Chapter 17

Prompt 1

      This chapter describes what Jurgis experiences while in prison, and his hearing about the case. Within the first couple of days, Jurgis makes friends, and makes a realization. "Swindlers and thieves of pennies and dimes, and they had been trapped and put out of the way by swindlers and thieves of millions of dollars". 

      These men who were in jail were mainly foreigners, doing whatever they could (swindling, stealing) to keep them and their families alive, since it was so tough to make good money as an immigrant. And then there were the people who were American, ran companies, owned factories, had plenty of money, and did those same things, usually even worse. What makes this so terrible is that the Americans could get away with it because they could practically get any foreigner in trouble, even if they were doing the same thing.