Topic > Comparative Analysis of the Books "The Jungle" and "Fast Food Nation"

The Jungle and Fast Food Nation both focus on the dangers and horrors of the food industry. The Jungle focuses more on the industry of the early 1900s, while Fast Food Nation focuses more on a more modern workplace. Both Jungle and Fast Food Nation have social and political patterns such as worker wages, illegal employee practices, and workplace safety risks that still occur to this day. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Job wages in Fast Food Nation and The Jungle are issues in both books. The Jungle chronicles the lives of Lithuanian immigrants who must find work in Chicago's meatpacking district, Packingtown. The family of twelve arrives in America only to find that it is not what they thought it was. Four of the twelve family members are physically capable of working and must do so for the family to survive. Jurgis, the strong, hard-working male figure of the family, gets a job in a beef processing plant sweeping guts off the floor. Jurgis earns one dollar and fifty cents for a ten-hour day. His fiancée, Ona, Ona's cousin, Ona's uncle by marriage, and Jurgis' father, also find work at this meatpacking plant, earning similar money. The money made by the four people who work is pooled together to try to make the down payment on a house. Once the down payment is made, the family members, mainly Jurgis, must continue to work to pay the twelve dollar a month fee to live and pay for the house. For this family the price is a little high, but it's doable and it's what they have to do to survive. This unfortunate path is one that many people are still experiencing today. Similar to the Lithuanian immigrant family in The Jungle, people today are unable to produce what they need to survive. A Huffington Post article reports that, in 2017, a person working full time for the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour cannot afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment. It was reported that the rate to rent such an apartment would require at least double the amount of the federal minimum wage in almost all states. In their time, that is, in 1906, the Lithuanian family did not even receive the minimum wage. According to Fraser Economic History, the minimum wage for a pattern maker like Ona's cousin Marija is forty cents an hour. Not even receiving the minimum wage would make life nearly impossible for workers during this time. Like the Lithuanian immigrant family in The Jungle, poor or lower-income people in jobs that pay minimum wage cannot afford to pay for their homes and their human needs like food and water. The same pattern of underpaying employees still occurs more than a hundred years after The Jungle began. Another pattern evident in The Jungle is the practice of desperate immigrants looking for money being invested in jobs that don't pay well for the long, hard work. hours they will work. As previously mentioned, some members of the Lithuanian family in The Jungle are forced to find work in a meat packing plant. They work long hours, ten to twelve hours a day, and they work those long days for less than the minimum wage of forty cents an hour that they should have received. The same thing still happens today in America. A report written by the Texas Tribune writes that undocumented immigrants have a lot of work to doThey. Although they have a wide range of jobs to choose from, some workers earn around ninety dollars for a fourteen-hour workday, or around $6.41 an hour. The shadowy hiring and paying of illegal immigrants is also evident in Fast Food Nation. The book describes how nearly one-sixth of American fast food workers are in the United States illegally. These workers are also always expendable, as they give an unfair amount of power to the employer and a very low amount of power to the employee. Much like Lithuanians, immigrants continue to benefit from the modern workforce. Workplace accidents are common in the Jungle and still occur in the workplace today. In The Jungle, Jurgis suffers an ankle injury. A steer goes wild on the slaughter floor and the entire floor is in a frenzy. The men scatter, many of them with large knives in their hands. Jurgis, while trying to avoid a violent and escaped steer, and men brandishing knives and falling and running about, ends up with his foot in a trap that collects the blood and entrails of the steers that are slaughtered. He twists his ankle. At first he does not realize that he has injured his ankle and continues to work. The next day, Jurgis can barely put his boot on to go to work. He almost faints at work, but a doctor at the plant sends him home. He is devastated and afraid that he will not be able to work and support his family on the meager salary he receives. Many workers at dangerous factories like these continue to work even when injured because they need the pay to survive. If they are left out of work due to an injury, they may not receive pay. Meat production is still a dangerous job today. Safety regulations have evolved since Jurgis' time, but the problem still persists. A report by NPR states that in nine years, 151 people have died from workplace injuries in meatpacking plants. NPR also stated that meatpacking-related injuries are higher than any other manufacturing sector, and that many of the injuries that occur in said meatpacking plants are also underreported or undocumented due to technicalities. One reason is that many workers are immigrants or lower-class people and don't want to report their injury to protect their jobs. While both focus on the food industry, The Jungle and Fast Food Nation both focus on different times. The Jungle, set in 1906, focuses on a time when the workplace wasn't as regulated as it is now. Fast Food Nation focuses on a more recent era of the workplace. Both of these books, however, have similar political and social patterns that relate to the present day, such as unfair wages, employers hiring illegal and shady employees, and the risks that come with working in the food industry. Both The Jungle and Fast Food Nation focus on the dangers and horrors of the food industry. The Jungle focuses more on the industry of the early 1900s, while Fast Food Nation focuses more on a more modern workplace. The Jungle and Fast Food Nation both have social and political patterns such as worker wages, illegal employee practices, and workplace safety risks that still occur to this day. Workers' wages in Fast Food Nation and The Jungle are issues in both books. The Jungle chronicles the lives of Lithuanian immigrants who must find work in Chicago's meatpacking district, Packingtown. The family of twelve comes to America just tofind out it's not what they thought it was. Four of the twelve family members are physically capable of working and must do so for the family to survive. Jurgis, the strong, hard-working male figure of the family, gets a job in a beef processing plant sweeping guts off the floor. Jurgis earns one dollar and fifty cents for a ten-hour day. His fiancée, Ona, Ona's cousin, Ona's uncle by marriage, and Jurgis' father, also find work at this meatpacking plant, earning similar money. The money made by the four people who work is pooled together to try to make the down payment on a house. Once the down payment is made, the family members, mainly Jurgis, must continue to work to pay the twelve dollar a month fee to live and pay for the house. For this family the price is a little high, but it's doable and it's what they have to do to survive. This unfortunate path is one that many people are still experiencing today. Similar to the Lithuanian immigrant family in The Jungle, people today are unable to produce what they need to survive. A news article from the Huffington Post reports that, as of 2017, a person working full time for the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour cannot afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment. It was reported that the rate to rent such an apartment would require at least double the amount of the federal minimum wage in almost all states. In their time, that is, in 1906, the Lithuanian family did not even receive the minimum wage. According to Fraser Economic History, the minimum wage for a pattern maker like Ona's cousin Marija is forty cents an hour. Not even receiving the minimum wage would make life nearly impossible for workers during this time. Like the Lithuanian immigrant family in The Jungle, poor or lower-income people in jobs that pay minimum wage cannot afford to pay for their homes and their human needs like food and water. The same pattern of underpaying employees still occurs more than a hundred years after The Jungle began. Another pattern evident in The Jungle is the practice of desperate immigrants looking for money being invested in jobs that don't pay well for the long, hard work. hours they will work. As previously mentioned, some members of the Lithuanian family in The Jungle are forced to find work in a meat packing plant. They work long hours, ten to twelve hours a day, and they work those long days for less than the minimum wage of forty cents an hour that they should have received. The same thing still happens today in America. A report written by the Texas Tribune writes that undocumented immigrants have a lot of work for them. Although they have a wide range of jobs to choose from, some workers earn around ninety dollars for a fourteen-hour workday, or around $6.41 an hour. The shadowy hiring and paying of illegal immigrants is also evident in Fast Food Nation. The book describes how nearly one-sixth of American fast food workers are in the United States illegally. These workers are also always expendable, as they give an unfair amount of power to the employer and a very low amount of power to the employee. Just like Lithuanians, immigrants continue to benefit from the modern workforce. Workplace accidents are common in the Jungle and still occur in the workplace today. In The Jungle, Jurgis suffers an ankle injury. A steer goes wild on the slaughter floor and the entire floor is in a frenzy. The men scatter, many of them with.