Famine, atrocious addictions, and corrupt political leaders, these problems all exist in the world. But, are they a common occurrence in the United States? It may seem as if these troubles don’t plague America, however, they were once widespread and prevalent among the middle class. The foreigners and laborers were suffering while the exploiters sat gluttonously. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, describes how alcoholism, poverty, and people in positions of authority had a negative impact on the lives of immigrants.
Jurgis, an immigrant from Lithuania, brought along with his family a passion to succeed and the will to keep working. Jurgis attained a job at Brown’s and pushed through the hardships of the job until he eventually injured his ankle, and though Jurgis’ family didn’t have it easy up to this point they struggled even more now that Jurgis wasn’t working. When Jurgis recovered he found that he had lost his job and began his search for a new job. He got a job at the fertilizer mill which constantly smelled and left Jurgis with a horrible stench. These numerous problems all tempted Jurgis to drink but he resisted until one day he decided to have a drink, and he instantly becomes addicted. Jurgis would often spend all the money he had on drinking only to further disappoint and sadden the family. His alcohol addiction also caused him to be harsh towards his family and wife Ona which eventually lead to the breakdown of their marriage. Alcoholism didn’t only plague the broken down adults like Jurgis however, even children could suffer the same fate Stanislovas is one of Teta Elzbieta’s six children and like the rest of his family, he suffers throughout the book as well. Forced to work at the age of thirteen Stanislovas is constantly pelted with problems kids his age shouldn’t have to go through. He loses his fingers in a snowstorm, gets beaten because of this fear, and still has to continue working. While Stanislovas had a job at an oil factory he would bring beer to his fellow workers and drink a small amount of it as well. He eventually ends up drinking too much one day and he passes out while also getting locked in the factory overnight. Stanislovas is horribly eaten by rats while he’s sleeping and is found dead the next day. This was a horrible event and shows perfectly how the temptation of alcohol can hurt and even kill people. Stanislovas wasn’t the only one of Elzbieta’s children to suffer however Stanislovas wasn’t the only one of Elzbieta’s children to succumb to the temptations of alcohol. Nikolajus and Vilimas’ hardships are very similar to Stanislovas’. Due to the family’s hardships, just like Stanislovas, Nikolajus and Vilimas are sent to work. They end up selling newspapers in the city, but they begin to start saying city slang. They also begin to start drinking at bars; Jurgis hates these habits and disagrees with them. At the ages of ten and eleven they’re exposed to a life-destroying force, and along with that, they start to use unacceptable language. All of these problems were created through what Jurgis describes as a “spectre” that spectre being alcohol.
As previously stated, the Rudkus family wasn’t short on problems, poverty being one of them. When Jurgis came to America he was a strong youthful man, and he was willing to do labor in order to support his family. At Jurgis’ first job at Brown’s he’s constantly pushed by his boss to work harder; during the winter months, he works from early in the morning to so late at night that he can only come home to eat and sleep. Once again, he injured his ankle and gets put out of work. Later on his wife Ona gets sexually assaulted by her boss Phil Connor, and Jurgis attacks him. Jurgis gets jail time for committing his crime but also becomes blacklisted. Becoming blacklisted meant that business owners and bosses knew that Jurgis had attacked Phil causing him to not be able to work for his family. He believed that the working conditions had used his youth and strength, and now he was an old and weak man. However, the working conditions and wage also led to malnutrition which also contributed to the breakdown of his body. As previously mentioned, Teta Elzbieta’s children go through terrible things and events in this book. Another child she had named Kristoforas also, unfortunately, has hardships. Kristoforas was born with a congenital displacement of his hip and is disabled for life. Due to this deformity and his age, Kristoforas can not work or make money for the family at all. He is also described as getting sick all the time and being an inconvenience. It is also described that in sausage factories the workers will mix spoiled meat into the sausages, and along with that, rats and poisoned bread could also be put into the sausages. That’s why when Kristoforas eats a sausage one morning and begins to have stomach pains it’s not a surprise. Kotrina ran for a doctor but it was too late and Kristoforas had already passed. Due to the impoverishment, the family was going through they had to buy the lowest quality and cheapest meat which led to the death of Kristoforas. While Kristoforas had been a mere three years old when he died, poverty didn’t only kill the young. Dede Antanas was Jurgis’ father, and he had also come with the family to America. Antanas like Jurgis had a passion for success, but he couldn’t find a job as easily because of his age. He ends up paying his boss one-third of his wages for a cleaning job in a pickling room. Antanas is old, however, and he begins to catch a cough from his working conditions. Along with a cough, the chemicals of the pickling room start to burn through his shoes leaving him with horrible blisters and sores on his feet. He eventually begins to cough up blood and isn’t able to work. Following a previous statement, the family has a rough and hard life, and because of this and their lack of money, they can’t get a doctor to help Antanas. Antanas sadly dies from hemorrhaging adding to the number of people in the family who unfortunately passed from poverty.
To state again, there was a lot of poverty in the family’s life. However, a majority of this poverty was caused due to people with power. Jurgis’ wife Ona was sexually assaulted by her boss Phil Connor, and also being exploited by him. Ona was working in a meatpacking factory at the time. Her boss Phil Connor told her that if she didn’t sleep with him her and everyone in the family would lose their jobs, and they would all starve. Ona seeing no other option slept with Phil multiple times in order to keep her family safe. Jurgis finds out after Ona doesn’t come home numerous nights, and he becomes deranged. He instantly leaves to confront him and attack him which leads to Jurgis being sent to jail. Jurgis not making money means the family struggles which ultimately leads to Ona’s death. Although Phil Connor is not directly correlated with Ona’s death, he contributed to it by sexually assaulting her. While Jurgis shouldn’t have assaulted Phil the judge could’ve sentenced Phil to a fine or jail time. When Jurgis is in court for attacking Phil he meets Judge Callahan, and he tries to tell his part of the story. Judge Callahan hates immigrants and Phil Connor is also closely associated with Mike Scully. Mike Scully is the democratic party boss of Chicago and the leader of a political machine. Due to Judge Callahan’s hate of immigrants, and Phil Connors connection to Scully, Jurgis isn’t listened to and is sentenced to jail time. Once again, Judge Callahan doesn’t directly cause Ona’s death or any hardships to the family, but by not listening to Jurgis and sentencing him to jail time he causes less money for the family. Less money, in turn, means no money for a doctor when Ona needed one. Much further in the book, Jurgis meets Marija again. Marija was Ona’s cousin who came with the family to America. Like Jurgis, she too brought the will to work with her to America, and she did work. Starting at a canning factory, Marija worked until she got fired for confronting her boss about stolen wages. She then worked as a meat trimmer until she cut her hand one day. This cut later becomes infected and she loses her job because of it. After Jurgis abandons the family, she began working at a brothel where she became addicted to morphine. When Jurgis finds her again she describes how she can’t leave because of how her boss exploits her. The owners of the brothel give the prostitutes drugs hoping they get addicted, and on top of that, they charge them harsh prices for living there. Also, when they want to leave they’re told they’ll be arrested if they leave. Due to the exploitation of the brothel owners, Marija is stuck in a life of addiction and prostitution where she’ll probably never escape.
To summarize, immigrants in the United States had numerous problems. Addictions like alcohol were one of the only ways to prevent stress from the workplace. On top of that, even when immigrants were working hard they often still lived a life of barely being able to sustain themselves. Even more, their bosses exploited them causing immigrants to do whatever they told them in order to keep their jobs. All of these factors and problems ultimately led to unfair conditions for immigrants and horrible futures and lives.