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Certainly, he paints the oppressive economic system in bleak colors. Many critics note, however, that Steinbeck was basically a reformer, not a revolutionary. He wanted to change the attitudes and behaviors of people — both migrants and economic barons — not overturn the private enterprise system.

To these industrialists any money spent on employees meant less money for their own pockets. The connection between happy, healthy workers and high levels of productivity was not obvious during the revolution.

He witnesses the greed and corruption in the industry and the deterioration of the lives of many workers. He is also shocked by the unhealthy handling of the meat. The novel presents graphic descriptions of diseased animals and rotting meat being sold to the American public.

working conditions

Living conditions are also difficult for migrant farmworkers. Wages for farmwork have not kept up with inflation; consequently, it is difficult for families to afford basic necessities like housing, food, health care, and education for their children.

To these men, any money spent on employees—whether in terms of wages, benefits, or sanitary and safe working conditions—meant less money for their own pockets. The connection between healthy, happy workers and high levels of productivity was not obvious in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

Large corporations grew prosperous, but their wealth failed to trickle down to the worker, whose real wages dropped behind steadily rising prices. Faced with unsafe, unsanitary, and tenuous working conditions, factory workers lacked both economic and emotional security.

many among the upper classes began to flaunt their wealth more than ever. Working class Americans, many of whom were thrown out of work by the Depression (which they often correctly blamed upon the reckless financial dealings of the upper classes) were shocked and angered by this ostentatious display of wealth.

They often viewed such programs as hand outs, which, as can be seen in this cover, were not somethign which the upper classes felt was their responsibility to provide. They were further angered by the actions of President Roosevelt, who catered to the mass of Americans while largely ignoring the interests of the upper classes. These factors served to heigten class tensions during a period when many Americans (both rich and poor) were already tense over their financial futures.

New Deal regulations helped foster significant unionization and these unions would often run into conflict with company hired police forces.

"I am Upton Sinclair, and I have come to write the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the labor movement."

that the jungle was actually industrial capitalism. In the serialized version, he states: "the place which is here called The Jungle is not Packingtown, nor is it Chicago, nor is it Illinois, nor is it the United States—it is Civilization."

Tiddy was toying with a light breakfast an' idly turnin' over th' pages iv th' new book with both hands. Suddenly he rose fr'm th' table, an' cryin': 'I'm pizened,' began throwin' sausages out iv th' window. . . . Since thin th' Prisidint, like th' rest iv us, has become a viggytaryan

One reason was that a great number of unskilled laborers came to America at the time, so that employers could offer low wages for miserable jobs and always find someone willing to do the work.

Competition and low profit margins generate a corporate motive for maximum productivity, and deregulation has shredded health and safety standards.

A study by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS; now the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) in 1997 found that one-fourth of the workers in seven meatpacking plants in Iowa and Nebraska had “questionable” documents. The INS's Operation Vanguard in 1999 rounded up immigrants in slaughterhouses, bringing charges that employers and the government colluded to prevent workers from organizing unions.