The Jungle - An Immigrant's Life

Introduction

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The Jungle is about a Lithuanian immigrant named Jurgis and his family's search for the American dream. The immigrants that lived in early 20th century Chicago were faced with harsh conditions and obstacles.

In this project, the goal is to understand the way of life for an immigrant family in the Chicago stockyards during the late 19th century and early 20th century. 

 

Task

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The task is to go through the life on an immigrant family living in Packingtown and working in the stockyards. You will learn about the living conditions, the amount of money made versus the amount needed to live, and the way of living for those in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.The goal is to create a presentation that depicts the life of an immigrant working in the stockyards and enduring harsh living conditions. Students will be put into groups of 4 and assigned a family member. 

Process

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Each group member will be assigned either the father, mother, eldest child, and second child. They will also create a presentation on their families. Each group has to display how each family fares in the stockyards after a week. Each group's family members will be given a description from below. The group will have to read and research through sites given and decide what their families outcome is through the presentation. 

Step 1: Each group will be assigned a description per family member. The description will help to determine the outcome of your family. 

Family:

Father - Works as a cutter at a meatpacking plant on 14¢ an hour; injured without a job; is a manager a plant for 20¢; died 

Mother - works in a canning factory earns 12¢ an hour; mends clothes for neighbors for 5¢ to 0¢ for a day's work; sick with pneumonia; does not have a job

Eldest child - works as newspaper hawker earns 4¢ per hour; works in a sweatshop 10¢ an hour; peddles goods on the streets (salary depends on what was sold); died  

Second child - helps mother with sewing; collects "useful" items from trash dumps; went to a one room school house; sick with cholera 

Step 2: Work

Use the links to learn about the working conditions in the different jobs, wages earned, and cost of living. After reading through the information determine whether or not if the money earned from the family is enough to support their living needs. 

Wages and cost of living information:

http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1900-1909

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/scribd/?toc_id=498379&filepath=/files/docs/publications/bls/bls_v09_0053_1904.pdf&start_page=26

Working Conditions:

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1382.html

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/804.html

Photographs of working conditions:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93503570/resource/

http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/the-jungle-and-the-community-workers-and-reformers-in-turn-of-the-century-chicago

http://www.ourgreatamericanheritage.com/2015/09/disease-death-and-child-labor-the-birth-of-the-meatpacking-industry-in-chicago/

https://www.loc.gov/item/2006679958/

Step 3: Living Conditions

Read and view the resources to determine the living situation of your family and if it will affect their outcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXnYvJ9aTkw

http://www.library.illinois.edu/blog/digitizedbotw/2009/07/tenement_conditions_in_chicago.html

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1240.html

https://archive.org/details/tenementconditio00city

Step 4: Outcome

Based on the information you have read through and viewed, the group needs to determine their family's outcome. Were they able to survive, did they leave, did they give up? The final decision should be presented to the class with the information that supports the group's decision.

The presentation will show the rest of the class how your group decided the outcome of your family. 

Evaluation

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Category  1 2 3 4
Content

Resources provided were not used or used very little.

 Evidendence that some resources were used. Resources were used but presentation still lacks in support from them.  Resources were used and it is clearly seen in the presentation.
Creativity  The project does not show creativity and the contribution of all members is not evident.  Creativity is minimal and only a few members contributed.  Creativity is shown but the contribution of members is limited.  The group worked together to make the outcome interesting and creative based on the research. 
Effort  Outcome is not relevant to the time period and the presentation shows minimal time investment.  The outcome is not well developed and the presentation shows limited investment.  Outcome of the family is relevant but the presentation shows some time investment. The group put time and effort into reviewing the research to provide a valid outcome. The presentation shows maximum time investment. 
Presentation  One member presented and it lasted less that 2 minutes.  Two members presented and it lasted 2-3 minutes.  Three members presented and it was over 6 minutes or 3-4 minutes. All members presented their family member. Each group member was given the chance to speak. The presentation was between 4-6 minutes.

 

 

 

Conclusion

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Life in the stockyards was not easy as the project has shown. Many immigrants came to the United States with hopes of new life and prosperity. They did not know that the cities would be filled with thousands of people like them and that work would be scarce. The living and working conditions would prove to be detrimental to the lives of many. This project was to help you learn and understand the difficulty of living in Chicago during the height of the meat packing industry.