The Jungle
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In The Jungle, the character of Jurgis, who is also the protagonist of the story, undergoes a tremendous transformation throughout the story. Jurgiss moral values slowly decline throughout each chapter as his life slowly plunges downward. In the beginning, Jurgis has a strong devoted feeling toward his family along with a positive attitude towards his new country in which he is about to live and work. He vows to work hard and earn money in order to pay for the veselija from the wedding. He eventually finds a job and earns enough for the family to settle into a home. As his son, Antanas, is born, Jurgis finds it harder to endure the brutal work conditions and also have to worry about his role as a father and as a husband at the same time. The family slowly drifts into poverty, as they cannot keep up with their jobs. Jurgis begins to drift away from his pregnant wife, Ona, throughout their relationship, and Jurgis eventually turns to alcohol. Jurgis reaches his breaking point when he discovers that Ona was harassed an then raped by her boss, Phil Connor. Jurgis then storms to Onas factory and beats Connor. He is eventually arrested and sentenced to thirty days in prison. As he is in prison, he worries about the family, who no longer has a head of the family to support them. Upon release from jail, Jurgis finds out that Ona is in labor. However, the baby dies and Ona passes away shortly after. Grieving over the tragedy, Jurgis takes three dollars from the money the children earned and spends it on liquor. Tete Elzbieta convinces him not to forget about his son, Antanas, so Jurgis finds a job at a steel mill to support the rest of the family. One day, when returning from work, Jurgis learns that his son tragically drowned. He then abandons the family and hitchhikes on a train car to the countryside. Jurgis spends the rest of his seemingly destroyed life finding jobs and using the earned money on drinking. He also turns to a life of crime, because he soon believes the crime is the best possible way to survive. Towards the end of the book, Jurgis walks upon a socialist meeting. As he listens to the speech, he then becomes interested in the ideas behind socialism, and reacts to it as thought it was a new religion. He takes up socialism with a passion, and is, in a sense, “redeemed” by it. An admirable quality about this character is that he was able to survive such a hard life and eventually find joy in the form of socialism in the political world.
Many elements of setting are extremely pertinent to the plot of The Jungle because the harsh working environment in which the story takes place is what causes the destruction of Jurgiss lifestyle and family. Therefore, the setting is somewhat responsible for most of the events that take place. The poor working conditions that the family face causes them to slowly deteriorate. Throughout their transition into poverty, many of them fall ill and starve. Some lose body parts due to frostbite, and others also end up dying due to the environment (such as Antanas, who drowns in a pool). The time of the