# The Jungle — Character guide

> Key figures in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

- [Jurgis Rudkus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/jurgis_rudkus.md): Jurgis comes to Chicago's stockyards from a forest village, newly married to Ona and convinced his broad back and tireless energy will buy them a future. He is the first man picked from the crowd at Brown and Company's t
- [Ona Rudkus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/ona_rudkus.md): Ona is the reason Jurgis left Lithuania at all, and in Packingtown she becomes the family's most fragile wage-earner, a ham-wrapper whose earnings the household cannot do without. She is gentle, frightened, and increasin
- [Marija Berczynskas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/marija_berczynskas.md): Marija runs the Rudkus wedding like a general, bellowing orders in Lithuanian and Polish and dragging half of Ashland Avenue along in her wake. She works in the canning factory, earns the steadiest money in the household
- [Elzbieta Rudkus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/elzbieta_rudkus.md): Teta Elzbieta keeps the family's rooms, stretches their wages, and carries the quiet weight of every crisis, from Ona's disappearance to Jurgis's arrest. She appears in the police court with little Kotrina, afraid to sig
- [Tamoszius Kuszleika](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/tamoszius_kuszleika.md): Tamoszius earns real money playing at parties and festivals, and he courts Marija by bringing his fiddle everywhere and inviting the family along. He is excitable and possessive, ready to throw the orchestra out of tune 
- [Antanas Rudkus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/antanas_rudkus_senior.md): Dede Antanas left a small cleared farm in the Imperial Forest to make the journey with Jurgis, and in Packingtown he is the household's most vulnerable member — old, slow, and desperate to contribute. He scrapes for work
- [Stanislovas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/little_stanislovas.md): He belongs to the crowded family whose survival depends on every pair of hands, even the smallest, and his wages are counted before he understands what they cost. The tension he embodies is simple and terrible: a child a
- [Jokubas Szedvilas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/jokubas_szedvilas.md): He is the family's first bridge to Chicago: a small shopkeeper with many acquaintances, including the special policeman who doles out jobs at Durham's. His pride in the packing district — he claims the landscape even tho
- [Mike Scully](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/mike_scully.md): Scully rules the ward through the War-Whoop League, a club of "Indians" who fight, drink, and vote on election day, and a note signed by him is equal to a job in the packinghouses. He is the story's early portrait of how
- [Jack Duane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/jack_duane.md): Duane is a man who once had a family and gave it up, and he tells Jurgis plainly that this is no world in which a man has any business with one. His openness — he shares names, places, triumphs, and griefs with the wonde
- [Madame Haupt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/madame_haupt.md): A wealthy woman who employs Ona as a seamstress.
- [Master Freddie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/master_freddie.md): The son of a wealthy packer who pursues Ona.
- [Jonas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/jonas.md): Elzbieta's brother who lives with the family and works in the yards.
- [Aniele Jukniene](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/aniele_jukniene.md): A neighbor who rents rooms to the Rudkus family.
- [Jadvyga Marcinkus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/jadvyga_marcinkus.md): A young Lithuanian woman who works with Ona and becomes her friend.
- [Grandmother Majauszkiene](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/grandmother_majauszkiene.md): An elderly Lithuanian woman who advises the family on housing.
- [Nicholas Schliemann](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/nicholas_schliemann.md): A brilliant socialist intellectual who debates philosophy.
- [Harper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/harper.md): A detective and political operative working for the packers.
- [Mr. Connor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/mr_connor.md): A foreman at the packing plant who abuses Ona.
- [Ostrinski](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/ostrinski.md): A Polish socialist who educates Jurgis about the movement.
- [Kristoforas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/little_kristoforas.md): Elzbieta's disabled young son who dies tragically.
- [Kotrina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/kotrina.md): Elzbieta's young daughter who helps at home.
- [Juozapas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters/juozapas.md): One of Elzbieta's younger children.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jungle_se/characters