Slavery Exposed In Ayn Rand's The Jungle

The Jungle is a book centered around the Union Stock Yards (Packingtown) of Chicago in the 20th century. The book is focused on Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian man who tries to get through a rough life in Chicago with his new wife Ona Lukoszaite. They live near the Stock Yards which is where many immigrants would go to work and don’t know much English. Jurgis gets a job there in the meat packing industry despite the filthy dangerous working conditions. The family is very dependent on his job, but the working is harsh and the pay is not even enough to scrape by. This type of work is referred to as wage slavery, because the person is totally dependent on the wage her/her makes in order to get by. Ona and her stepmother’s young son are forced to find jobs to get by, even …show more content…
When Jurgis gets out, he finds the family is living in a broken down boardinghouse. There he finds Ona in Premature labor and the trying kills her and the baby from blood loss. Jurgis picks up drinking again, especially when his only son drowns in a muddy street. He gets a new job digging freight tunnels and injures himself. Jurgis has no job when he leaves the hospital, so he becomes a beggar. One night he receives a hundred dollar bill, but is sent back to jail when he tries to get change for it, is giving the wrong amount and attacks the bartender. When released from jail Jurgis becomes a burglar. He sees Connor, who had previously raped his late wife, and is again, sent to jail after attacking him. Jurgis gets released and finds that Marija has become addicted to morphine, and is a prostitute to support Teta Elizabeth and the children. The novel wraps up with Jurgis walking into a socialist political rally and him joining in; resulting in him getting a job and being reunited with what’s left of Ona’s family. The book ends with another socialist