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The Jungle


Although Ona's family was facing economical trouble, they still had several plausible options. On Jurgis" knowledge of a friend who had become successful in Chicago, the two (along with several family members) went there in hope that the economical struggle they were facing would disappear. When they went to the part of town that they would live in, it was exciting. As time went on and the veil of falsehood was slowly lifted, it became evident to the travelers that their trip had been a mistake; they would have been better off staying in Lithuania. The home they lived in was small, and the conditions of their workplace were atrocious. Dede Antanas, Jurgis" father, was determined to work. His fragile and aging body made him subject to disease, and he soon fell ill and died. This was the first of many deaths that would trouble the family over the course of the book. This is one of the reasons why this book is so emotionally powerful; this was a cheerful and strong group of people, and Packingtown life was so hard that they lost all strength and vitality. They left a life that was much better than their new life intentionally, and that is far more emotionally powerful than the fact that people were eating terrible things nearly a century ago.
             The fact that Packingtown life was hard didn't stop the family from trying to make their lives work. Jurgis would go from job to job, Ona would make the long journey to sew covers on jarred hams, and almost all of the other family members struggled with their jobs as well. Even Stanislovas got a job operating a lard machine. There would be stories of people falling into vats and their bones not being found until months after they had accidentally been added into the mixtures of lard, and these stories would be an example of the barbaric state in which these people were forced to work. These shocking revelations made it easy to overlook the fact that a young boy was being forced to work so that his family could buy food.


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