The Jungle Chapters 7-20

There is so much death that occurs, but I would expect nothing less from Mr. Boyd. I would be extremely surprised if there is a book that we would read in his classes that did not have to do with death. I find Ona's death very symbolic, because it is the last in line at the end of Chapter 20 of the tragedies that Jurgis is finding. It occurs after Jurgis goes to jail for about 40 days, in which all the factory working family members are turned out. They must rely on the four children to sell plenty of newspapers, but that would be scary to me to have four out of the five children in my family stay in the city for a couple of days and not come home without inform one of  our members. It would also be hard going around begging for food or change or something to help them survive because they cannot support themselves.

I believe that I will state what my prediction for the end of the book is. I believe that Marija will be the next one to die because she has no use of her one arm from blood poisoning. Then eventually all the children besides little Antanas and Stanislovas will develop a cough, freeze to death, or just never come home. So out of the four remaining people, Teta Elzbieta, Jurgis, Stanisvalos, and Antanas, I have two theories. The first one is that Teta will die and then the children without her support will starve to death or run away and die. Only Jurgis will survive. The other theory I have is that Jurgis will become a drunk and live and the many saloons owing a credit to each and once the owners find out that he cannot pay, he is booted out. Eventually, he will die from the cold. Teta after some amount of time, will die and the two little children will take care of themselves and might die.

In the Lake of the Woods

I find this book very confusing at times. There are just some chapters with just quotes from people. These chapters have quotes from the main character’s, John Wade, mother. Then there are some from the closest neighbors to the house John and Kathy, his wife, are staying in for two weeks. There are also some quotes from some books. He also includes some famous quotes. Aside from these two chapters so far in the first one hundred pages there is one chapter that is really confusing. I believe that it is somewhat essential. It informs the reader of all these different stories about John Wade. It is confusing to me because of the way it jumps around from his childhood to his marriage with Kathy and back again and then to his fathers funeral.

The Jungle Chapters 4-6

I found these three chapters quite a bite better than the first three. Aside from the appalling meat information, it is actually quite a good story. I have found in the past to find fiction boring, but this book is helping to change that. The story line is coming along very nicely. It is amazing how blessed this family is to all find work. The ten dollar bill slipped into a forelady’s hand is such a disgrace but at least it is work for Ona and that is nice. I can easily understand why salesmen are the least trusted professions especially after the way that the family discovers it. I cannot imagine the horror and complete anger if the salesman would have come up to the house and demanded an extra seven dollars from them on top of the twelve dollar a month payment of the house. That salesman is extremely lucky that the elderly lady down the street came over and explained it to them as well as proved it was in the deed. Then again that man is probably also again extremely lucky that Jurgis wasn’t home to tear him to shreds for not being informed of this at purchase. I am curious that if any of the people who work in the meat packing industry buy the meat and eat it. I would refuse to buy it and become a vegetarian even if it would mean the death of me. The way that Antanas is supposed to clean out the drain and then dump it into the truck with the rest is very disturbing. It probably doesn’t help that it has had all the stuff that has been on the floor and blood pouring over it, draining between it, and getting absorbed by it, as well as letting it sit there for a few days in warm or clod and thus the meat could be rotten.

The Jungle Chapters 1-3

I find the beginning of this book pointless. What is there to respond to really? In the first chapter, it talks about Jurgis and Ona's wedding, which is done in the traditional Lithuanian way. I am confused as to if their wedding was in America or not.  I find the second chapter to be very pointless. First of all, how is it related to the first chapter? The newly married couple, I believe, are just enjoying each others company walking around and boring me. It somewhat explains why he continuously says “I will work harder.”The third chapter starts by explaining how Jurgis receives his job really fast and I find that it is not very accurate because it is hard to find. Then it continues to explain how he has the rest of the day off and takes a tour of one of the major meatpacking companies. I found it very appalling and disturbing reading about what occurred to the meat and what these people saw. It is even worse that what these people saw that toured the company only saw the better and nice parts. The family should have stayed in their home country because then Ona and Jurgis could have then stayed at Jurgis’ home in the forest with his other family. From my understanding, they would have been better off. They would have clean food and water, shelter, and fresh air. They could have also just sent a few of the family instead of all of them going too. It would be better because there wouldn’t be as people to house, feed, and find work for.

Questions and Comments

1. What will be our focus on this book, the literary qualities or deficiencies or the workers?
2. Why would they leave for a place that they had only heard rumors about?
3. I do not like the beginning of this book, because of the way it started and the appalling content.
4. Why are Lithuanian weddings done in the way that anybody that walks in could be fed for free?
5. I think that after reading the first chapter that I will not eat as much meat and maybe become a vegetarian because of the appalling content that is yet to come. I was appalled by the meat being processed in chapter 3, in which the company allows the public to see and so I figure that I will be extremely disgusted by the behind the scenes content.