June 26th, 2023

It’s an interesting way to start a book. Like the Godfather, it opens with a wedding. This is a Lithuanian wedding in Chicago, where many immigrants work in meat packing. Sinclair clearly enjoys languages, as he sprinkles Lithuanian words throughout the chapter. There’s multiple characters introduced, but it seems the main and Ona and Jorgis, the bride and groom. This is the turn of the century, so workers don’t have many rights. Several party until 3am and must be at work at 7am or they will be docked pay or fired. As they get home, Jorgis tells Ona that she will not go to work tomorrow. He will just work harder.

July 8th, 2023

Been awhile, but I’ve only read this book once in the meantime. I have read The Return of the King a bit as the lunch book and I’ve also breezed through The Realm of Numbers by Isaac Asimov. The Jungle jumps back in time after the wedding to when this group of Lithuanians emigrated. Essentially they learn how much money can be made in America and one of them knows a guy who became successful, so they decide to save up some money and move. Jurgis and Ona are engaged in Lithuania, so the two families make the move together, though I think Jurgis only has his father. There’s some grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc, from Ona’s side. They know no English and get swindled in NYC, but ultimately learn that Chicago is where to go. They arrive, still lost, but eventually find the meat packing district and the friend. They are assisted in finding living and Jurgis instantly finds a job, thanks to his strong physique. They are shown the giant meat packing factories and the author describes it in graphic detail. Thousands of animals are slaughtered daily and it is truly disturbing to think about. Ultimately a few of the others find jobs and they learn about shady things being done and the poor treatment of workers, which ultimately led to their hiring in the first place. Jurgis thinks those who struggle to find work are just weak and weak-willed. They get what he deserves. He finds everything interesting and seems to like working so hard. He doesn’t want to give up his money to join the union and doesn’t seem to believe in worker’s rights. Even Jurgis’ old father gets a job through a shady deal where he has to give a man a third of his pay. Even this jovial old man turns bitter with his shameful job. In a nerve-wracking episode, the family decides to buy a house. There is a lot of mistrust between them and the seller and they get lawyers, but ultimately, and reluctantly, they are convinced to buy the house. Something bad will come of this, but now it is now obvious.

July 9th, 2023

They learn from a neighbor that houses are indeed scams intended to steal money from poor people. They are the 4th family in that house since it was built 15 years ago. It was not new, as they were told. On top of that, there is interest on the payments that they were not told about. Young Stanislawas has to go to work instead of school, lying about his age to say he’s 16. Now we move after the wedding in time. Jurgis’ father, working in ankle high saltpeter in the pickling room, develops sores on his feet. He continues to work until he can no longer work, all the while suffering from consumption. He dies a few days later. As the old neighbor said, someone always dies of consumption in that house. Then the time moves to winter and it is hard for the workers. Nothing is heated, and this is Chicago. Stanislawas is scarred when then other boy on his machine arrives with frostbite on his ears, only to have them fall off. Jurgis escorts him to work and also his wife. Then the work slows down. Marija loses her job when the factory closes and Jurgis works only a few hours a day. In happier news, Marija and the fiddler from the wedding fall in love and plan to marry. At this time, the union recruiter comes back to Jurgis. This time, he is prepared to join. Marija also joins a union, outraged at the factory closing.

July 10th, 2023

The times get harder for our family. More money is lost in the house and there are other unexplained expenses from the deed that come up. Jurgis, having taken English lessons, demands to know all the expenses that were not explained up front. The author goes into more detail about terrible working conditions and disgusting things the companies (really a trust) do with the meat. No wonder this book had such a reaction. In the only good news, Jurgis and Ona have a child, though Ona has to go back to work immediately. This lack of recovery time will cause lifelong complications and pains. Without Ona, Aunt Elsbieta has to feed the baby questionable milk from the store. There is no safe food anywhere. Another winter comes (or maybe its the same winter) and blizzards arrive. Jurgis has to carry Ona and Stanislawas through the snow. I don’t know how he survives. Despite his strength, he has an accident at work. A bull was on the loose and the men had to run wildly from it. During this, Jurgis rolls his ankle. It swells beyond use and Jurgis is stuck in bed. This is bad. Not only is there less income, but Ona and Stanislawas are on their own.

July 16th, 2023

Skipped an entry. More bad things happen. Jurgis tries to go back to work, and his boss even turns out the replacement for him. However, he can’t finish the day. The pain is too great. They finally get a doctor, who says Jurgis needs to stay off it for two months or he’ll ruin it forever. One of the family, Jonas, disappears. He just never comes home one day. Either he died at work and it is covered up, or he split town. We’ll never know, but now the family has one less income to worry about. Marija almost loses her job during a bank run trying to get her money out. Turns out this bank run was because a crowd was formed around the police arresting a drunk, which led people to think there’s a bank run. Teta Elsbieta tragically loses her youngest child, a two year old, though he was a cripple and always ill. Sad to say, for the rest of the family, this was a relief. Her older boys are taken out of school to sell newspapers in the city, and eventually they get in the habit of not coming home. They put them back in school and send Elsbieta to work casing sausages. Eventually Jurgis can walk again, but now he’s a husk of his old self. No one will hire him. Only the worst job in town will: the fertilizer plant. The fumes destroy the brain and the smell becomes permanent. Jurgis is a pariah. Ona is again pregnant.

If all that is not dramatic enough, things start to get personal. One night in a snowstorm, Ona does not come home. Jurgis waits for her at work where she ultimately shows up. She stayed at a friend’s, she says. Then another night she does not come home. Jurgis investigates and, long story short, follows her home and confronts her. She doesn’t want to say, but Jurgis will lose his mind if he doesn’t find the truth. Ona’s boss had forced her to sleep with him several times and eventually made her come to his house. The boss threatened to fire her and get her whole family fired from their jobs. Jurgis goes out and attempts to kill the man. He nearly strangles him to death when people start to pull him off. He then bites into the man’s cheek. Jurgis is thrown in jail and seems sentenced to a week. It is Christmas Eve.

July 28th, 2023

Jurgis is held for a week, but fortunately for him he gets a cell mate to take his mind off of the thought that his family is suffering. The man is a young “gentleman”, is a safe-cracker and professional criminal who winds up here all the time. He’s very chatty and open, introducing “stinker” to the others. After a week, Jurgis goes to trial. The boss who was attacked is there, tells some lies, and Jurgis gets 30 days. Elbieta and Kotrina witness the trial. Jurgis breaks rocks and all that in jail, but one day he has a visitor. Stanislovas is sent to ask for money, which Jurgis only has 14 cents. They think there is some sort of jail welfare. Things are bad. The boss is connected and all are without work. Marija has cut her hand and probably has gangrene. The sausage factory is closed for the winter slowdown. The snow is deep and Stanislovas can’t get to work and lost his job. All the kids, Kotrina too, have to sell papers in the city. They are starving and begging for food. Jurgis can do nothing. After his 30 days, he gets out. He has to walk 20 miles home through slush and cold only to find his house repainted and repaired. An Irish family lives there now. Jurgis starts to sob. He asks the old lady down the street where his family is, she suggests that tenement where they first lived. Jurgis goes there to find Ona giving birth to their second child, 2 months early.

July 30th, 2023

It just gets worse and worse. Summarizing about 6 chapters here. Ona needs a doctor badly. These poor people scrap $1.25 together for Jurgis and he tries to find someone. Eventually he gets a Dutch midwife who will do it if he will pay the $25 in full next month. Never going to happen, but she goes along. They kick Jurgis out and he goes to the bar for hours. When he comes home, Ona is near death. The baby is dead. Nothing could be done. He goes up stairs and he sees her one last time. The death of his wife breaks him and he takes the family’s last $3 and drinks it away. Eventually Elzbieta convinces him to go find work for the sake of his son. Jurgis finds a job, but next day it is gone. He is blacklisted. He will never find work in Packingtown again. There are spies who know his face. He treks to downtown Chicago to find a job and he finds a decent one with the aid of a union buddy. His spirits are dashed when the place closes for winter after 9 days. He goes home to his son, the only thing he really has in life. It turns out that while he was away for days downtown, the family met a philanthropist of sorts. Elzbieta’s one-legged son had gone to the dump to find food scraps of the rich when a woman questioned him on his life. After hearing meeting Elzbieta and hearing their tale, she gave a letter, saying her fiance will give Jurgis a job or she’ll call off the wedding. Jurgis then goes back downtown to the steel mills and gets a job. It is scary, but pays decently. Things look up, winter is over and life is getting a little easier. With spring comes thaw and water and flooded streets. Jurgis comes home to find his son dead.

His boy had drowned in the street. Jurgis leaves. Without his wife and son, he has nothing. He sneaks on a train and just goes and goes and goes. He hops off in the country and for the first time in 3 years he feels human. He tramps around from farm to farm, just living. He stays in barns, pays for food or steals it. He meets many other tramps along the way. He spends life like this, pleasantly, until November. It is cold, there is no farm work, so he returns to Chicago for winter. He is fortunate to find a job digging “telephone tunnels”, which are an illegal subway to maneuver around the teamsters’ union. Nothing lasts and Jurgis is hit by a cart, breaking his arm. He is in the hospital for 2 weeks and then thrown in the cold. Now, with little money, he must beg to survive. He is a homeless man in Chicago winter. One bad day and he will die. But soon he has a good day. He meets a drunken British kid while begging, and he is very rich. This drunk kid likes Jurgis and takes him home. He has no one else at home and is lonely. His dad won’t give him money if he stays out late, so he takes Jurgis with him and gives him some food. He drunkenly gives him $100 dollars for a cab and forgets. Jurgis spends the evening with this kid, who then passes out. The staff then evicts Jurgis, who has kept this $100 bill. I don’t know how he will spend it. Something bad will happen.

August 6th, 2023

I read the the rest of the book this weekend, probably a third of it. It’s quite the story arc. Jurgis is not dumb and knows it will be hard to get rid of a hundred. After weighing his options, all terrible, he takes a chance in an empty bar. After being grilled by the bartender, he agrees to change the bill. Jurgis buys a 5 cent beer, but is given 95 cents back. Jurgis goes crazy and fights the bartender. Eventually the cops come and Jurgis is taken away. He, of course, is sentenced. In jail, he meets the the safe-crack from his first jail term. Once out of jail, this Jack Duane takes Jurgis under his wing and they do some petty crimes. Jurgis takes well to the criminal life and makes his way. He gets good money and saves up a lot, all while having a good time. He gets in the political scene and it goes well. One night, however, he has a chance encounter with Ona’s old boss. His old rage is rekindled and he savagely attacks him. Landed in jail, he tries to use his clout and connections to get off. His boss/friend tells him that he is screwed. That guy is huge on the racket and Jurgis has no chance. All he can get Jurgis is a lowered bail and the chance to disappear. Jurgis pays the $300 and is again penniless on the streets.

He is again begging on the street and days go by until he is close to starving to death. He approaches a well-dressed woman, who happens to have been a guest at his wedding. She has nothing on her, but gives him the address of Marija. It’s been a year since Jurgis ran off, so he is hesitant. He goes there, and it is a brothel. Marija is now a morphine addicted prostitute, though she makes decent money. She knows her life sucks and she is essentially a slave, but she is alive and is able to support Elzbieta and her family. Jurgis learns that Stanislovas is dead, another victim of Packingtown. He was beer-boy for the workers, drank some and fell asleep in a corner. He was killed and eaten by rats. Poor kid. Marija tells Jurgis to go to Elzbieta. Jurgis is again hesitant and decides to keep looking for work. He goes to some Democrat rally for warmth but gets kicked out for falling asleep. He tries again the next day and that night finds another rally with less pomp and circumstance. It is a socialist meeting.

He falls asleep and is gently wakened by a woman next to him, who urges him to listen. It is a life changing moment for Jurgis. After this, everything makes sense. He wants to do more and sneaks back stage to find the orator. The speaker then sets him up with a Polish guy who knows Lithuanian. They talk and Jurgis tells him his story. The Pole lets Jurgis spend the night on his kitchen floor and they discuss socialism. Jurgis then goes to Elzbieta the next day and explains everything to her. He then tries to convert Marija, but she is not interested. Unfortunately she is worn down by her life and has come to accept it the way it is. Jurgis finds a job as a hotel porter, and it turns out the owner is a staunch socialist. All in all, life is now going well for Jurgis. The book ends with a call to action. After elections show vast increases for the socialists, a speaker urges the crowd to organize.