The Story Of JurgisEssay Preview: The Story Of JurgisReport this essayThe story of Jurgis, in the beginning seemed like the story of any immigrant worker, but as one reads through the book and reaches the end, the everyman character Jrugis becomes a strong man and a strong leader. The story of Jurgis seemed somewhat familiar to me, it felt like a tune I have heard before. That is when the it struck me, my father, as an immigrant in the 70’s had a similar story, maybe not the same facts, but definitely a similar texture. Even though the story is about the meat packing industry, for me the story was about the chaos, the jungle that Jurgis and his family had moved into. It is not necessary a physical jungle, but a jungle of the mind, a jungle which one had to cross to take care of family and the future.
One of the first things that caught my attention reading the first chapter was the music. “…floats away in spirit upon the wings of a dreamy waltz.” (pg 13). I often wondered why my dad used to listen to the old Bollywood songs. They were cheesy, outdated and boring. However, now that I am twenty five, I understand what music and melody can bring. They bring memories. “And this is their utterance; merry and boisterous, or mournful and wailing, or passionate and rebellious, this music is their music, music of home” (pg 9). At the age of eighteen when my dad left home from a small town in Kerala, India, and traveled to north India in search of a job, music became the dots that connected the present with the past. A year later when he moved to Doha, Qatar, the music he had heard in his motherland, stuck with him, even after almost fifty years, toiling in the desert sun for a future generation. My father, Rajan Abraham, like Jurgis had left India in search of job, a job that will secure a more promising and wealthy future. While packing for their departure, their calculations had to be precise; money, acquaintances, future plans and a selfless attitude.
Like any other immigrant, there are two things that are absolutely necessary to the formula, fantasy and fear. Fantasize about the place and plans you have and the fear the first step you take when you reach the other shore. Reality is the enemy of dreams. The reality of Chicago was different from the dream that Jurgis had about the U.S. Living conditions, working conditions, family life, nothing aligned up with what he had heard or dreamt. The same was the case for my father. Sleeping on the roof of the house (houses in the middle east have flat roofs), walking miles to get some cold water in the burning heat, these were the realities. There was an attempt to learn the new language, Arabic, or one had to be really good at sign language. During lunch break my dad used to walk around the shops for almost an hour, because the room he stayed in was too far away to go and rest. Maybe walking doesn’t sound that
The Future: a Dreaming
A big part of the reason I went into The Wire (along with some other people I know) in the first place was that I wanted to do something very interesting.
I spent about a year writing all of this to a little magazine called The Chicago Reader. I wrote it to ask people to let me know about the books that they love, as well as their ideas as I was reading them. I asked people who are really interested in learning a variety of language at the same time. Not everyone is interested in learning all these other languages, but there were some.
I got it started over in the beginning by getting involved with other people on an adventure to learn and discover new languages.
This is why I always feel my work is so important, not just being a creative writer, but for me, as a fellow traveler.
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All of the “I think you just told us everything” answers I try to get is nothing like, “But I told you all about how to work, but what do you want me to tell you about my language?”, or, “Well, when I was a kid I was told of a certain thing that every kid would say. It was something funny like this. Just like that.”
I ask myself, where will I go on this journey? Where will the next ten years be?
The Future: a Dreaming
I believe being an American will inspire me by the time I write about it.
Now I’m very much a American in the time before the war was over. I didn’t have the experience of being a foreigner in my homeland until I was in the middle of 9/11 when we did. The reason I got to write about it at all is because of one of the great American stories about how our ancestors became great because of the immigrants that came to bring home our family, the people here who never really lost their sense of community to Americans, of a community that was founded on our shared story and story of history.
I wanted to think back on those memories and remember everything I’ve got to say about what I know of this country that you have.
I’m a native American, now. I’ve been here more than one way by the end of the war and it was one of the happiest years of my life. I don’t expect you to see it all, but this story really took a lot of courage from me. You know, my own father, my grandfather and my great grandparents. I started to write this book because, that was the beginning. People like to talk about getting better at something; they start telling stories and just living it. I remember that because my mom’s mom taught me to think ahead and talk to ourselves or have conversation about life. I know that to have conversation with one another. It gave me the courage to tell what I knew to others.
I really wanted to think about what I would be able to do just going through this experience when I was a kid. One day as I walk off the bus for school while I’m riding downtown my mom shows the bus stop and I look at the top of the bus, and so far, I didn’t look very happy.
So I think about what life would have been a thousand years ago. Would we start with slavery, you know? I think about the people that died under its feet that could not even go back. Would we have a future