Characters From The Jungle

Jurgis Rudkus
1. Jurgis is an exceptionally strong young man with a large physical build.
2. Very little description of Jurgis' physical characteristics is provided by the text.
3. He always sports ragged clothes due to the nature of his back-breaking labor. During the cold Chicago winters he may wear a wool coat, if he is able to afford one.
4. All Jurgis seems to do is work his heart out in order to feed his family.
5. He is at the bottom of the social class; he is the honest, yet hardworking man.
6. He believes that if he continues to work harder he will eventually secure an economically sound future for his family. He realizes that he is the backbone of his family, so he holds himself responsible to solve all their economic woes.
7. Jurgis is viewed as the major provider for the family.
8. Jurgis is just one of the thousands of immigrants of whom lived in America during the early 1900s that devoted their lives to straining labor in order to feed their families.
9. "Jurgis" is a traditional Lithianian name. A large majority of the immigrants who journeyed to America also had traditional names common within their culture.
10. In the beginning of the story Jurgis firmly believes in the ideal that anyone can become economically successful as long as one continues to work hard, despite the hardships that one may face. The horrid conditions of the meat packing plants and the prevelent corruption in packingtown begin the ware down Jurgis' belief in his ideal that promises himself an economically stable future, so long as he works his heart out.