The Journey Of An Immigrant In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Imagine leaving your home, the only place you've ever known, so that you and your family can live a good and stable life. Well, in the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, that is exactly what the main character Jurgis must do escape his debt. Jurgis had been exiled from Lithuania and while living in Chicago he learns many things, including how hard it is to be an immigrant in America. Jurgis Rudkus, an immigrant from Lithuanian comes to America with his wife and other family members. “Jurgis had never seen a city, and scarcely even a fair-sized town... His father, and his father's father before him, and as many ancestors back as legend could go, had lived in that part of Lithuania known as Brelovicz, the Imperial Forest”. To Jurgis, a large city such as Chicago is quite a whole new world. What is normal to most Chicagoans, even the simplest of things are foreign and exciting to him. And when he sees this large city he truly realizes that he is no longer home.

Living in America was rough, mostly because of cultural differences. When Jurgis goes out to find a job he finds that the process is different as in Lithuania. The novel states, “He came to the door that had been pointed out to him, and there he waited for nearly two hours. The boss had meant for him to enter, but had not said this, and so it was only when on his way out to hire another man that he came upon Jurgis. He gave him a good cursing, but as Jurgis did not understand a word of it he did not object”. Clearly, Jurgis was unclear about how the workforce in America worked. When it comes to understanding how life in America works it is as if he is a child in an adults body. His ignorance can make him feel alienated at times. But these experiences are what allowed him to grow. Cultural and Language barriers forced Jurgis to broaden his horizons and adapt to American societal norms, which included learning English.

These experiences teach Jurgis plenty of things. One of the most important is that the American Dream is a dream for a reason. After Jurgis and Ona’s wedding, the couple becomes aware of the fact that they did not get enough money to pay off their debts. Jurgis consoles his wife by telling her, “Jurgis had come there, and thought he was going to make himself useful, and rise and become a skilled man; but he would soon find out his error, for nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work… if you met a man who was rising in Packingtown, you met a knave”. In the beginning, we can see that Jurgis is anxious to become a true, red-blooded American with the perfect American family and the perfect American life. As the Jurgis continues to meet people he realizes that all the hardworking people he has met have amounted to absolutely nothing including him and his family. Not a single person he knows can say that they have worked hard and that it has positively benefited them. All in all, Jurgis’ Journey as an immigrant living in America was emotionally and physically exhausting, and yet rewarding. Moving to Chicago was a huge culture shock to Jurgis, and it most certainly took some time to get adjusted too. But in the end, Jurgis truly becomes apart of American Society.