When Jurgis is injured while working in the stockyards in The Jungle , he badly hurts his ankle and is unable to do his usual heavy labor, which immediately threatens his already fragile income. Because he cannot work for months, his family sinks deeper into poverty, falling behind on rent and struggling even more for basic necessities. The company offers him no real support or compensation, revealing how little protection or concern there is for injured workers in that brutal industrial system. Jurgis responds first with determination and denial, trying to keep working despite the pain, but this gradually turns into frustration, despair, and growing disillusionment with the system that treats him as expendable.