Immigrants' Struggles with American Dream in The Jungle

“The Jungle”, written by Upton Sinclair, is a novel which exploited immigrants lives that were affected while living and working in industrialized cities in Chicago during the early 1900’s. The novel is based around the lives of characters who each had their own experiences and struggles that they faced while being immigrants from Lithuania going into the Meat-Packing Industry, also known as Packingtown.

The main character that Sinclair made one of the more important and was considered to be a representation of what immigrant's experience and struggle with is Jurgis Rudkus. Jurgis was a man who originally came from Lithuania, but decided to leave his country in the hopes of achieving the American Dream in the United States. He was described to be a hardworking and determined person who was strong as well. He is idealistic as well, which would describe why he had such high hopes for entering a new country and being hopeful for what was to come. Lithuania at the time becomes very corrupt, which is the reason why many decide to leave. Like many immigrants, he wanted to be able to provide a better life for not only himself, but for his fiancé, and eventually his wife Ona Lukoszaite. Packingtown, Chicago, Illinois became the area where Jurgis began his new life, but his dreams were quickly destroyed as the struggles of what immigrants must go through became more and more apparent to him. He struggled with the English language, which is something that had been seen as important to much of the immigrants who entered the United States in order to get by with working daily. Besides not being able to speak English, Jurgis and his wife Ona were both disorientated upon entering the United States because life here was different than their life back in Lithuania and the lifestyle became something difficult to get used to. Working in the stockyards became difficult for him and other immigrants who worked alongside him because they were being put through hard labor, long hours of work, and the same amount of little pay that they would receive for any amount of work done. While noticing all of what was going on, it became apparent to Jurgis that his own American Dream was destroyed, which changed his view point forever and eventually turned him into someone different than he was while living in Lithuania.

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Ona Lukoszaite is another main character of the story and was the wife of Jurgis Rudkus. She was described to be fragile and helpless, yet optimistic and kind hearted. Ona faced her own struggles upon starting a completely different life in the United States because just as her husband, she too was forced to do hard labor in order to make ends meets. Because she was seen as a fragile character, her struggles involved being raped by her own boss and not being able to do anything about it in order to not have her and her family’s life destroyed. Ona faced the struggles of being a mother to a child named Antanas. She ends up dying during child birth, as well as her newborn. Ona represented guilt and pity in the story. Jurgis feels guilt from capitalism pressures he faced while being married to her. The readers feel pity after reading the pain and struggles she went through. Antanas was the child of Jurgis and Ona. He was one of the characters from the novel and was seen as a form of hope for the future by his parents because they felt he would have a better, different lifestyle then they did. Unfortunately, he died by drowning in a pothole when he is still a kid. Dede Antanas was Jurgis father who was one of the characters that supported the decision of his son Jurgis to go to Chicago and live a better life. While in Chicago, Dede figured out that not even the elderly were appreciated or respected. He ended up dying from a persistent cough. Phil Connor was Ona’s boss who is portrayed as an enemy for Jurgis by not only hurting Ona, but also a man who took advantage of his own privilege that he has in this country. Jack Duane was a character that was put into Jurgis life to introduce him to the reality, and more abrupt world of Chicago while being his cellmate. Mike Scully was characterized as the head of Packingtown. He was portrayed as a crooked man whom Jurgis first believes is his friend, but later discovers he is responsible for the death of Antanas and Ona. Teta Elzbieta was the stepmother of Ona, whom was a representation of what it is to not really live, but to survive in a world that is full of tragedy after tragedy. Tommy Hinds was Jurgis’ last boss and ran a hotel business where he helped immigrants' guests and passed out literature that had to do with socialists. Tommy was considered to be a good man. Lastly, Stainslovas was the el