The Jungle (Chapters 6-13)

The section I read in The Jungle was chapters 6-13.  It is not as gruesome as the first part of the book, but I found a lot of interesting sections throughout these chapters.  As I continue to read it’s hard for me to understand how immigrants can come to a country not knowing anything in hopes of a better life.  These individuals are taken advantage of in the worst ways and still have hope of living the “American dream”.  As this family moves through one difficulty it seems as if another is soon to appear.

One part I found troubling to read is how Jurgis and others on the killing-bed were robbed of their wages in chapter 8.  If a man is one minute late he would be docked a full hour but still made to work the balance of that hour, so e.g. he was made to work for free. If a man came to work early you would not get paid even though the packers would have them start work 15 minutes early.  And if a man worked for 50 minutes he would not be paid because it didn’t put in a full hour of work.  How could anyone really know what they were going to earn for the week or what they could afford being cheated in this way? No wonder this family was so worried about starving or how they could afford to pay for their home.  I find it appalling to know that people can be treated this way because they don’t understand their rights or not represented by a union.

Another disturbing part of the book for me is the conditions these immigrants worked under and the toll it has on their bodies.  One section describes how their nails had worn off from pulling hides or all the joints in their fingers would be eaten by the acid in the pickle-rooms.  The people who worked in the chilling-room had a disease called rheumatism and in the cooking-rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years despite inspections.  I couldn’t even image working in such conditions, but as we discussed in class last week some people don’t have a choice or what they are doing is much better than where they came from.