Upton Sinclair wrote an expose on how manipulated American factory workers were and how socialism was the answer. And everyone’s takeaway was just, “ew they’re putting rats in our food”. Which, yeah that sucks, but is kinda missing the bigger picture.
Anyway, whenever I see issues with the FDA being underfunded I think about some of the imagery in that book and cringe
It's a great book with some very evocative imagery and a good main story about an immigrant family being ground down by capital.
One great part is the head of the Lithuanian imigrant family at the start is a bear of a man, tall and muscly; he easily gets work and condescends to all the other workers who complain they can't get jobs, thinking they just don't want it enough. Over the course of the book he is ground down physically until he resembles all the other wretches, vainly trying to get noticed at the factory gates, before being forced into more and more dangerous work. He is blinded by the promise of America and only opens his eyes much too late to save his dependents.
Jesus christ, when the family learns about getting swindled on the house, capital just starts throwing haymakers at them. The whole rats in the meat thing never bothered me as much as how fucking bleak there lives were after being so hopeful and excited for the future.
Yeah, and its made worse by the false hope, where they can see the path they need to tred to get to financial independence but it requires them never making a mistake or having an accident for 25 years.
When the first thing goes wrong the bottom just falls out of their lives.
no. i liked reading when i was 15 and the jungle was terrible.