Here's a breakdown of how Sinclair describes it:
* The meat is not just dropped, but "tumbled", suggesting a careless and even violent movement. This emphasizes the disregard for the product and its potential contamination.
* The meat is covered in filth, described as "filth" and "muck." This includes dirt, hair, and other debris from the factory floor.
* The workers don't care about the contamination, they simply pick it up and "shove it into the sausage." This highlights the lack of hygiene and the prioritization of profit over safety.
Sinclair's point is to show the reader how the meat they consume could be contaminated and how this lack of concern for hygiene directly affects public health. The description of the meat falling on the floor is meant to be visceral and unsettling, forcing the reader to confront the unsavory reality of the meatpacking industry.
Here's a quote from the book that illustrates this:
> "And then the man in the overalls took his stick and poked it into the pile, and turned it over and over, and then, with a deft movement, lifted it up, and dumped the whole mass of it into the sausage-stuffing machine. And as the man worked, he talked, and in his talk he gave a picture of the filth and carelessness that were everywhere. "They use everything," he said; "they don't throw anything away. They'd sell the hair if they could, and they'd sell the bellies if they could, and they'd sell the lungs if they could."
This quote perfectly illustrates how Sinclair uses the fallen meat as a symbol of the overall contamination and disregard for sanitation in the meatpacking industry. It is a stark and unsettling portrayal that effectively serves his purpose of exposing the truth.