Imagery in The Jungle :: Upton Sinclair

The scenes that I encountered when reading about the meat packaging industry in the early 1900s were very graphic. Some images were more graphic than others. The offshoot scene that comes to intelligence when I think about the passage The Jungle was the huge iron wheel with pigs on it. This scene sticks out in my mind because I can almost see the pigs squealing as they are ripped away by their feet up higher and higher into the air. I can in like manner see the massive river of hogs awaiting their turn to be chained up by the burly Negro. Another scene that is easy to describe is the scene where the knockers struck the oxen on the head with a sledge hammer. In this scene all I can imagine is worn out man who has swung a sledge all day. This man would have to be worn out in a couple of years due to the physical demand. The next scene im dismission to describe is the scene in the steaming room. This is probably one of the most disgusting scenes in the entire text. Knowing all th e germs that could possibly be in that respect and the fact that there was new germs brought in every hour. The odor those custody had to have worked in would have been gut wrenching. The bubbly creek was the part of the wampum river into which all the blood, lard, hair, and any other possible thing that came off of a pig or cow was swept into. The idea that a man came on and collected the film that formed on the top and sold it as pure lard is appalling. And to think that unsuspecting families purchased the waste and then cooked with it. One of the jobs the men in the manufacturing plant could apply for was the knocker. This was the man who would knock out the cows before they were slid out of the killing bed. Another job there was in the factory was the butcher this guy was the one who was to flow out the cow. The way in which he did this was to make one swift stroke to the cow. After which the cow was hung to bleed out. The headsman was one of the other jobs men had in the f actory. It was his job to make two or three swift strikes to the neck and severe the head in the fastest manner possible.