Chicago - Meat Packing Industry: dressing beef, slaughtering floor, Swift & Co.'s Packing House

This photo displays the working conditions of the meat factories in the time period when The Jungle was written. The picture shows improper handling of food as well as deteriorating equipment including rusted saws. The inspectors look down at the workers with a sense of authority that they do not dare trouble. In relation to the paper, my picture depicts the life of workers in the factory and the hardships they had to face day by day toiling away at their job. The thesis of my paper will be such as;  Workers were trapped in a cycle of hardship because of the working conditions in their jobs. The photo showing the inspectors looking over the workers as an example of a check to prevent the workers from doing what they should not as well as imply that the workers could not escape their fate of escaping the seemingly never ending cycle of hard work and payments in the factories.  With the thesis, the workers hardship can be contribute to conditions they had to work at in the factory including having to use tools that were unfit were continued use such as using the rusted saws. Without using the proper safety equipment, workers could also get injured on the job as seen in the picture with workers not wearing any gloves or using any other precautions to prevent accidents. The picture in black and white helps highlight what needs to be seen in the photo and shows the “darkness” that can result based on unpleasant working circumstances and the feeling the inspectors gave the workers that forbade them to stray from their stations. The passing of meat from one person to another as well as the unity viewed with the workers working together all combing into one image that has many interpreted significance yet can provide a valuable look into the conditions and reason for why workers were trapped in their seemingly endless cycle of hardship.