Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
Grade Level: 9-12
Curriculum Focus: Literature
Lesson Duration: One class period
Program Description
Upton Sinclair’s groundbreaking exposé of Chicago’s meatpacking industry is a horror story of
unsanitary conditions, food poisoning, and child labor abuse. Learn what led Sinclair into this
turn-of-the-century urban “jungle” and how his book prompted Congress to pass the first
food-safety laws.
Onscreen Questions
Before watching the video
•
What is the “American dream”? Think about the expectations immigrants had for their new
lives in America at the turn of the 20th century.
•
As you watch the program, pay attention to the realities the immigrants faced once they settled
in America.
After watching the video
•
The program suggests that factory workers in Chicago’s meatpacking plants were “processed”
just like the animals they slaughtered. Discuss the degree to which this analogy is accurate.
•
How were the immigrant workers mistreated?
Lesson Plan
Student Objectives
•
Make a list of books that convey strong social messages.
•
Discuss the literary strengths and weaknesses of these books.
•
Understand how literature reflects life and can be used as a vehicle to bring about change.
Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
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Materials
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Great Books: The Jungle video and VCR
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The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (one copy for each student)
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Other books with social-action themes
Procedures
1. Discuss The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, reviewing the book’s main literary elements: setting, plot,
characters, and central conflict.
2. Discuss the tradition from which this book came. Explain that in the early 1900s, some authors
wrote in a style of investigative journalism known as muckraking. Their goal was to reveal
social injustices, especially in American business and industry. Sinclair focused on the
unsanitary conditions and corrupt management of the meatpacking industry. Published in 1906,
this book succeeded in getting the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who appointed a
commission of inquiry into the meatpacking industry. Although the commission exonerated the
packers, Sinclair’s book exerted pressure that resulted in a second commission and the passing
of the Beef Inspection Act.
3. Ask students whether they think The Jungle is successful as fiction and muckraking journalism,
or just as the latter. Discuss why it is difficult for a literary work to be both. For example, it is a
challenge to dramatize social issues and make them believable. Often the characters are
portrayed as symbols, rather than real people.
4. Tell students that during this lesson they will delve into the issue of social action versus fiction.
Have students work in groups of four or five to develop a list of at least five other books with
social themes that led to political and societal changes or heightened awareness of problems.
These books can come from any author, past or present. Tell students to try to pick one book
from each of the following categories:
•
Civil rights
•
Women’s rights
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Children’s rights
•
International issues
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The immigrant experience
5. If students have trouble coming up with book titles, suggest the books listed below. They may
help students think of similar books they have read. A brief description of each book is
included.
Civil Rights
•
Native Son, by Richard Wright. Written in 1940, Wright’s novel is the story of Bigger
Thomas, a young African American man living in Chicago who commits a murder.
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Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
3
The police pursue him ruthlessly, and he is ultimately sentenced to death. The book
reveals the atmosphere of racial prejudice in the United States in the 1930s.
•
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983, the
author tells how black women struggled with racism and sexism in the early 1900s.
•
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Set in Alabama in the 1950s, the book tells the story
from a young girl’s perspective of a black man wrongfully accused of raping a white
woman. The incident and the ensuing trial had long-lasting consequences for many
people.
Women’s Rights
•
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. An allegorical science fiction novel that
shows how what could happen in a backlash against women’s rights.
•
Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser. Set in Chicago in the early 1900s, the novel portrays
the life of a young woman living alone and working in a factory. The narrative conveys
the protagonist’s vulnerability and powerlessness.
Children’s Rights
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Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens. This mid 19th-century novel was written to expose the
harsh life in workhouses and on the streets for homeless boys.
•
Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt. Written in the early 1980s, the book depicts the
emotional scars children feel when a parent leaves for no apparent reason.
International Issues
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Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton. This book, written in 1948, was one of the first to
take a stand against apartheid in South Africa.
•
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Painting a portrait of his own traditional village
culture in Nigeria, the author tries to inform the world about Ibo traditions and remind
his own people of their past.
The Immigrant Experience
•
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. Told through the eyes of a Chinese American daughter
of an immigrant, the book conveys the difficulties a group of women faced in China and
the obstacles they experienced when they came to America.
•
Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. A dramatization of the poverty, prejudice, and other
problems farmers from the Dust Bowl experienced when they moved to California
during the early 1930s.
•
Native Speaker, by Chang-Rae Lee. A contemporary look at the alienation that many
young Korean Americans face.
6. Give each group about 20 minutes to compile its list. Tell students to include books that all or
most members of the group have read. Ask the groups to consider the dilemma of literature
versus muckraking by answering the following questions for at least three of the books on their
lists.
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Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
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•
Do you think the book succeeds in muckraking? Why or why not? Describe a political or
societal change that may have resulted from this book. If no actual change can be
documented, discuss whether the book resulted in heightened awareness of a particular
issue.
•
Do you think the book succeeds as fiction? Are the characters compelling? Do they have
a conflict to resolve? Is it resolved in a dramatic yet plausible way?
•
Do you think the book would have been more successful as nonfiction? Why or why
not?
7. Discuss how many of the books succeed in being great stories and in muckraking. What makes
those books stand out? Why it is difficult for one book to accomplish both goals?
Assessment
Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students’ work during this lesson.
•
3 points: Students demonstrated a deep understanding of the characteristics of fiction
writing and muckraking; have strong knowledge of similar books on other subjects;
participated actively in class discussions.
•
2 points: Students demonstrated an on-grade grasp of the characteristics of fiction writing
and muckraking; have average knowledge of similar books on other subjects; participated
somewhat actively in class discussions.
•
1 point: Students demonstrated a weak understanding of the characteristics of fiction
writing and muckraking; have below-average knowledge of similar books on other subjects;
participated little or not at all in class discussions.
Vocabulary
muckraking
Definition: A type of journalism, begun in the early 1900s, that seeks to uncover misconduct in
business, industry, or government
Context: A good example of muckraking, The Jungle exposed corruption in the meatpacking
industry.
progressive movement
Definition: A campaign in the late 1800s and early 1900s for economic, political, and social
reform in the United States
Context: The economic reforms of the progressive movement included increased government
regulation of business and a series of tax reforms.
Upton Sinclair (1878–1968)
Definition: Author of The Jungle and other books, plays, and articles, all of which focused on
social injustices and aimed at improving working conditions
Context: Upton Sinclair wrote books that brought social injustices to light.
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Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
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Academic Standards
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
McREL's Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education
addresses 14 content areas. To view the standards and benchmarks, visit link:
http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/browse.asp
This lesson plan addresses the following national standards:
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Language Arts—Reading: Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a
variety of literary texts
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History—United States History: Understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and
for the extension of civil liberties
Support Materials
Develop custom worksheets, educational puzzles, online quizzes, and more with the free teaching tools
offered on the Discoveryschool.com Web site. Create and print support materials, or save them to a
Custom Classroom account for future use. To learn more, visit
•
http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html
DVD Content
This program is available in an interactive DVD format. The following information and activities are
specific to the DVD version.
How To Use the DVD
The DVD starting screen has the following options:
Play Video—This plays the video from start to finish. There are no programmed stops, except by
using a remote control. With a computer, depending on the particular software player, a pause
button is included with the other video controls.
Video Index—Here the video is divided into sections, indicated by video thumbnail icons. Watching
all parts in sequence is similar to watching the video from start to finish. Brief descriptions and total
running times are noted for each part. To play a particular segment, press Enter on the remote for
TV playback; on a computer, click once to highlight a thumbnail and read the accompanying text
description and click again to start the video.
Curriculum Units—These are specially edited video segments pulled from different sections of the
video (see below). These nonlinear segments align with key ideas in the unit of instruction. They
include onscreen pre- and post-viewing questions, reproduced below in this Teacher’s Guide. To
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Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
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play a particular segment, press Enter on the TV remote or click once on the Curriculum Unit title
on a computer.
Standards Link—Selecting this option displays a single screen that lists the national academic
standards the video addresses.
Teacher Resources—This screen gives the technical support number and Web site address.
Video Index
I. Introduction (10 min.)
An introduction to The Jungle, the characters in the novel, and the horrors the book exposed to the
American public about the meat industry.
II. Sinclair’s Story (12 min.)
A look at author Sinclair’s childhood and early writing career and a discussion about the early
history of the meat industry; an examination of meat consumption in America.
III. Tragedy and The Jungle (15 min.)
Only a year after Jurgis and Ona’s wedding, a series of tragedies causes their family to fall apart.
IV. Social Reform and Modern Industry (13 min.)
In the final chapters of The Jungle, Jurgis returns to Chicago and finds hope in the socialist labor
movement. A discussion follows of the poultry industry and its problems.
Curriculum Units
Segment 1: Introduction: Welcome to The Jungle
Pre-viewing question
Q: Why did so many people come to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?
A: The industrial revolution brought the promise of jobs. People were looking for a better life and
hoped they could find it in America.
Post-viewing question
Q: Why was The Jungle considered a wake-up call for America?
A: Illness and death had been an accepted condition of eating meat because the health and safety of
the meat industry had not been investigated.
Segment 2: An Immigrant’s Tale
Pre-viewing question
Q: Do you think the immigrant experiences of the 19th century are different than those of today?
A: Answers will vary.
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Great Books: The Jungle
Teacher’s Guide
Post-viewing question
Q: Describe Marija's transformation from the beginning of The Jungle to the time Jurgis returns to
Chicago.
A: At the beginning of the story Marija is seen as innocent. She is strong and she works hard to
make a good life for her family. But when she loses her job at the packing plants because she joins
the union, she feels she has no choice but to turn to prostitution. By the end of the book she is a
hardened person who will survive at any cost.
Segment 3: Transforming the Meat Industry
Pre-viewing question
Q: Do you think that people have a right to sue if they become ill from tainted meat?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What did The Jungle do for the meat industry?
A: The book led to legislation against adding fillers or impurities to meat. Government meat
inspections began, and plants were forced to follow stricter sanitation guidelines.
Segment 4: Protecting Our Health
Pre-viewing question
Q: How does E. coli get into our food supply?
A: E. coli, fecal pollution, can be carried into slaughterhouses by animals.
Post-viewing question
Q: How has Chicago changed since Sinclair’s time?
A: At the time The Jungle was written Chicago was the largest meat-processing center in the world.
Since then the
city has grown and become a hub for many businesses, but the last stockyard closed in 1971.
Segment 5: Upton Sinclair: From Poverty to Social Reformer
Pre-viewing question
Q: What was Sinclair purpose in writing The Jungle?
A: He wanted to tell a story about the human suffering of immigrants and poor workers in
America.
Post-viewing question
Q: How did The Jungle change Sinclair’s life?
A: Sinclair’s book was an instant success, and he quickly became very wealthy and famous. He
remained in the public eye for the rest of his life as a champion of public reform, even running for
governor of California.
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