Jurgis In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

The historical fiction book, The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, is about the fictional character Jurgis Rudkus. Jurgis lives in Chicago in the early 1900’s. He had moved to America from Lithonia in search of a better life. “Jurgis could see all the truth now-could see himself through the whole long course of events, the victim of ravenous vultures that had torn into his vitals and devoured him; of fiends that had racked and tortured him, mocking him, meantime jeering in his face” (Sinclair 177). Since moving to Chicago, life was anything but easy for Jurgis and his family. The Movie Cinderella Man is about the real life boxer James Braddock. The movie takes place in New York and New Jersey, during The Great Depression. Beginning in 1929 before
“’No! No! I dare not! It will ruin us!’ But he answers her again: ‘Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money- I will work harder’” (Sinclair 25). No matter the financial situation they were in at the beginning of the book, Jurgis would not give up. Antanas was Jurigs’s life, he was all he had left. After abandoning the family he lived as a tramp and stole to get food. He also worked for farmers part time and during the harvest. After being in and out of jail he meets Jack Duane a criminal who had a good education but was a safecracker. He and Jack become muggers. He knew how it felt to be victim so at first he was uneasy about it, but he soon got over it. Jurgis works his way up to fixing an election and becomes a scab boss. He once had lots of faith in America and hoped to make a living honestly. But he then steals from people who earned their money on their own. After his job as a scab boss and he fixes an election and then loses his job. He and the rest of the family were not afraid to beg in the streets if they had to. He spends a couple of nights sleeping in a church during a meeting. A few of the meetings were groups of men that would get angry when he slept and would snore. He ended up in a specific meeting, where this woman found him sleeping but told him to listen. Once he started to listen he learned about socialism. Jurgis was ecstatic to hear about it. He felt like a different person. “Poor Jurgis was not very happy about his
“Jurgis could see all the truth now-could see himself through the whole long course of events, the victim of ravenous vultures that had torn into his vitals and devoured him; of fiends that had racked and tortured him, mocking him, meantime jeering in his face” (Sinclair 177). This quote about Jurgis is what makes Jurgis and James more different than alike. Jurgis has so much more tragedy in his life than James. Those tragedies are what makes Jurgis, become a criminal and beg in the street. If James had similar situations who knows how he may have handled them differently. They are alike in the physical aspect at the beginning of the book. They both face hardships, but Jurgis goes through so much more. In the End they are not that