The Jungle 993planks that serve as sidewalks during the spring
rains. Their poor living conditions contribute to the
family’s contracting diseases or becoming physically
weakened to the point where they are no longer able
to function properly, leading to workplace accidents
and even fatalities. When Jurgis leaves Packingtown
and becomes a hobo wandering the countryside, he
bathes for the first time in years and eats farm-fresh
food. Living in a natural environment restores Jur-
gis’s health.
The workplace is also a source of illness and
disease. Members of Jurgis’s physically weakened
family have to walk several miles to and from work
each day while facing challenging weather condi-
tions that include sub-zero temperatures and bliz-
zards. The cold wears the workers down so they can
no longer work efficiently. Jurgis’s hands freeze while
working on the killing beds during the winter, and
many workers accidentally slice off their own fingers
while trimming cattle carcasses because their hands
are frozen. The infected wounds eventually fester
to the point where amputation is necessary. Each
season brings its own hardships for the workers, who
have diseases that are particular to the type of work
that they do. Jurgis’s father’s feet are eaten away by
the chemical “pickle” he stands in at work. Men and
women are smashed and crippled by the machinery
in the workplace. When hurt, workers are turned out
without any compensation, and they often lose their
jobs when and if they heal.
The overall working and living conditions of
Packingtown make tuberculosis endemic in the
community. Women who are worn out from child-
bearing often die of tuberculosis. Ona never regains
her health after giving birth to her first child. She
drinks patent medicines containing alcohol that
relieve her suffering without actually curing her,
leaving her with “womb trouble,” “depression,” and
“neuralgia.” Ona dies after giving birth to a stillborn
second child. Her fate is typical of many women in
Packingtown.
In addition to unhealthy living and working con-
ditions, the Rudkus family is faced with unhealthy
lifestyle choices. When unable to find other work,
Marija becomes a prostitute. She spends much of
her earnings on her morphine addiction. Sinclair
portrays saloons as the most welcoming places in
Packingtown. Men can cash their paychecks in
saloons, and for the price of a drink workers can
have a freshly cooked meal and companionship. The
spending of wages on alcohol and alcoholism are
common in Packingtown neighborhoods such as
“Whiskey Row.”
In The Jungle, illness and disease result from poor
living conditions, wretched working conditions, and
oppressive poverty. The Rudkus family’s struggle
for well-being is exacerbated by the lack of proper
health care, workers’ compensation, and safety laws.
Donna Kessler-EngWork in The Jungle
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle stands as an indictment
of the working conditions of Chicago’s meatpacking
industry in 1906. Captains of industry were becom-
ing wealthy at the expense of the working man’s
health. During this era, socialist reformers believed
that industrial capitalists were motivated solely by
greed and profit.
When Jurgis and his family first visit the stock-
yards on a guided tour of the meatpacking indus-
try, it is clear that the slaughtering of the animals
is analogous to sacrificing the worker for profit.
Sinclair writes: “One could not stand and watch
very long without becoming philosophical, and to
hear the hog-squeal of the universe. Was . . . there
nowhere on earth, a heaven for hogs, where they
were requited for all this suffering? Each one of
these hogs . . . had an individuality of his own, a
will of his own, a hope and a heart’s desire.” Specta-
tors on tour watch hogs “gasp out” their lives while
being slaughtered. Sinclair writes, “Who would
take this hog . . . and comfort him, reward him for
his work well done, and show him the meaning of
his sacrifice?” Jurgis comments: “I’m glad I’m not a
hog.” Like livestock, workers sacrifice their lives for
corporate profit. When workers become ill or lame,
they are tossed aside, and healthier workers are hired
to replace them. The packers lure new workers to
Packingtown with the promise of jobs to create a
constant supply of fresh workers to slaughter.
Jurgis Rudkus’s early career as an “honest work-
ingman” is as an example of how Sinclair chronicles
the use and abuse of the worker by the capitalist
system. Jurgis arrives in Packingtown healthy and