The Jungle GPT Character Sheet

Jurgis Rudkus

Lithuanian immigrant protagonist. Starts as a believer in hard work; crushed by injury, debt, corruption, and loss. Drifts from honest labor to crime under structural pressures.

Ona Lukoszaite

Jurgis’s wife. Factory worker coerced by foreman Phil Connor; dies after a brutal childbirth. Her exploitation and death catalyze Jurgis’s downfall.

Teta Elzbieta Lukoszaite

Ona’s stepmother; household anchor who keeps the family fed and working. Represents women’s unpaid labor and endurance.

Marija Berczynskas

Ona’s cousin; tough and outspoken. Works various factory jobs; later (beyond Ch. 24) turns to prostitution—here she battles poverty to keep the family afloat.

Dede Antanas Rudkus

Jurgis’s elderly father. Pays a bribe to get filthy work; dies of exposure/illness, showing how industry "uses up" older workers.

Antanas (infant son)

Jurgis and Ona’s baby. Brief symbol of hope; drowns in a street accident, pushing Jurgis to abandon Chicago.

Stanislovas

Elzbieta’s young son forced into work; terrified of cold; suffers frostbite. Embodies child labor’s cruelty.

Kotrina, Vilimas, Nikalojus

Elzbieta’s younger children; contribute by working or caring for others—childhood sacrificed to survival.

Jonas

Adult relative who initially helps but later disappears (likely searching for work), showing the precarity and fragmentation of immigrant families.

Jokubas Szedvilas

Countryman who orients the family to Packingtown; his delicatessen struggles. A guide whose optimism dims under real conditions.

Phil Connor

Foreman who sexually exploits Ona and uses influence to blacklist Jurgis. Personifies employer impunity and gendered abuse.

Miss Henderson

Supervisor over Ona; runs a brothel and targets girls who won’t comply. Shows how vice and factory work intertwine.

Jack Duane

Safecracker Jurgis meets in jail; later pulls him into the underworld. Gateway from honest labor to graft.

The House Agent/Landlord

Nameless functionaries who sell the family a predatory contract, then repossess. Illustrate systemic swindles against immigrants.

Packingtown (setting)

Chicago meatpacking district—a system more than a character. Site of unsanitary production, labor exploitation, and political corruption.