The Jungle Ch 21-26: A Comparison

Reading Chapters 21-26 of The Jungle really brought back a familiar theory I had about a year ago…

Now forgive me for sounding like a complete nerd for the next few minutes as well as digressing into some deep, but pretty incredible points on xenophobia, “The American Dream” and immigration.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m majoring in Film, Video and Media studies with a minor in creative writing. Since I started my career here at Western, I’ve become incredibly interested in the analysis of plotlines, aesthetics and other various parts of film. Consequently, this behavior has carried over into my game playing. Soon, I found myself analyzing the plotline of Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto and discovered that you’re not just shooting people and stealing cars. I started paying attention to the underlying details that the games had for them and once I discovered them, the reality was striking.

Grand Theft Auto IV focuses on an eastern European immigrant named Niko Bellic who comes to Liberty City, USA (a city that closely resembles New York City) in order to pursue the American dream and forget about his troubles back in his homeland. Niko reunites with his cousin, Roman who goes on and on about the opportunities, the woman and the money that America has in store for them. Niko soon discovers that Roman had embellished the prestige of American life and sees that Roman isn’t living a high life at all and actually resides in a very xenophobic part of the United States. Over the course of the game, Niko and Roman are chased by loan sharks and mobsters and get involved in organized crime themselves to help pay off Roman’s debt to his loaners.

Liberty City, a striking resemblance to New York City, is
the setting for Grand Theft Auto IV

Which is what brings me to my connection of this to The Jungle. After Jurgis returns from his hiatus, he gets involved in a bit of some crime himself by mugging a guy and stealing his money. I connect this to Grand Theft Auto IV because since Niko couldn’t find any work and discovered that talks of the “American Dream” were false, he resorted to violence to get his money, much like Jurgis. I don’t believe this is actually what GTA IV was trying to teach me as a player, but it definitely gave me some insight into how we convey American life to immigrants and how they’re actually treated when coming to America.