The Jungle follows Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, through his disillusionment with the American Dream after working as an exploited laborer in Chicago's deli district. Jurgis and his family arrive in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, eager to begin their lives in the land of opportunity. Naively, they believe that with hard work and sacrifice, they can create a bright future for their family. After quickly finding work in the meat-packing district, the upbeat family buys a house, which they believe is brand new, and begins to furnish it. Shortly after, Jurgis and his fiancée, Ona, decide to get married. Even though they have struggled to save money, they choose to follow Lithuanian customs and host a lavish reception, which serves as the opening chapter of the novel. This marriage leaves them in crushing debt just before winter arrives. After the holiday rush, many factories close and those that remain open - like the cattle slaughterhouses where Jurgis works - cut their hours.
Suddenly, the family finds that they have spent their savings and have too little income to survive. They start to make sacrifices. First, the women, who were at home looking after the children, have to find work. Then the children have to leave school and find work. Their family begins to fall apart as illness and death strike: Jurgis' father dies, Jurgis himself is injured, and many children are sick and traumatized by the horrific conditions they must endure. Yet the family remains firm. They believe that if they can work a little harder and save a little more, they will be able to come out of their financial hole. Unfortunately, wherever they turn dishonesty, corruption and exploitation, they are wringing out the meager savings they manage to accumulate. Heartless factory owners work their workers to the bone and push them aside when they are too weak to work, knowing these workers can always be replaced by the next wave of immigrants to Chicago.
Things go from bad to worse for the family when Ona becomes pregnant again. She had always been emotionally fragile, but now she is collapsing into fits of hysteria. After failing to get home from work one evening, Jurgis finds out that Ona was actually working as a prostitute downtown, exploited by her boss, Connor, who raped Ona and forced her into a brothel. When he learns this information, Jurgis explodes in rage and attacks Connor. He was sent to prison for 30 days, during which time his family had to survive without his income. When he is released, the family lost their home and Ona died miserably in childbirth. The only joy that remains in Jurgis life is his son, baby Antanas. Jurgis finds more work, first in a farm equipment factory, then in the steel industry, but he loses the first job in a stoppage and walks away from the second when his son dies - little Antanas drowns in the flooded street in front of their house. Sorry, Jurgis abandons his family and lives as a wanderer, traveling freely through the countryside and spending whatever money he manages to earn on his own pleasures.
Back in Chicago in the winter, he found a job but lost it again due to an injury. He finds himself in prison again, where an old friend introduces him to the criminal world of Chicago. He becomes involved in vote-rigging and anti-union fighting, and he lives relatively comfortably until he has another run-in with Connor, who has politically influential friends. Jurgis is forced to flee Packingtown. Towards the end of the novel, he lost everything: his family, his house, his job, his savings and his humanity. Indigent and beggar in the street, he was lucky enough to meet socialists. The political message delighted him and he became a follower of the cause. He quickly found work in a hotel with a socialist landlord and was once again full of hope for his future.
