Chapter 11

Prompt 1

      In this chapter, Jurgis finally felt like he was now the master of his fate, but then he gets injured at work, leaving him at home, not working. Him and his family already had a hard enough time making money, so Jurgis being laid up at home certainly didn't help. 

      The family was on their way to getting all of their debts paid, but now they can't pay back the debts, and they're having to budget their money a lot differently. "They did without everything that human beings could go without; they went in old and ragged clothing, tht left them at the mercy of the cold, and when the children's shoes wore out, they tied them up with string." And not to mention they had to live off of $1.65 a day for food. 

      If I was in Jurgis' position, I would feel completely useless; which, he really was. The only thing he did while he was injured was lay on a bed and play with little Antanas. Being in that position must've been really hard for him, considering how much pride he takes in making money for his family and working. When he first injured his ankle, he went to work, but it eventually got too bad, so he started to stay home.

Chapter 10

Prompt 1

      Jurgis and his family were barely scraping by. Jurgis' wages went down, Marija's job at the canning factory was on and off until she got fired, and Ona had her baby, so she couldn't work for a while. This was quite unfortunate for them because it's not like any of their expenses went down just because they were in a slump. And what's really sad is that Marija got fired because she spoke up since she felt like she was being cheated out of money. The employer then decided to fire her for that. 

      If I had to live like that, I would be devastated. Not knowing if I'll have enough money to give my family another meal would be frightening. If I had a family I had to take care of, I would want a stable job that I know will provide me with enough money, and one that didn't have awful conditions, like many of the jobs foreigners had.

Chapter 9

Prompt 1

      Business men back then (even now), could/ would be awful. They played dirty both literally and metaphorically just to make more money, took advantage of people, and didn't even care about the fact that what they were doing was downright wrong. Some of them would make meats that were "... made out of the waste ends of smoked beef that were too small to be sliced my machines; and trimmings of hams and corned beef; and potatoes, skins and all; and finally the hard cartilaginous gullets of beef..." That is just one example of a kind of meat that would be made and sold to people, practically poisoning them. Some of the meat was even treated with Pneumonia.

      And not to mention the "Bubbly Creek", which was essentially a drainage area for all of the packaging places. "The grease and chemicals that are poured into it undergo all sorts of strange transformations... Bubbles of carbonic gas will rise to the surface and burst... Here and there the grease and filth have caked solid, and the creek looks like a bed of lava..." The businessmen would then have workers fish out things from the creek, clean them, and then make them into something else and sell them. That is honestly so disgusting, and they did that just because they wanted more money; they would do anything to get that.

Chapter 8

Prompt 1

      I don't think something like that has ever happened to me; but if it did, that would really suck, honestly. You show up every day at work and put in hours, but you're only paid for a small fraction of it. The employers only want to pay them when they're actually butchering, which isn't very good for the workers, because there might be days where they have to butcher a lot, or maybe close to none. So, this job isn't a very reliable one in terms of pay.

      Also, I don't think that any one worker specifically was affected more than another, but it was very tough for all of them. Not knowing if you would bring home 35 cents or 1 dollar day would be really tough, especially if you have a family, like Jurgis does.

Chapter 7

Prompt 1

      During this chapter, it primarily focuses on the family's struggles throughout the winter time. It was bitter cold for them, getting as low as -20 degrees at night. With their house not being very nice, everyone in it had to wear all of their warm clothes, along with blankets on their beds, and still ended up freezing cold. 

      In the winter they still had to work, and they didn't want to pay to use transportation, so all of them would walk to where they work, walking through tall drifts, and be freezing cold before they even got to work. "They unwrapped him [Stanislovas], and a man began vigorously rubbing his ears; and as they were frozen stuff, it only took two or three rubs to break them short off. As a result, little Stanislovas conceived a terror of the cold that was almost a mania" (Sinclair 66-67). This shows just a little bit of the suffering they went through. And not to mention old man Antanas got so sick from being in the cold and working that he eventually died.

      For their family, the winter was very brutal on all of them. They all had to work even harder and longer because they found out their was interest they had to pay on the house that they bought. The Americans once again took advantage of them!

Chapter 6

Prompt 1

       If I were in their position, I would probably be happy with the fact I'm making money for my family, but I wouldn't be happy with the job itself. All a person would do is stand in one spot, and do the same thing repetitively all day. An example of a position in this job is standing in one spot and placing an empty can on the conveyor belt to be dealt with my another person. 

      To all of the people working in there, that was really the only thing they had. If they lost that job, then they would be in a lot of trouble because that was their source of money for themselves and/or family. But the thing is, is that the employers didn't put any value on any of their workers, and thought that all of them were expendable and worthless. So if a person missed even one day, they would immediately be replaced by someone else, greatly affecting the life of the person they fired, for that was the only thing they had.

Chapter 5

Prompt 1

      Regardless of the fact that Ona and her family were considered "expendable", they were still super excited to have jobs. From obtaining these jobs, they all gained a feeling of self-pride because they were making money, too, just like Jurgis!

      Marija got a job as a can painter and was very excited; however, she got upset when she found out she took the place  of some old Irish lady who had that job for 15 years, but got canned. And Dede was also excited about getting a job, even if he was working in the pickle room. The downside to Dede's situation is that he had to give a third of his salary to the guy who found him the job; so, realistically, he wasn't making a whole lot of money. With Jurgis, a guy injured his leg, and he [Jurgis] was told to do that man's job. Dede and Jurgis' situations really show how expendable people were in that time!

Chapter 4

Prompt 1

      17 cents an hour may not have been a lot, but Jurgis was excited about it, regardless. He was so happy because he was finally able to make a contribution to his family and provide for them. Also, he started to gain a sense of pride!

      And Jurgis' job was to sweep smoking entrails into a trap using a thing called a stiff besom. If I was in his position, I probably wouldn't be too happy about the pay, but the fact that I would be giving my family something is enough for me! I think he may not know that his job pays very poorly, but I think he's not too concerned about it at the moment, because he's helping his family!

Chapter 3

      I would say "zombie" is an accurate word to describe the workers in the factory. Each person had one job, and would repetitively do it, with no emotion, and didn't have a single thought about it. It didn't bother them, but it should have (or they just didn't show it). I feel like they all acted like this because they needed the job, and had no other choice, and if someone said something about the conditions of the factory, there would be a person just waiting to take their place. And Sinclair portrayed the horrible conditions of the factory by describing the different jobs people had such as slitting the throats of pigs, and grabbing the entrails from their stomach, so they could be later cleaned and made into sausage casing... Gross.

      My guess is that the only reason they're working in such terrible conditions (such as pungent smells practically choking visitors, along with many other aspects) and do such awful things is because they need to support their family or  themselves, and this was their last chance at doing that. 

Chapter 2

Prompt 1

      In Chapter 2, their lives beforehand were briefly described, as well as their trip to America, and their first couple of days there. The group faced many barriers along the way, for they didn't know much about America at all, and they spoke practically no English. The only word any of them could say was "Chicago", at least until they learned "stockyard". 

      One of the first troubles they had along the way was an "agent" that helped them, but ending up being quite the miscreant to them because he got them in trouble with officials, costing them a lot of their money, which they didn't have a lot of. After that, they arrived in America, but it was not pleasant for them. Since they only knew one English word, people would look at them with confusion or simply laugh  and walk away, leaving the group worried and lost. Finally, they found an interpreter, and were put into a car to head to the stockyard. Once they got there, they were very shocked. The place had a very pungent odor, thick, black smoke in the air, the very unsanitary boarding houses for the families, along with other unpleasant things,making their first couple of days quite terrible.

Chapter 1

Prompt 1

      Veseliya, essentially is just a big dance at the wedding where all men in attendance would dance with the bride for any amount of time. After they dance with the bride, the men are supposed to talk to Teta Elzbieta and donate their money to the groom (Jurgis) and the bride (Ona). As the ceremony continued, they noticed that people were starting to leave without donating anything, which worried them a lot. Jurgis and Ona both started worrying, but Jurgis stayed pretty level-headed and calm about it; whereas Ona got pretty flustered and upset.

      This tradition that the two were trying to upkeep wasn't very successful, for most guests sort of ripped off the couple by leaving without donating, which had a big impact on them, for that money was supposed to start them off after the wedding. I think it's fair to assume there were people who knew about the tradition, and people who did not. So, probably, all of the people didn't go there just to get a free meal, but simply didn't know that they had to donate. But there were also people who knew about it and took advantage of it. Their whole wedding/ceremony was kind of terrible and a huge flop.

      

Welcome!

      Hello, this is my blog about Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"! I'm Sadie Wilson and I am a sophomore at Griswold High School. I don't have a lot of information on this book, but I'm feeling kind of skeptical about it, for this is not the type of book I would normally read.