Jungle (1918 words)

JungleBy Upton Sinclair
The novel ‘ The Jungle’ by Upton Sinclair took place in the 1900’s the main
character in this book is Jurgis Rudkis and his dynamic change to Socialism. He
started out as a young and strong man looking for the “american
dream.” He left Lithuania in hope of starting a family and a cordial Life.

The beginning of this book starts at the wedding of Jurgis and Ona Lukoszaite
which I believe symbolizes that they are starting a new life for themselves and
it is starting out with happiness and a bond. They live in Packington their
first day the get jobs quite easily still supporting the idea that things are
going well. Jurgis was a hard working and good willed man in the beginning
suprisingly he even liked his job at the killing beds. The conditions there were
horrible, there was no concern for workers because if one would quit then the
industries would go down to the docks and hire another immigrant who would work
for nothing . That’ s where union’s came in but they were also corrupt and could
be counterstriked by industries. So that’s where the Socialist Party came in and
what I believe the central theme is. It was a worker’s political party a party
that realized the only way to change things was to control the Government. I
also believe this book was written for people to know about all the unjustice’s
that were commited at this time through the money hungry politicians and
industrial giant’s and how immigrants where exploited along with their families
and used by the “system” of waste and replace. Since there was such a
steady flow of unskilled workers coming into the country employers didn’t have
to worry about the needs of their workers. Jurgis and his family expierienced
this world of unjustice drastically. Eventually they get a house, which causes
them all to get a job to afford it, but they can still manage. Antanas who is
Jurgis’s father soon dies from tuberculosis. Winter comes and is hard for anyone
who isn’t prepared the conditions at the yards is now at it’s worst so when
juris is approached to join the union he doesn’t hesitate and soon the whole
family is in the union. In the summer Ona is pregnant and names it Antanas after
Jurgis’ father. Ona is forced to goto work without recovering because her income
is needed. This takes a drastic toll on her health. Jurgis then sprains his
ankle at work but, turns out to be a pulled tendon and keep him out of work for
almost 3 months this was extremely hard on the family because he was a very
critical income. During his time recovering he sees that everything is coming
apart and him and his family might not make it. Ona has suffered a great deal
from the weather and conditions at the plants. The following spring Jurgis is
able to work again so he hunts for a job since his old one is lost because again
the companies don’t care about their workers and if they can’t make it to work
cause they are hurt then the company claims no liability and finds someone to
take your job. Kristofaros one of Elzbieta’s two crippled son dies of a bad
sausage that he had eaten earlier in the day. Jurgis finally gets a job at a
unhealthy and wretched fertilizer plant, he copes with this job by giving into
drinking to help him forget about some of his problems. Winter comes again and
the all must work extremely hard because of the Holidays. After a snowstorm one
day Ona doesn’t return home from work so in panic Jurgis goes out and looks for
her but couldn’t find her so he waits at her job and when she returns the day he
asks where she was and she said she couldn’t make it home in the weather so she
stayed at a friends house and Jurgis understands and forgets about it. It
happened again one day and Jurgis goes to the friends house but finds that she
is not there and never was so he came home and demanded to know where she had
been so she tells him Connor leader of the loading gang made her have an affair
with him or all the women would lose their jobs. Enraged Jurgis finds Connor at
the plant and attacks him which lead him to the police station he gets a 30