Angel of the Stockyards
This image is a portrait of Mary E McDowell, also known by her nickname the 'Angel of the Stockyards'. She was a disciple of Jane Addams and worked hard for worker rights in Chicago, where she both grew up and lived. McDowell worked with a variety of groups on several projects all in an effort to improve the standard of living in Chicago at the time. She promoted trade unionism and safer working conditions, woman suffrage, inter-racial understanding and reforms in municipal waste disposal. She was known as a watchdog for safe working conditions, ecspecially for the women workers of Chicago. McDowell also would often take on the governmental system, notoriously corrupt at the time, speaking on these issues all the way to the top. She was a member of various groups as well; like the Women's Christian Temperance Union and Local 183 (a female version of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen).
This image transfers nicely into the The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, for it is a novel which masterfully blends historical facts with fictional narrative. Many characters and events in the storyline are based off of real counterparts. This adds extra layers of depth and meaning to the novel, for any given section is commenting on some aspect of life in Chicago at the time. This commentary is often biting, for Chicago was known as a hard place to make a living; a place where men worked themselves to death. This idea was most easily seen when one examined the brutal conditions of the meat processing factories. These factories were what Sinclair ended up taking his stand against. He used the knowledge he gained from investigating the plants to write scathing reports as to what exactly was happening behind the factory doors. Of course Sinclair didn’t just limit himself to the meat factories; though they were the only industry his novel was able to insight change amongst, much to his chagrin. Rather Sinclair cast his sights throughout Chicago, questioning much of what he saw.
This questioning led Sinclair to comment on many of the positive efforts to better life in Chicago at the time. His comments were across the board negative as he felt their approach was an ineffective way to help the lower classes of Chicago. Sinclair is unfair in this assessment as he chooses to only focus on his own agenda instead of acknowledging the fact that there are other ways to help the workers in Chicago. Unfortunately this stubbornness causes him to push down the work of people like Mary McDowell, who as we know had a hugely positive impact for the female workers in Chicago at the time. Though he includes a McDowell-like character in his novel, he makes her efforts to help Jurgis and his family unsuccessful. Thus Sinclair, in his novel The Jungle, unfairly portrays the positive efforts to better the lives of the family as ineffectual in order to draw a starker contrast between the actions of the corrupt and the actions of the well-meaning.