In 1887 intrepid reporter, Nellie Bly, shocked society by going undercover into a New York mental institution. She uncovered horrifying truths about the treatment of patients and expressed them in her article and book “Ten Days in a Mad House”.  Similarly, in 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, a book revealing the exploited lives of immigrants in Chicago and other industrialized cities.  Both Bly and Sinclair wish to display the harsh reality of 

Interestingly, the novels were written within three decades of each other, revealing the harsh reality of this time period.  The two settings are each in large industrialized cities of the United States, Chicago and New York.  During this time, America was growing rapidly with the inventions of new machinery and the progress of industry.  Immigrants were flocking to the U.S. in search of jobs and freedom.  The rapid growth of cities left social services struggling to keep up with the large influx of population.  Housing in Chicago, as displayed in The Jungle, rarely met requirements of proper living.  Many immigrants could not afford houses in safe environments and were forced to find close and dirty living quarters.  Similarly, health services suffered greatly from poor regulations and inspections.  Bly revealed the poor treatment of mental patients and their conditions.  Overall, these three decades experienced great growth with negative consequences.

Although Bly focused her exploration on the problems with mental hospitals, her findings mimic those of Sinclair’s.  Society often mistreats minorities by creating quick and easy solutions to their problems.  However, these “solutions” rarely consider the wellbeing of those it will affect.  Bly experienced horrific things when she went undercover into a mental institution.  In her articles, she described a major safety issue in the way the hospital contained its patients.  If there was a fire, Bly explains how “every door is locked separately and [how] the windows are heavily barred”.  It would be physically impossible to get everyone out in time.  She also describes the so-called treatments she obtained, including “solitary confinement” and “hair pulling”.  Sinclair similarly witnessed harsh treatments and poor conditions of immigrants and those in poverty.  He describes how the river is “filled with chemical runoffs from the factories” and how the streets have “no drainage”.  The tenants and workers lived in shabby and badly built houses, away from affluent eyes.  Both Sinclair and Bly explained how the “out of sight, out of mind” idea negatively affected its victims.

However, both Sinclair’s and Bly’s discoveries helped open the eyes of those around them and inspired change.  Sinclair’s novel led to the reform of federal food inspection laws.  The government became stricter with health and safety conditions and required more inspections.