Jurgis Rudkus As A Dynamic Character In Upton Sinclair'S The Jungle

The Jungle (1906), by Upton Sinclair, is a story mainly about the life and turmoil of a man who came to American in hopes that he will become a free, rich man with a beautiful wife, Ona, and happy family; this man is the young Jurgis Rudkus, a strong, energetic Lithuanian whose personality and life are all changed several times over the coarse of the story. Major-- usually tragic-- events that occur in the story serve as catalysts for Jurgis's dramatic, almost upsetting, transformations. There were four major turning points in Jurgis's life: after he loses his job and is forced to work at a fertilizer mill; when he loses his wife and children; when he is incorporated into the criminal and political underworlds; and when he picks his life back up again. These events in his life all trigger reactions that are very much unlike the first Jurgis Rudkus we are introduced to-- his spirit squashed, his family either in despair, dying or dead, and all of his money gone, Jurgis's dream is thoroughly shattered.

Coming to America, marrying Ona Lukoszaite, and to live the 'American Dream' were Jurgis Rudkis's only aspirations, but once there, him and his family's unfortunate outcome was ominously foreshadowed, and the Jurgis that we were first introduced to, whose motto was once to "work harder" (Sinclair 17), slowly turns into an alcoholic due to terrible living and working conditions. He is a man "with the mighty shoulders and giant hands," "great black eyes with beetling brows, and thick black hair that curled in waves about his ears" (4), and an immensely strong physique, who rarely loses his temper, even when treated unfairly or when robbed. After living in America for a while, and with most of the family having to acquire jobs to pay for the hidden fees of the newly bought house-- which was a sham of a deal in which the whole family could lose everything they ever paid on the house if they missed just one month's payment-- the loss of one of more jobs within the family could mean the loss of the house, and Jurgis does just that: he loses his job due to a very badly injured ankle. After it did heal, the only job he could find was at a fertilizer plant, which was not a glamorous job, to say the least, and he would come home every day smelling rancid from the chemicals absorbing into his skin. The downward, spiraling slope of no return began here. The once great Jurgis develops a drinking problem, and it is the first sign of his loss of morals, and his incorporation into the corrupt world that is Packingtown. More tragedies occur, family members die from sickness, and when Jurgis found out that Phil Connor, Ona's boss, had raped her, he "[lunged] with all the power of his arm and body, [and] struck him fairly between the eyes and knocked him backward;" then he "buried his fingers in his throat" and when men tried to pull him off he "bent down and sunk his teeth into the man's cheek; and when they [the men] tore him away he was dripping in blood, and little ribbons of skin were hanging in his mouth" (152). Jurgis is thrown in jail, leaving his family to suffer and wither away for thirty three days, and when released, everything has fallen apart. Dismayed and confused Jurgis returns to his house, only to find it with a new paint job, new shingles, and everything fixed, and oddest of all "a boy [came] out, a stranger to [Jurgis]; a big, fat, rosy-cheeked youngster" (174). The road ahead for Jurgis was even grayer yet.

If Ona's death, along with her stillborn child, was not enough change Jurgis forever, than the death of his only son, Antanas-- the only real light left in Jurgis's life-- surly did. After that, it can be assumed that Jurgis has completely been submerged into the pits of despair; with no one to truly love him and no family to take care of, he did not "[make] for the nearest saloon" as he had done "[w]hen his wife had died" (210), instead, he fled. He jumped on a train car and "he went on, tearing up all the flowers from the garden of his soul, and setting his heel upon them" (211). Now that he has left the stockyards, the only thing Jurgis has to look forward to is a life of loneliness, crime, and foraging for food-- because some farmers would not "'feed tramps'" (213), but after his realization that he was now a "free man" (215), Jurgis became very self-sufficient and able to feed himself, and doing so while not working very often at all, for only "[half] an hour's chopping wood" "was enough to bring him a meal" (215). "[The] joy of the unbound life" (215), appealed to Jurgis greatly, but his conscience was not the 'yelling-at-you' type, and so when Jurgis was wasting a large sum of money, that he had earned from two weeks of work, on drinks and women, his conscience just sat in the sidelines helpless until the party was over, and it could do its job. His recent actions would have appalled the Jurgis that first came to America, with his idealistic virtues, seemingly flawless personality, and strong happy family-- but this Jurgis was lost. In his situation, most would have lost all hope, possibly committing suicide, and would have not seen that most everyone gets a second chance, and he had to be sent to jail again to receive it.

After leaving jail, Jurgis had the opportunity to become incorporated into a life of thievery, with a man he met the first time he was in jail, Jack Duane, and together the two partners robbed people of money and jewelry, and soon it bothered Jurgis not to see a man harmed after he was mugged by the pair. "A month ago Jurgis had all but perished of starvation upon the streets; and now suddenly, as by the gift of a magic key, he had entered into a world where money and all good things of life came freely" (252). After Duane was gone, Jurgis met "Bush" Harper, who offered him a job if he would come to Packingtown and do what he was told by Harper, who was told what to do by Mike Scully, the head honcho. Harper said he would take care of Jurgis being "blacklisted" (258), and so another moral attrition begins, and the most blatant of all was when "he brought bunch after bunch of the newest foreigners-- Lithuanians, Poles, Bohemians, Slovaks" and tricked them into voting for Republican candidate. Although his job as a political corrupt is over, he keeps his job at as a hog trimmer, even through the recent strike, during which time he seizes the opportunity to ask for three dollars an hour, and then is soon promoted to the killing beds boss, to teach the new scabs-- who were among the newest immigrants, "Greeks, Romanians, Sicilians, and Slovaks"-- what to do (267). After events that left Jurgis on the streets, yet again,