The Jungle is a story about immigrates and the American dream of good wages and a good life. Yet, the immigrates were met with poor working conditions and low wages for the benefit of the capitalists. The corrupt capitalists value wealth more than the workers and the consumers. The story is about a man named Jurgis and his family coming to America. Instead of good wages and a good life, they find a world of devastation, deplorable working conditions, corruption and crime in order to survive. Twelve of them came to America and only five survived the horror.
Jurgis and his family decided they wanted to go to America where the wages were much higher. They sold the farm in Lithuania and took the long journey. A fellow Lithuania had moved to Chicago and was making a lot of money or that is what they thought. Upon finally arriving in Chicago, they were directed to the stockyards. The stockyards had a smell that the immigrates did not know what it was. Dark clouds were over the area but that did not matter, they were in America to make better wages. The fellow Lithuanian had a delicatessen and luckily they found him. He directed them to a filthy boarding house that already had many people there. .
Jurgis and his family took a tour of Packingtown. They were amazed at the number of cattle, pigs and sheep. Members of the family noticed the unsanitary conditions in Packingtown. Jurgis went to look for a job. A boss immediately noticed him and told him to come back tomorrow. Jurgis was so excited that he had a job. The job at Packingtown was at the "killing fields." The smell was over powering but that did not matter, he was working at last and able to provide a good life for his family.
Many of the family members find jobs and read in a newspaper about a four-bedroom house for fifteen hundred dollars. This was the first time the immigrates were swindled. They were informed the down payment was three hundred dollars and twelve dollars a month.