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 problems unseen by society’s eye.

Interestingly, the novels were written within three decades of each other, revealing underlying truths about this time period.  The two settings take place 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 crowded 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.  In one instance, she describes hundreds of patients being forced to live in the same locked room. The building itself was only part of it. Bly described the physical abuse she and the other patients received. cold baths, forced starvation, and beatings were seen every day. There was also a constant worry of sexual assault. Bly described the atmosphere more as a concentration camp than a healthcare establishment. 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” (Bly 7).  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 poorly built houses, away from affluent eyes. The Jungle really told the horrors found inside the factories. “Jurgis saw men in the pickling room with skin diseases. Men who used knives on the sped-up assembly lines frequently lost fingers. Men who hauled 100-pound hunks of meat crippled their backs. Workers with tuberculosis coughed constantly and spit blood on the floor.” (Mattson 1). The company had no regards to their workers’ health, all they cared about was maximizing their profit. 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.  It can even be said that Sinclair’s findings influenced the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.  The Jungle was published in February of 1906.  Three months later, Theodore Roosevelt and Harvey Washington Wiley founded the FDA, which still runs today.  Although shocking and disturbing to many, Sinclair’s novel created an almost immediate action to the problems during his time. Bly’s book also was a huge success, shortly after the institution in which she lived was reformed due to the public scrutiny. Her work went in detail on the treatment and facilities, and how the treatment didn’t really work. The medical field realized this and really deepened the discussion on how to treat these patients. Better housing and useful treatments were soon implicated due to Bly exposing the horrors. Both Bly and Sinclair were able to defy the odds and bring about change for each community.

Even though “Ten Days in a Madhouse” and The Jungle were written thirty years apart, they share many concepts in common.  Both revealed the social issues of the time period, uncovered horrors of reality, and influenced change in their communities and society.  By doing what nobody else would, Bly and Sinclair used firsthand knowledge to expose the horrors and bring about change to better the society.