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Personification
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Boiled for Lard:
Sinclair uses satire to draw attention to the troubling conditions faced by the floor factory workers in the Chicago stockyards. The narrator describes the workplace "troubles" the men face in a startlingly offhand way:
[...] as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting,—sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!
Through this passage's satirical approach, Sinclair sheds light on the deplorable circumstances Packington's workers toil in. Sinclair criticizes their terrible working conditions by presenting the workers' accidents as commonplace, even boring events. The “trouble” these men face by being boiled to death is presented dryly, as if it were a normal workplace inconvenience. The shocking tragedy of these regular deaths, and the implication that the workers’ bodies are processed with the meat they handle, is a key part of this. Addressing it casually makes it seem doubly shocking.
In this passage, the narrator implicitly takes the position of the owners of the factory. They imply that the workers' gruesome fate—falling into vats and being reduced to bones—is an unremarkable occurrence. Sinclair writes that industrialists only care about profits and have no regard for their workers’ welfare. He suggests that it doesn’t matter to the producers of Durham’s Lard whether or not their product contains human body parts or if people die while at work. This satirical portrayal highlights the inhumane way immigrant workers were treated in the early 20th century, and it criticizes the capitalist system that devalues workers' lives.
Related Themes:
