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The jungle


            The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, takes place during the turn of the century in the hazardous stockyards of Chicago's industrial packing industry. It's contents, outlining the trials of immigrant as well as American stockyard workers, reformed the course of industrial labor in America.
             The story begins with the marriage of Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite, two Lithuanian immigrants who imiigrated to America, along with select members of their extended family, to make a new life for themselves in the prosperous American city of Chicago. The wedding between Jurgis and Ona left the family in great debt. To pay this, the naive Jurgis intended to work tediously to make more money. He finds jobs doing tedious labor in the plants throughout Chicago. Like Jurgis, the rest of his family moved in and out of dangerous, low paying jobs to make enough income to live and pay off their debt. At first, Ona, her step mother, Teta Elzbieta, and Teta Elzbieta's children were not permitted to work, but Jurgis soon came to find that for the family to survive, they would all need jobs, but he was still hopeful and longed for the day that they would be handsomely rewarded for their hard work.
             Jurgis" optimisim faded over time. As each day passed, a new obstacle stood in the family's way. Jurgis broke his ankle, leaving him unable to work for weeks on end and eventually causing the loss of his job completely. Death in the family, the poor living conditions of their "rental" home, countless hidden charges, street life and little schooling for Teta Elzbieta's children, rape, and alcoholism plagued the family. Eventually, the family fell apart and all was lost.
             Jurgis disappears and gets into legal trouble. He takes poor jobs while cycling in and out of jail and gets caught up in a life of crime. In time, he would find hope in the "Socialist movement." A socialist speaker described a life of poverty that Jurgis could relate to and he soon became an active socialist.


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