(MENAFN- AzerNews) The phrase“'Man shall not live on bread alone!” from the Bible
reminds me of two American writers, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Upton
Sinclair. For me, they are gods of literature as they through their
literary works forced the state to change laws.
The phrase 'man shall not live on bread alone' opens new
horizons before us. Indeed, not just the stomach, but also dignity
keeps humans alive. Unfortunately, in order to live, one takes the
freedom of others and exploits them. Of course, not everybody
agrees with this approach and these people arms only with
literature.
About 150 years ago, America was divided into two parts.
Southerners considered themselves superior to blacks, seeing them
as a creature between animals and human beings. Northerners were
against it, but they did not do any organized action against
slavery.
However, H. B. Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' touched the hearts of
northerners and forced them to act. Many people associate the start
of the Civil War, which ended slavery in the USA, with this woman's
name. Even Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe with these
words: 'So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started
this great war.'
It was actually a very great act because northern soldiers died
not to fight for their own freedom, but for the freedom of the
black brought from Africa. In short, after Stowe's book, Americans
preserved the dignity of the United States. Therefore, we can
recognize Harriet Beecher Stowe as a writer who played an important
role in changing history with her book.
With the help of Stowe's book, slavery was officially abolished,
but slavery in the United States was not limited to the southern
states. In the north, there was another type of slavery; it was
called wage slavery. It is true that 'wage slaves' were considered
full citizens according to the law, but they were exploited as
well. The difference was that blacks were forced to work at
gunpoint, while 'wage slaves' were forced to work with wages.
The US received migrants from all over the world who didn't need
them. As a result, a large number of unemployed people appeared in
the country. Millions of people stood at company gates begging for
work, and this policy gave capitalists the opportunity to treat
workers as they pleased. Not only employees who disobeyed bosses,
but also injured ones were fired immediately. After all, there were
millions of people waiting at the door, hoping someone would be
fired and he/she would be hired in lieu.
Knowing all this, Upton Sinclair came to Chicago and stated.
' And I've come here to write the `Uncle Tom's Cabin' of the
Labor Movement!' Disgusted as a migrant worker, who hunted for a
job and worked in a meat packing plant, he began to write a book
called `Jungle'. Later, Jack London called this book 'The Uncle
Tom's Cabin of wage slavery'.
In his book, Sinclair described the miserable life of the poor
working class very well. The work describes not only poverty but
also unsanitary workplaces, selling sick animals to people, the
bias of the judicial system in the USA, and fraud in elections.
Sinclair was sure to repeat the success of H. B. Stowe.
He sent his book to six publishers, but all of them refused to
publish it. In the end, he published the book at his own expense on
February 28, 1906, in the 'Doubleday Page & Company' publishing
house. The book became a best-seller the week it went on sale.
People who read the book were outraged. Among readers was President
Theodore Roosevelt. Later, the president sent a commission to
Chicago to conduct research on meat packing plants. The commission
confirmed what Sinclair had written in his book.
Roosevelt sent the results of the commission to the Senate on
June 4, 1906. With popular pressure, the Meat Industry Act of 1906,
and the Pure Food and Drug Act were passed by the Senate, and the
Bureau of Chemistry was created (renamed the Food and Drug
Administration in 1930).
Sinclair followed B. Stowe's footsteps, and his efforts changed
the law in American history. But this change disappointed Sinclair.
He wanted to draw the attention of the American people to the
workers' miserable lives, but the American people did not care
about human dignity as before. They stopped the sale of unsanitary
products in the book and they demanded control mechanisms from the
government. Unsanitary production literary overshadowed workers'
miserable lives. Sinclair, helpless in front of this scene, says
ironically in an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine:“I aimed at
the public heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach.”
---
Comments
No comment