Throughout the late 1800s to the early 1900s individuals from all over Europe fled to America, the land of opportunity. Many of these European immigrants hailed from Eastern European countries such as Russia, Hungary, Italy, and Lithuania. Unlike the immigrants of the past who came to America educated and with financial resources, this new group of immigrants came to America in search of jobs, political freedom, and to escape the mass poverty in Europe. This new group of immigrants were often poor and uneducated and were likely considered peasants in their own countries. Jurgis Rudkus, a fictionalized character in Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle is an example of such a person. Jurgis is from Lithuania and comes to America in search of the American dream. At the beginning of the novel Jurgis comes to America as any other typical European immigrant. He dreams of America as being a land where a man with little can rise through the ranks and ultimately become a man with wealth and prosperity. Jurgis quickly realizes that industrial America is a land of heartache, where a willing man is exploited and used as energy to fuel the never ending industrial machine. At the end of the novel Jurgis learns that the great land of America has its limitations, but at a cost as he loses his wife and child and spends stints in jail for trying to defy the machine. Thus, the novel, The Jungle exemplifies how immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s could not fully realize and achieve the American dream no matter how hard they toiled and worked in the brutal American factories of the time. A jungle is an area of madness and chaos where animals roam free and one either eats or is eaten. Upton Sinclair titled his novel, The Jungle because urban Chicago exemplified all of the same traits that a jungle possessed except for the fact that the jungle of Chicago was made up of concrete while a jungle in nature is made up of earth, soil and trees. However, the people that make up the streets of Chicago are just as vicious and brutal as any animal in a real jungle. The jungle of Chicago, "was simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds; there was no loyalty or decency anywhere about it, there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar" (Ch. 5). Similar to natural jungles where animals vie against each other for supremacy and will do anything to stay on top of the food chain, the characters in the novel will betray each other without a second's thought to human decency or morality. Jurgis also puts as much effort as he can muster into protecting Ona. Ona is Jurgis's wife and everyday he has, "to protect her, to do battle for her against the horror he saw about them" (Ch. 7). Jurgis and the animals of the jungle share many common traits in that one of their main objectives is to protect and provide for their family. The novel was also titled, The Jungle because it relates to the primitive, wild and animalistic side of human nature that still lurks in all mankind. The word "jungle" only appears once on Chapter 22 of the book but the meaning that it portrays is powerful. After the death of Jurgis's wife and child he goes on a hiatus to the countryside. After working in the harvest season in the country, Jurgis has amassed a considerable amount of money and goes to a bar one night. At the bar Jurgis has fun drinking and singing and then notices, "out of the rear part of the saloon a girl's face, red-cheeked and merry, smiled at Jurgis, and his heart thumped suddenly in his throat" (Ch. 22). The animalistic part of Jurgis that had been so long suppressed finally viewed its ugly head as, "he went upstairs into a room with her, and the wild beast rose up within him and screamed, as it has screamed in the jungle from the dawn of time" (Ch. 22). There is a thin line between man and animal and when man reaches his breaking point in life that line disappears. Uncontrolled desires such as these appear frequently throughout the novel as Jurgis descends more into the depths of the urban jungle. Even Jurgis's wife falls victim to the uncontrolled desires of men, when she sleeps with her boss Connor. Ona has sexual intercourse with her boss because she wants to keep her job and also protect the jobs of her family member. Connor is a powerful man and Ona realizes that it is wise to keep him on her side. In summation, Upton Sinclair's novel is titled, The Jungle because it illustrates how poor European immigrants are victimized and exploited by those that are more powerful and cunning. Jurgis and other immigrants like him are preyed upon in the urban jungle of Chicago. They have little chance of achieving the American dream and are trapped much like an animal in a cage by the forces of the industrial jungle. The parallels that exist between urban Chicago and the real jungle are evident such as betrayal, protectiveness and the wild nature that lurks in both men and animals. The immigrants in, The Jungle experience many hardships as they try to establish themselves as Americans. Poverty is an underlying theme throughout the book and displays the hardships that not only Jurgis and his family go through but all immigrants. When Ona is in labor with her second child Jurgis frantically rushes around Chicago looking for a midwife. Jurgis finally finds Madame Haupt, an enormously fat Dutch woman, and rushes her back to the house from which they are renting. The living conditions in which Jurgis's family live are atrocious and Madame Haupt is appalled to find the condition of the attic in which Ona is giving birth to her child. "Vot sort of a place is dot for a woman to bear a child in-up in a garret, mit only a ladder to it?" (Ch. 19) The place in which Jurgis and his family live is due to the poor wages that they receive for completing demanding physical labor each day. When Madame Haupt finally makes it to the top of the ladder Jurgis is shooed out of the house by the other women. When he comes back he is shocked and devastated to find that his wife and baby are dead. To make matters worse Jurgis must pay Madame Haupt twenty-five dollars for her midwife services. Jurgis of course does not have this money and after the tragedy that befalls him goes out to the saloons for the entire day. Jurgis of course needs money for his alcoholic indulgences to ease his sorrows. He obtains the money by taking it from Katrina, Ona's stepsister, after she had been out the previous day selling newspapers. Jurgis lives in a state of perpetual dept and even in this tragic time of great mourning, he is never allowed to escape this constant state of poverty. Instead of being able to properly mourn the death of his wife and child, Jurgis still needs to despair over money. Inequality is also seen frequently throughout the novel and reveals how there is a great disparity between the wealthy and the poor in urban America. One night as Jurgis goes begging for money he meets a drunken young man, Master Frederick, on the Chicago streets. This man turns out to be part of the wealthy elite and Jurgis escorts him home. The house that Jurgis enters with Frederick is a huge mansion that looks to Jurgis as if it is a city hall rather than a house. Jurgis is able to gorge himself with food at Frederick's house and the difference between the wealthy and poor is clearly observed and felt by Jurgis as well as the reader. "There were cold pâtés, and thin slices of meat, tiny bread and butter sandwiches with the crust cut off, a bowl of sliced peaches and cream (in January), little fancy cakes, pink and green and yellow and white, and half a dozen ice-cold bottles of wine" (Ch. 24). In conclusion, poverty and inequality are themes chronicled throughout the novel. While Sinclair chooses to tell the story of Jurgis, his tale could be the same as any of the other millions of immigrants that came to American during the industrial era with brightest of hopes, only to be disappointed by the harsh reality of the urban jungles. The struggles of Jurgis and his family in America portray how hard work and struggle do not always help one make it out of the lower class. Upton Sinclair was one of the great muckrakers of his time. A muckraker was an individual who sought out corruption and would stop at nothing to expose it. Sinclair wrote his novel using fiction so that more people would want to read his exposé and he would reach a wider audience. Individuals are naturally more inclined to read a story dealing with hardship and struggle, than a bland newspaper article citing the facts of the labor abuses occurring in the meat packing industry of Chicago at that time. Sinclair includes elements of disgust and violence in dramatic ways throughout his novel that pull the reader in to the tale. The theme of disgust is depicted when describing the atrocious conditions of the meat packing plants. "There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it" (Ch. 14). This scene has resonated with people since The Jungle's publication in 1906. Violence is another theme that is naturally intriguing to the reader. Sinclair makes good use of chronicling violence when Jurgis meets Jack Duane in prison and they team up to rob and pilfer. The reader is introduced to the criminal underbelly of Chicago. "...ripping open, first his overcoat, and then his coat, and then his vest, searching inside and outside, and transferring the contents into his own pockets" (Ch. 25). By writing a novel of fiction Sinclair made the abuses of industrial era America more relevant and accessible to the masses of America. If he had published an exposé only the wealthy and culturally aware individuals of society would have read it. By publishing a fictional account of the Chicago meat packing industry both the wealthy and poor of America were reached by Sinclair's novel. Therefore, Upton Sinclair published a fictional account of the scandalous Chicago meat packing industry and the haves and have-nots of America in hopes of bringing his message to as many people as possible. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair focuses on the hardships that immigrants confront in their pursuit of the American dream. The novel deals with animalistic qualities of human natures such as greed and brutality that sill lie at the heart of every individual. Poverty and loss are also seen in the novel when Jurgis and his family are forced to live in a ramshackle apartment building and Ona dies in childbirth. Inequality between the classes is also prevalent when Jurgis goes to Master Frederick's mansion and feasts upon the food that he has. Jurgis could never afford this food on his own income but is able to bear witness to the feasts of the upper class for a fleeting second of his life. Disgust, violence are likewise seen in the novel and Sinclair includes them to keep the reader interested and compelled by the story. Hence, The Jungle is a novel that chronicles aspects of disparity, loss and sadness among the working class of America and depicts how the American dream was not able to be achieved by the thousands of immigrants who spent their lives working in brutal American factories.