“Jungle”, The Jungle is based on the novel by Upton Sinclair with the same title. At the time of its publication, in 1906, The Jungle changed American history. The novel prompted the immediate passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, exposed the reality of wage-slavery and caused a massive drop in Americans´ consumption of meat. The Jungle tells the story of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian peasant who immigrates to America in the early 1900´s. Like so many, he is searching for the American Dream. Jurgis is convinced that with his physical strength and determined will, he can build a better home and a better life for his family. However, he soon finds his body being broken by the brutal meat-packing industry in which workers are pitted against each other for fear of unemployment and starvation; where women and girls are forced into brothels; where children are worked mercilessly in dark basements; where the body of a workingman is worth little more than the meat of the cattle he slaughters. Jurgis´ dream of building a home is shattered by a housing scam. His wife is drawn into a secret life of prostitution. Jurgis descends into an American nightmare through the hellish slaughterhouses and into Chicago´ underworld of corruption, crime and election fraud before finding salvation in the community of the union movement against a brutal system designed to enrich only those at its summits. In theme, The Jungle challenges the theory of Social Darwinism - the idea that society is designed to reward the superior while the inferior are kept at a level of mere existence - by portraying the plight of ordinary American immigrants at the bottom of the social barrel. In essence, The Jungle pits the notion of a fair social order against the concept of unchecked greed - a conflict echoed today in recent high-profile incidents of corporate scandal, continued abuse of immigrants, and continued tampering with the foods we consume. This story is still timely as it approaches its hundred year anniversary in 2006.
Producers: Holly Mosher and Branislav Gjorcevski, Line Producer: Richard Middleton