Jungle Essays (1918 words) - Meat Packing Industry, The Jungle

Jungle By 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