When life gets hard, is giving up easier than carrying on? An American journalist and novelist, Upton Sinclair, wrote “The Jungle” in 1906. This fictional story depicts all of the gruesome conditions of the Chicago Shipyards in the early 1900s, as well as the harsh lives of immigrants at this time. A Lithuanian family sets of to America for a better life. Was it worth it? “Cinderella Man”, a movie based on the Great Depression, was released in May 23, 2005. This movie is nonfiction, and is based off James Braddock’s life trying to make a living in devastating times. Will they be able to survive? Although Jurgis and James both have a good work ethic, they have many similarities and differences in their physical traits, family dynamics, and personal …show more content…
“Ona was a blue-eyed and fair, while Jurgis had great black eyes with short beetling brows, and thick black hair that curled in waves about his ears- in short, they were one of those incongruous and impossible married couples with which Mother Nature so often wills to confound all prophets, before and after” (Sinclair 8). Jurgis was a big man from Lithuania. He was in his twenties when he made his journey to America. He shares many of the same physical features as James Braddock. James was a tall, sizeable man. He had thick jet-black hair just as Jurgis did. They do share some differences in their appearances that do stand out. James was born and raised in the United States. Their work lives were very weathering on these men. “The poor fellow looked like a homeless ghost, with his cheeks sunken in his black hair straggling into his eyes; he was too discouraged to cut it, or to think about his appearance” (Sinclair 122). Jurgis works as hard as he can at the Chicago Stockyards. He is a very good employee, and one of the hardest workers there. The twelve-hour shifts are definitely catching up with him. He is very exhausted, and is always working. James Braddock is a boxer, and he is on a winning streak. The
James worked hard for what he wanted and made it happen. The American character through James was the idea of never giving up and going after what you want. His innocence made him mysterious. This mysteriousness was what made him the one to watch on television. He also had a sense rebellion and upheld the idea of rebelling against societal norms.
Jurgis the protagonist of the book The Jungle was both a conformist and a rebel throughout the story. At the beginning of the story he followed rules and lived life as a conformist , later events in the story caused Jurgis to rebell and not really care about rules. When Jurgis first arrived in Chicago he had to find a job to support his family. Jurgis would follow the rules and do whatever his boss demanded at work so he wouldn’t get fired. Eventually Jurgis and his wife Ona saved enough money to buy a house.
“Between 70 and 85 percent, depending on the State, People willingly put their lives at risk to save the life of someone unknown to them.” Congressional Record, V. 148, PT. 13. Within The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw talks about the “sacrifices” made by the men and women of the “World War II generation”. Although some people, like Brokaw, find these actions as born into and the praised sacrifices unique to this generation of Americans today.
All over the world, individuals would want to alter something in their past for a more enriched life. One’s precedent actions will inevitably bear an impact on future resolutions. In Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, the main character, Jurgis Rudkus, departed Lithuania, with his beloved and her family, for a more prosperous life in America, but after countless of trials, ended up destitute. His decisions throughout the tribulations will determine the outcome in a world full of adversity. However, how Jurgis acted on one of his ordeals engendered a great burden that he still bears in the present, and that this link into the past depicts Sinclair’s theme of corruption.
Jurgis has Ona Lukoszaite who is his wife (Sinclair, Pg. 27) as like James who has Mae Braddock that he had two kids with working on a third. After a while in Chicago Ona and Jurgis have a baby boy named Antanas Rudkus who they love (Sinclair, Pg. 110) mean while James has a little girl named Rosie who he gives his food to so she is not hungry. As time goes on for Jurgis he starts to lose his family first Ona and his second baby then Antanas drowns and that is his braking point so he ran (Sinclair Pg. 188, 209, 236, 247, & 255).
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.
To point out, in the Cinderella Man James J. Braddock has to report to the loading docks everyday for his job. This is similar to Jurgis who also has to report to the Brown’s for his job. In addition, the Braddock family is struggling in the winter throughout The Great Depression. Likewise, Jurgis, Ona, and Stanislovas have to face the brutal cold and go to work every day. Stainslovas is fightened to even report to work because he is afraid he will encounter frostbite.
But later on, what with sickness and cold and hunger and discouragement, and the filthiness of his work, and the vermin in his home, he had given up washing in winter, and in summer only as much of him as would go into a basin. He had had a shower bath in jail, but nothing since—and now he would have a swim!” (178). This explores the way that Jurgis came to America with hopes and dreams in which he worked very hard to try to accomplish. Such as, looking for jobs and protecting his family from having to venture out in the real world like he had to.
Those who put their money into stocks lost almost everything, including the Braddock family. In the movie Cinderella Man, James Braddock and his family show the struggle of life during the great depression. James, with no work available, struggled to win fights in boxing, in order to put food on the table for his family. Overall, Cinderella Man depicted many of the different aspects of the depression, and can provide a good explanation of what it was like for many families during that time.
Have you ever overcame problems that you thought you never could? Well many people have also. A man named James J. Braddock and his family in the film “Cinderella Man” struggled and overcame challenges brought on by the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The Great Depression was the most darkest and long-lasting downturn in American history. And it all began after the stock market crash in October 1929.
There are many other traps around America that deceive the immigrants because their weakness of not knowing English and the desire of getting a great life in America which lead them unpreparedly get fooled by the businessmen. These traps prevented the immigrants from leaving America, because of the significant amount of debt that they have to pay each month, which forced them to keep working and become the slave of this capitalistic society in America. Unfortunately, even they work very hard, in most of the time they will not get anything in return, such that Jurgis’s family cannot even keep the house at the of the book and many of family members’ health destroyed by the harsh working conditions in the
Those writers and journalists were called “Muckrakers”, Upton Sinclair was one of them. In order to stay on his position and support the muckrakers, he chose to tell the truth to American public instead of keeping silence. Then, “The Jungle” became his weapon to oppose the trusts and some corrupt officials. Although the content is dangerous and risky, it’s also effective and worth. People responded dramatically to this book, the risk has valuation for Upton Sinclair to take and hook the
Throughout the book, Jurgis had to constantly switch jobs because of accidents that laid him off work. No jobs was available to Jurgis except the fertilizer mill. The job at the fertilizer is the worse of it can be, Jurgis describes “...the phosphates soaked in through every pore of jurgis’s skin and in five minutes he had a headache, and in fifteen was almost dazed. the blood was pounding in his brain like an engine’s throbbing ……”(108). The fertilizer mill Jurgis is working at is extremely unsafe.
During the time period of the 1900’s, the meat packaging industry in Chicago, as Sinclair mentions in his novel, The Jungle, was a very unsanitary and extremely dangerous workplace that lacked much more than just a few safety precautions. Simple things, such as enforcing hand washing or workers’ rights were unheard of in the working environment. It is clear that Upton Sinclair was trying to expose the worker’s horrendous labor conditions in order to improve their situation, along with the introduction of socialism. Upton Sinclair, in his novel, talks about how a Lithuanian immigrant by the name of Jurgis Rudkus, and his family, travel to Chicago trying to make ends meet. However, they soon realize Chicago was not the place for that.