Ona And Jurgis In Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

Justine Saldana
POLS 2314.07
11/23/12
The Jungle
By: Upton Sinclair

Ona and Jurgis are getting married and they live in Chicago. They live in Packington which is a city known for their meat packing industry, while there they see pins filled with different types of livestock. Tuberculosis is a common disease that is going around during this time, and some of the animals are skipped from inspection and continue on into the meat process with this disease.
Jurgis is employed in the meat packing factory but starts his position low by cleaning up the mess that is left on the factory floor. He works hard for his family, and sacrifices the smell and work because he has a job and payment coming in compared to other men who are jobless and
poor. Everyone in the family from father, wife, to grandfather, even children of young age, are determined to look for a job, but are disappointed after they hear that yes you can get hired a job but in return you have to give back some of your wages to maintain and keep that job. They are told by a family friend that this common and currently goes on throughout Packingtown’s. The family is tricked into buying a house that is poorly made, and they are under the terms of a rental. The people who tricked them manipulate these people by not telling them the details about interest, rental/buy, and that if they don’t pay their monthly rent they will be evicted and lose all the money they have paid into it. On top of this disappointment, their wedding they had previously celebrated has already put them in debt along with family members getting sick on a daily basis. Family members are either fired from their jobs due to the factories closing or killed by disease, hunger, or the weather. During this era, labor unions are created which preach for better working conditions, 8 hour work days along with better wages. Jurgis enters into the union, only to get tricked into a voting scheme and learns about the little secrets of the meat packing industry such as, packing of rotten or diseased meat and then they send it out to the public labeling it potted ham. Jurgis orders the person who sold him the house, to tell him all the hidden expenses, Jurgis will need to pay for insurance, water, taxes, and maybe sewerage, equaling to the amount of $30-$50. Marija gets her job back, but then loses it after get fired because she participated in a protest for better wages, the loss of her job hurt the family financially since now Ona was expecting their first child during that time frame.
Ona gives birth to a healthy son named Antanas, but her health remains very poor because she returned to work only a week after her birth.
Any type of income is necessary, and Jurgis hardly sees his new son due to his work hours. After Jurgis becomes hurt at work, and another family member disappears they send their young family members out to sell newspapers. Jurgis starts drinking alcohol heavenly, as they become poor and desperate and his relationship with Ona suffers. Their son barely makes it through his first birthday with disease, while Ona is pregnant with their second child while she is also sick with
disease. Ona was raped and forced to go into prostitution by her boss Conner, because if she didn’t her family was threatened to loose all their wages and she was told they’ll never be able to find a job in Packingtown again. After he hears this news, Jurgis is upset and confronts her boss Conner, and gets into a fight with him, resulting in being arrested. While in jail he becomes friends with a man named Jack while waiting for his trial. Once his trial begins, it is Jurgis word against Conners word and he is sentenced to a month in jail. Jurgis fears his family will starve and die if he is not there to work; the judge doesn’t feel bad for him and sends him to jail. While in jail, Jurgis is told that his family has all lost jobs, are sick, and cannot pay rent or buy food, and that the only source of money coming in is from begging. After he is released from jail, he hears Ona going into delivery and he waits at the saloon for the status on her delivery, after she had given birth to a stillborn and has caused her to become ill, he sees his wife die. He takes money from family members who are selling newspapers and proceeds to the saloon to continue his drinking. After a lady has recommended Jurgis to steel mill job and gets him hired, he only sees his family on weekends since the mill is far from the boarding house.
During this time frame, his son Antanas dies in a mud accident. He leaves Packingtown, taking trains and walking through farms looking for whatever work is offered. The little money he does earn goes directly back to the saloon to support his drinking habit, and that is where he meets a wealthy man named Freddie Jones, son of the owner of the meat packing factory Jurgis used to work at. Jurgis is given a hundred dollars by Jones, only for it to get stolen by the bartender at the saloon, Jurgis is arrested after he fights the bartender to try to get it back. While in jail for the second time, he plans to meet with Jack again to try stealing since he is desperate for quick money. Jurgis makes friends with different types of criminals, and takes part in a corrupt voting poll, resulting with him getting a job as a hog trimmer and $300 after he successfully got the republican candidate elected by the people. His money sadly doesn’t last long as it gets spent on alcohol and
women. For awhile in the end of the chapters he requests higher wages and receives it, and is even promised a job after the strikes are finished and he’s even promoted. Just when things get good, he runs into Conner, and attacks him which he gets thrown back into jail. Even with all his criminal friends and money, he is only able to pay off his bail which leaves him broke and is told to leave Chicago. He runs into Miraja who is now a prostitute and addicted to morphine and she tells him she will never leave, but tells him to go visit Teta. He leaves on a mission to find a job so he can make Teta proud, but during this he hears a man preaching socialism, and realizes that is his party affiliation. He becomes a socialist, and believes strongly on the socialist theory, he tires to persuade everyone to hear socialism but becomes frustrated when people do not want to listen.