Jurgis Rudkus Book Summary

Jurgis Rudkus is a young and strong Lithuanian working man with a bright outlook on life who never felt the need to drink. One day at a horse fair he find the love of his life, Ona. Ona’s father dies and leaves behind a family of nine. Jurgis is to marry Ona and emigrate to the United States of America in hopes of becoming rich in the stockyards of Chicago. Jurgis, his father Antanas, Ona, her stepmother Teta Elzbieta and her six children, Teta’s brother Jonas, and Ona’s cousin Marija Berczynskas all tag along for the journey. Upon arrival they quickly find work and prosperity. Jurgis finds work in the meatpacking plant and the other men also secure work. Speaking little English the family is tricked into buying a house with hidden cost and take out a loan for furniture they will never be able to pay off. As time passes Ona and Jurgis finally marry and acquire a hundred dollars worth of debt. Poverty has now pushed Marija and Ona to also find work in the city’s factories. Jurgis’s father Antanas dies from old age and being overworked. While Jurgis and Ona are expecting their first child which will be named …show more content…
He finds one under the employment of a well respected socialist. Jurgis is now an advocate for the Socialist movement in America. His dues are five cents a week. (The equivalent of one drink in a saloon). Rudkus finally finds asylum within the socialist movement. To him it is the solution to all of his past struggles. To conclude The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a book which exposes the horrors of the meat packing industry, the greed of the rich, and proposes socialism as the answer to this turmoil. Jurgis Rudkus is merely a poor man who had to experience the horrors and greed of the country. This book proves that even a genuine working man can become a drunk, homeless, and a criminal in such a short amount of time. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy history and are politically