The Jungle

Jurgis and Ona marry in November, and the wedding leaves them in debt. Meanwhile, the family’s health suffers as a result of unsanitary living conditions and poor nutrition:

[H]ow could they know that there was no sewer to their house, and that the drainage of fifteen years was in a cesspool under it? How could they know that the pale blue milk that they bought around the corner was watered, and doctored with formaldehyde besides? (84).

Antanas suffers most; he develops a chronic cough, and the pickling room chemicals eventually eat through his shoes, causing him to break out in sores. He dies of a pulmonary hemorrhage just as winter sets in.

The cold only makes matters worse, facilitating the spread of illness and exposing workers to frostbite on their way to and from work. After seeing another boy lose his ears in this way, Stanislovas becomes so terrified of the snow that he has to be escorted to and from work by Jurgis. Meanwhile, the freezing conditions make accidents more likely in the warehouse where Jurgis works: “On the killing beds you were apt to be covered with blood, and it would freeze solid […] Also the air would be full of steam, from the hot water and the hot blood, so that you could not see five feet before you” (89).

Winter also leads many workers to drink, The saloons are one of the few warm places to eat or cash a paycheck, but they require customers to order drinks as well. However, Jurgis’s devotion to Ona keeps him from indulging. He returns directly home each night, and the family huddles together for warmth in the drafty house.

Tamoszius visits the family frequently, having fallen in love with Marija while playing violin at Jurgis’s and Ona’s wedding. Marija starts to accompany Tamoszius to events at which he’s asked to play, giving the entire family something to look forward to: “[N]ow there was a member of the family who was permitted to travel and widen her horizon; and so each week there would be new personalities to talk about” (94). On the way back from a wedding one night, Tamoszius proposes to Marija, who joyfully accepts.

With their relatively high income, the couple believes they will be able to marry in the spring. Marija is therefore devastated when she shows up to work one day and learns that, with demand having fallen off after the holidays, the plant is temporarily closed. As this is common practice in Packingtown, Marija struggles to find another job once she is out of work. Meanwhile, Jurgis’s factory cuts its workers’ hours and therefore his earnings.

Increasingly frustrated, Jurgis decides to join a union, and the rest of his family follows suit. Although Marija is disappointed to learn the union offers no protection against factory closures, the family continues to attend meetings which provide them with a sense of solidarity and a place to vent some of their anger.

In order to better participate in his union, Jurgis enrolls in a free night class and learns to speak and read English. Meanwhile, he has also become a naturalized citizen; not long after his arrival, Bush Harper—a night watchman at Durham’s—approached him about naturalization and later paid him to vote as instructed in the Packingtown elections. Jurgis now learns from his union friends that American politics, though nominally democratic, is plagued by this kind of corruption; his own district is controlled by the Democrats and in particular by a man named Mike Scully, who owns much of Packingtown.

Jurgis also learns more about the meatpacking industry’s many unsanitary practices. For instance, the federal government only requires that contaminated meat be kept in-state, effectively allowing corrupt local inspectors to clear it for local sale. Moreover, much of the canned meat is not what it purports to be: “‘De-vyled’ ham was made out of the waste ends of smoked beef […] and also tripe, dyed with chemicals so that it would not show white; […] [a]ll this ingenious mixture was ground up and flavored with spices to make it taste like something” (108-109).

Finally, Jurgis discovers that meatpacking workers often develop illnesses or injuries specific to their jobs. Anyone who uses a knife, for instance, risks repeated cuts to the hand that eventually deaden the nerves; what’s more, each cut leaves one vulnerable to blood poisoning. However, everyone agrees that the men working in the fertilizer and cooking rooms are the worst off, both because the stench comes to permeate their skin, and because they’re in danger of falling into the vats and ending up as fertilizer themselves.

By late winter, the family worries constantly about money: “This was in truth not living; it was scarcely even existing, and they felt that it was too little for the price they paid” (112). Meanwhile, expenses continue to pile up: The family learns they must also pay taxes and insurance on the house, and on one occasion they have to hire a plumber after a pipe freezes and bursts. Spring brings some relief but also new problems: The streets flood as the weather warms up, and by summer the heat is once again oppressive inside the warehouses.

When Marija’s canning factory reopens, she resumes planning for her wedding. However, just a few weeks later, she loses her job after complaining of being cheated out of wages. It takes her more than a month to secure another, lower-paying job as a beef-trimmer.

Ona, now pregnant, is also struggling. She is subject to constant harassment from her forelady, Miss Henderson, who also works as a madam and has secured meatpacking jobs for several women from the brothel: “[Ona] understood now that the real reason that Miss Henderson hated her was that she was a decent married girl” (119). However, having seen what happened to Marija, Ona refrains from complaining about her own working conditions.

Jurgis saves enough to hire a doctor for Ona’s delivery, and she gives birth to a healthy boy named Antanas after Jurgis’ father. Although Jurgis is hardly ever able to see his son, he is enraptured with the child and more devoted than ever to his family. Meanwhile, Ona is forced to return to work just a week after Antanas’s birth, which permanently ruins her health, leaving her prone to a number of aches, pains, and anxieties.