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 day
sentence which is going to be terrible on the family. In Jail Jurgis meets a man
named Jack Duane and gives him his address. Stanislovas visits him in jail to
get money and tell him of the news of the family all is bad. When he finally
gets out he finds out that they lost the house and are staying in the attic of
the widow Jukniene's house. When he gets there Ona is in the middle of delivery
and they send Jurgis out to get a midwife because they can not afford a doctor.
He returns with the midwife and then leaves again to goto a saloon will Ona is
giving birth when he returns he finds that the baby didn't make it and Ona is
dying. Jurgis can't cope with her death and feels very lonely and I believe this
is when his character starts to become dynamic in the morning he gets money and
goes to the saloon. The next day he goes to look for a job and realizes he can't
get a job because he is now blacklisted. He then gets a job at harvester works
after a week he loses the job he is at the point of giving up but he realizes he
has a son and keeps going. He then gets a job at a steel mill, it's very far
away so he stay's there during the week and comes home on the weekends. He gets
hurt at his job and can't work for several days which gives him a good time to
spend with his son. He goes back to work and start making plans for the future,
when one day he comes home and finds that Antanas has drowned in a puddle. I
believe this is the climax of the story when Jurgis feels how could society
allow this to happen and how he has nothing left. When he stows away on a train
he tries to leave his past behind he has nothing left and he doesn't have to
worry about anyone but himself now, which allows him to think clearly. He gets
offf in the country and goes from farmhouse to farmhouse getting food and
shelter during this time h is free to think freely and recover from his time in
the city. When winter starts to approach he leaves the country and heads back to
Chicago, he gets a job digging tunnels, he broke his arm a couple of weeks later
and goes to the hospital when he gets out he lost the room he was renting and is
once again out on the streets. After spending what little money he has at
saloons. One day he was begging and met a rich man who was drunk and managed to
get a hundred dollar bill by mistake but kept it anyway. When he tried to get
change for it at a bar the bartender on gave him change for a dollar, the
bartender wouldn't give it back so Jurgis attacked which one again landed him in
jail. He met Duane there again and decided to join Duane after his sentence
because he doesn't have a family to worry about anymore. While in jail he goes
through a big change he sees the world as something different then what he used
to see it as like there is isn't much hope and u have to do for yourself. Jurgis
learns all about crime and schemes that are going on in the city, he goes along
on some of them and makes money through robberies. He then gets a job trying to
get people to vote for the republicans and buy votes which he did sucessfully.
Jurgis still having the job at the packing plant goes to work as a scab during a
strike he soon gets put in charge of the killing beds. One night he was drinking
and he stumbled upon Connor he again attacked him and went to jail. He calls
upon a friend to bail him out and finds out that Connor is good friends with
Scully so he has to get out of town and he does. Giving his so called friend all
his money to get out of jail Jurgis has no money left and wanders into a
political rally for the socialist party for heat and shelter. Trying to stay
awake so he won't be kicked out, he fell asleep, and was kicked out from there
he goes looking for Marji, Ona's cousin. When he finds her it's in a brothel and
is raided by the police as soon as he gets there so he goes to the police
station with Marji and while in jail he spends time thinking of the past
tragedies and how he left his family behind. He appears in court the next day
and is dismissed. They return the house and Marji tells him about her life now,
that she is now addicted to morphine and is a prostitute while they eat lunch.
After lunch Jurgis goes to find Elzbieta. He can't face her without a job though
so he goes to the political hall that kicked him out before to think about the
things that had happened and what Elzbieta would think about him leaving but he
falls asleep again and is woken by a woman who tells him he should pay attention
what the speaker was saying. He starts to listen to the speaker closely and
finding himself agreeing with him. The speaker talks about the men, woman, and
children that where exploited and used by industries and how his party the
socialist will make sure this doesn't happen again and again in the future. He
reaches out to the blue-collar workers who made this society and have no voice
in this city and society where the rich are getting richer and the poor are
getting poorer. Jurgis felt like he was renewed in life and once again he
believed his dreams could be met. After the meeting he goes searching for the
speaker who he talks to for a little then is given to the speaker's friend
Ostrinski they go to his house and tell each other about their lives. Ostrinski
explains the beliefs and goals of the socialist party to Jurgis very carefully
he also learns about the Beef Trust and how it works in its corrupt ways and how
the socialist party can stop them. He finally faces Elzbieta and explains to her
the socialists point of view. He then gets a job as a porter that he got from
the owner of the hotel who is also an active socialist named Hinds. His hotel is
the center of socialist actions and also the place where Jurgis learns about the
socialist party. He starts reading the 'Appeal to Reason' a kind of political
newspaper to discourage other political parties. He now also hands this weekly
paper out. He tries to get Marji to quit her job at the brothel but she wouldn't
listen so jurgis just forgets about it and he starts thinking about what changes
he can make in his life for the better. Before the election Jurgis goes to an
important meeting in which he was invited to, there was a magazine editor there
who jurgis thought he would probably have to tell hi slife story as a working
man to support socialist views. He goes and finds the main speakers are an
evangelist named Lucas and the editor Schliemann they go on about what the
socialist party believes in and how things should be, after the meeting Jurgis
felt like a new beginning and the socialist's barely lost in the election which
was a huge victory for them and a loss for wage-slavery.