The Jungle is the story of Jurgis Rudkus and his family, Lithuanian immigrants who come to America to work in the meatpacking plants of Chicago. Their story is a story of hardship. They face enormous difficulties: harsh and dangerous working conditions, poverty and starvation, unjust businessmen who take their money, and corrupt politicians who create laws that allow all of this to happen. The story follows the hardships of Jurgis and his family and the transformation that Jurgis undergoes when he accepts the new political and economic revolution of socialism.
The novel begins at the wedding of Jurgis and Ona Rudkus. Marija Berczynskas, a strong and commanding woman, directs the wedding and Tamoszius Kuszleika provides music with his violin. Although Tamoszius 's "notes are never true, and his fiddle buzzes on the low ones and squeaks and scratches on the high," he is the star of the wedding. Everyone in the slums of Packingtown is invited, and they are supposed to pay tribute to the family. Many do not, however, and this leaves Jurgis and Ona deeply in debt on the first day of their marriage.
Jurgis and Ona came from the countryside of Lithuania. Because Jurgis and Ona were not allowed to marry in Lithuania and because Ona 's father dies, leaving them with little money, Jurgis decides to move his and
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Once again a tramp, Jurgis begs and steals to find food to eat. After going to a political rally in order to stay warm one evening, Jurgis runs into an old friend from Lithuania, who gives him Marija 's address. Jurgis finds Marija in a whorehouse, working as a prostitute. Marija tells Jurgis that this is the only way that she could find to provide for herself and the remaining members of the family. Even Stanislovas had been killed by rats after getting locked in a factory at night. Jurgis is suddenly arrested in a raid on the whorehouse. While spending the night in jail, Jurgis descends into the deepest despair of his soul and the voices of his past are