Jurgis Rudkus In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

710 Words3 Pages

In the novel, “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, Jurgis Rudkus plays an important role. Jurgis goes on a journey with his wife to a new country looking for a job and ends up losing more than he ever thought he could lose. The character, Jurgis Rudkus, is a strong willed man who faces many difficult situations on his journey to find a job and to reunite with his in laws. Jurgis gains a new perspective of everything around him and everything that has happened. The main character Jurgis Rudkus is an immigrant coming to America. He searches for a job to provide money for his wife and parents. In the article Schema Criticism by Mark Bracher, he emphasizes that, “Jurgis is the prototypical image of autonomy. He is powerful, exuberant, striking figure who towers above the other workers” (32). …show more content…

When Jurgis is told what happened to his wife, he quickly becomes triggered. He marches up to where Ona works and, “beats Ona’s boss Connor. Connor has raped Jurgis’s wife Ona”( Mark Bracher 147). After a few weeks, Ona realizes she is pregnant. Later in her pregnancy she becomes very ill. Soon after, she dies along with her baby. Suddenly Jurgis comes into realization with what is happening. Matthew Morris writes, “Jurgis comes to see and comprehend the class system that has destroyed everyone he cared about, and to join the fight to change that system” that has made him lose his job and lead to his wife’s death (5). Jurgis decides to join a rebellion to protest the mistreatment of immigrants. Jurgis becomes very involved in his rebellion after he is fired and has a lot of free time. Sinclair writes, “These midnight hours were fateful to Jurgis; in them was the beginning of his rebellion, of his outlawing and his unbelief” to the things that have happened to him since he arrived in America (167).Jurgis gets himself into prison by trying to stand up for himself and his wife when matters are taken out of