his book stated how disease, spoiled, and contaminated meat were processed resulted from chemicals, and how they mislabeled their food. Workers would process