Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms represented by those characters.
So, at this point, Jurgis has gone through every type of luck possible. I mean he’s gone from a meager factory worker to a homeless widower to a high-up crime boss and now, back to an unemployed hobo. While I kind of want to feel bad for him, he abandoned his children and ran away to become an alcoholic, which isn’t really “father-of-the-year” material. Now what piques my interest is how his values and morals have changed so drastically since he immigrated to America. Though I definitely do not condone any of the careless actions he has made thus far, I do believe that the circumstances of the ruthless capitalistic society of the time have tainted the positive motives he once had.