ch.14-20

In the first part of the reading Jurgis and his family are still functioning. Slowly Jurgis becomes more and more disillusioned with his life in America and starts drinking heavily. Jurgis's despair is worsened by Ona not coming home one night. Ona eventually admits to Jurgis that she has been forced into prostitution by Connor her boss at the factory and has been raped by him. Jurgis in a fury attacks Connor and is sent to prison. Jurgis finds himself in prison during Christmas eve and recalls the joy had had with his family during the previous Christmas. The judge at Jurgis's trail does not believe his story and he is sentenced to 30 thirty days in prison. Once Jurgis gets out of prison he suffers a tragedy of events, he finds that the family has been evicted, Ona dies in childbirth and he loses his new job.

In chapter 14 through 20 it becomes obvious that the American dream is not working out as planned for Jurgis and the family. These chapters really how the dark underbelly of America's economic system at the dawn of the new century. It's obvious why Sinclair choose the title of "The Jungle", as life in Chicago during this time is like that of a Jungle, with Jungle law. Sinclair portrays Chicago urban life as a situation where the poor have no power and little, everybody must fight for them-self or perish. Sinclair indirectly ask's the reader to put themselves in Jurgis's shoes and probes the question, what would you do? As the book progresses it becomes obvious Jurgis has few options, he does what he can but overall he can't really change his hard life. It becomes more obvious to the reader in these chapters that Sinclair really detests the American economic system of his time and is advocating real and substantial change. Sinclair was a socialist, and saw that as a correction to the problems Jurgis and his family faced.

I think these reading is extremely relevant to the economic issues of today, as many today are questioning the validity of the American dream. To me the American Dream has meant fluid class lines and social mobility, but I think it means many different things to different people. Historical America did have more fluid class lines than Europe but things have changed.