The Jungle By Upton Sinclair And Cinderella Man Directed By Ron Howard

Have you ever imagined living through life without a steady job, no money, or no food? Both of the characters in these stories endured all of those things. Jurgis and James had many different experiences and many similar experiences throughout their lifetimes. Upton Sinclair wrote a book, The Jungle, describing a young, late teen’s man named Jurgis Rudkus and his family. His family and he moved to America in the early 1900’s looking for a better life. In the film Cinderella Man, directed by Ron Howard, James Braddock had immediate success as a boxer. James ended up being hit by the great depression and losing everything including his source of income through boxing. Both of these men encountered events throughout their lives that many other

Times were very hard but both of the characters main priority for them. The characters wanted to make good for their family’s rather than themselves. Sinclair explains “It was over a year and a half ago that Jurgis had met Ona… without ever speaking a word to her, with no more than the exchange of a half dozen smile, he found himself, purple in the face of embarrassment and terror, asking her parents to sell her to him for his wife- offering to sell his fathers two horse he had sent to the fair to sell.” (Sinclair, 27). Sinclair says- “There were twelve of them in the party, five adults and six children- and Ona who was a little of both.” (Sinclair, 28). Jurgis’s family was larger, twelve of them including Jurgis, and Jurgis took the responsibility to keep all of them in good shape. Shortly into the story, you could tell that was going to be a very tall task for Jurgis considering the circumstances handed to him. James also took his family very serious. He wanted to keep his family in better state than he was. James provided a very steady source of income throughout the beginning part of the money with his boxing career. It showed how his family lived in a very nice, well-kept house and his kids were very healthy. In the middle of the story the events hit the characters hard. Jurgis had lost his father, and could not afford to put the kids through school and he felt like he was failing himself. Jurgis was sentenced to prison for beating a man who Ona was having an affair with, and his family took a toll for it. The girls were trying to make money to feed the kids and themselves. Stainslova explains- “She’s cut her hand!” said the boy. “She’s cut it bad, this time worse than before. She can’t work and it’s turning all green…her money is nearly all gone, too, and we can’t pay the rent and the interest on the house; and we have no coal and nothing more to eat, and the man at the