Jungle, The

The Jungle is a “muckraking” novel published in the United States in January 1906. Its author is Upton Sinclair. The novel chronicles the struggles of Jurgis Rudkus, a recent immigrant to the United States from Lithuania. Rudkus works at the Chicago stockyards, and the novel uses his immigrant experience to comment on the unfair working conditions for the workers in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the century. It was the intent of the author, Sinclair, to write a book that would draw attention to this issue in particular.

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., the author of The Jungle, was born September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland. Sinclair grew up in a poor family. His father experienced great difficulty in achieving economic success and abused alcohol much of his life. Sinclair's mother belonged to a family of some affluence, but this in no way provided any benefit to Sinclair's immediate family.

The family moved to New York City by the time Sinclair was 10 years old. Sinclair began attending school, and by the time he was 14, he was eligible to attend City College of New York (CUNY). Sinclair also began writing dime novels at this time and graduated from CUNY at age 18.

Following his studies at CUNY, he continued to write, attended graduate school, and published several novels. He also became more interested in socialism. In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in Chicago living with the workingmen of the packing plants in the stockyards of Chicago. This experience became the basis for the novel The Jungle.

In telling the story of Jurgis Rudkus, the novel is able to convey the story of many eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century. During the period from 1900 to 1910, the number of Lithuanian, Slovakian, and Polish immigrants to the United States increased significantly. This was especially true in the city of Chicago.

As the novel opens, Jurgis is marrying a young teenager he met in Lithuania named Ona Luko-szaite. They both recently immigrated to the United States because of the country's reputation as a land of opportunity and freedom. Ona's cousin, Marja, handles the wedding. The opening wedding scene exposes the reader to important traditions of the eastern European culture of Lithuanians and also to the financial challenges that exist beneath the surface for these turn-of-the-century immigrants. This conflict is self-evident as the older Lithuanians observe a custom of providing monetary gifts to the bride to pay for the feast and the wedding. The younger Lithuanian immigrants do not observe this tradition, as they recognize the financial challenges they all face in their new country.

Jurgis and Ona, the new couple, reside in Packingtown. It is a neighborhood in Chicago where many new immigrants reside, but especially individuals and families from Poland and Lithuania. The conditions in the neighborhood are not good, as the community is impoverished and there is little support outside the community. Jurgis begins working in the stockyards in this area to support his family and hopes to support his larger family as well. His job is shoveling animal intestines. Although the work is difficult, Jurgis is strong and feels confident in his ability to withstand the labor.

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