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   ms-mcgregor Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   The term "muckraking" came from the idea that journalist were raking up the "muck" or dirt of society from the floor. In other words, their stories were "dirty" and really didn't belong in respectable newspapers. Sinclair's novel, "The Jungle" both literally and figuratively scraped material from the floor. Dressed as a slaughter house worker, he found he could go unquestioned almost anywhere in the meat-packing area of Chicago. What he found was detestable for many people. He found inspectors bribed to approve diseased cows and pigs, sausage made from scrapes of mean and other items swept off the floor, unsanitary conditions rampant in the factories. He included those details in his novel and meat sales plummeted. Eventually, the FDA was created to enforce clean meat packing practices. Thus, Sinclair did get some social reform by raking his evidence from the floors of Chicago factories but he never succeeded in his ultimate goal---turning the United States into a socialist society.

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   Posted by ms-mcgregor on Thursday October 23, 2008 at 11:33 AM