The Jungle

Synopsis

The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair, an American novelist exposed the lives of immigrants in the industrialized American cities. Based on an investigation by the author for a socialist newspaper, he wrote this novel portraying the life of a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in the city of Chicago in a meatpacking industry.

Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian along with his teenage wife Ona Lukoszaite Rudkus and his family migrates to America. He takes up a job in a meatpacking company. Contrast to his expectations of better living conditions and freedom, he finds working conditions are very harsh. Struggling to survive in their house in a stockyard, he exhausts his savings for down payment to buy a sub-standard house which he cannot afford. Unfortunately after his money is taken, the family is evicted from the house.

To survive all his family members including his wife and elderly parents started seeking job. In an accident Rudkus injures himself which eventually leads to lose his job. His wife employed in a fertilizer plant confesses of rape by her boss, Rudkus attacks him and being imprisoned. The rest of the story narrates the endless sufferings of the family including death of his wife during her delivery to the second baby.

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