The Jungle

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. They did not receive as much money as expected from the wedding guests. (Chapter 1)

2. “Chicago” and “stockyards” (Chapter 2)

3. To sweep the entrails of the carcasses into traps (Chapter 4)

4. It is a group of men who are paid more to work faster to speed up the general pace in the factory. (Chapter 5)

5. Hatred (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. Dede Antanas develops a cough while working in the cotton mills. After leaving this job, he moves to a pickle factory, where the cough persists because of the damp air (Chapter 1).

2. While the older generations wear clothing associated with or reminiscent of their home countries, the younger wedding guests wear popular American clothing styles and speak English with each other. (Chapter 1)

3. Jurgis is an energetic Lithuanian boy. Recently emigrated from Lithuania, he is immediately approached for factory work. He is positive and focuses on finding a job and providing for his new wife. (Chapter 2)

4. Chapter 3 describes Durham and Company’s pig stockyards for their pork products. These factories use all parts of the animal carcass for different products; Jurgis finds this process inspiring and modern, while Sinclair’s narration implies that he is also empathetic to the suffering of these animals. (Chapter 3).

5. Jurgis and his companions live in a filthy, overcrowded boarding house near the stockyards. With a week left on their reservation, they find a home ownership opportunity and calculate they have enough money to make the down payment if they pool their money. After reading the deed, they believe they have been tricked from home ownership; however, a lawyer proves they did buy their own home. (Chapter 4)

6. Jurgis does not want to join the union because he does not want to give up part of his paycheck and does not mind the fast work pace. Sinclair notes that Jurgis’s thinking falls under the laissez-faire economic system. (Chapter 5)

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. They could not afford the traditional wedding feast. (Chapter 6)

2. German, Irish, Bohemians, Poles, Lithuanians, and soon the Slovaks (Chapter 6)

3. Marija’s factory closes temporarily, and she loses her job. (Chapter 8)

4. To participate better in the union meetings (Chapter 9)

5. “the local political machine” (Chapter 9)

6. The management is outsourced, and workers are never promoted to supervisory roles. (Chapter 10).

Short Answer

1. Grandmother Majauszkiene is a neighbor from Lithuania. She explains to the family that their house is not new and made with cheap materials, and that former families could not pay for the home and were evicted. They also learn that they will have to pay the interest of $7 a month starting the next month, or they will be kicked out. (Chapter 6)

2. The family experiences sickness from the factory conditions and the lack of a sewer system in the house. They also have rodents and roaches, which are immune to preventive remedies, and clothes and food that are doctored in quality. Furthermore, Antanas dies after falling ill due to poor sanitary conditions in the factory. (Chapter 7)

3. At first, Jurgis does not understand the need for a union since he believes that hard work triumphs over all; however, after enduring the difficulties of factory work for an extended time, he sees the value and decides to join a union to protect his rights. He considers this union to be a brotherhood. (Chapter 8)

4. Factory workers suffer many potential health troubles, including losing limbs and digits, infected scars, pervasive odors, and for some workers in the fertilizing department, falling into vats and becoming fertilizer themselves. (Chapter 9)

5. Jurgis learns that they have unknown yearly expenses on their house; Marija loses her job after challenging unfair wages; and Ona becomes pregnant, gives birth, and returns to work the following week. (Chapter 10)

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. There is always new labor waiting to replace the striking workers. (Chapter 11)

2. The Beef Trust (Chapter 11)

3. He is no longer new to the industry; they got the best of him. (Chapter 12)

4. Elzbieta’s son, Kristoforas (Chapter 13)

5. Alcoholism (Chapter 14)

Short Answer

1. Jurgis twists his ankle during work and cannot work for the following month. After his situation does not improve, he learns that a tendon must be twisted into place, and that he needs another two months of bed rest. As a result of this loss of income, two children are pulled from school and sent into the workforce. (Chapters 11-12)

2. Stanislovas permanently damages some of his fingers, and Jonas has gone missing. (Chapter 12)

3. Jurgis’s job is challenging; however, he persists. As a result, the family decides to send the two children back to school while Elzbieta goes to work and her daughter takes care of the house. (Chapter 13)

4. She works with spoiled meat, which they repurpose to sell to families. Rats feed from the rotten meat, and then when the rats are poisoned, they are chopped up with the spoiled meat in the sausages and sold for consumption. (Chapter 14)

5. Connor, a male employee where Ona works, forces her into performing sexual acts. She tells Jurgis, and he seeks out Connor to attack him. A group of men leads Jurgis away and take him to the police station. (Chapter 15)

Chapters 16-21

Reading Check

1. Because the coffee is doped with drugs (Chapter 16)

2. His name is Jack Duane, and he breaks safes. (Chapter 17)

3. So he can find a midwife for his wife’s premature birth (Chapter 18)

4. The generic name for foreigners and unskilled men in Packingtown (Chapter 19)

5. The Sunday newspaper (Chapter 21)

Short Answer

1. Jurgis’s inner monologue centers on his fears for his family now that he is in prison. In particular, he worries about Ona and the family losing their jobs and the house they had fought for. As he realizes it is Christmas Eve, he understands that his existence is not memorable and is of “no consequence.” (Chapter 16)

2. He visits Jurgis to inform him that Ona is sick, Marija may lose her hand because it is infected, and they need money from Jurgis. Jurgis responds with anger because he believes Stanislovas is not trying hard enough to go to work in the cold. (Chapter 17)

3. Upon visiting his house, he finds that it has been repainted and repaired, with an Irish family living in it. Grandmother Majauszkiene informs him that his family was kicked out a week ago. (Chapter 18)

4. While Jurgis is lost in his grief for Ona and focuses only on her death, Elzbieta has a “common sense” approach and focuses on feeding the children and raising money for funeral expenses. (Chapter 20)

5. The settlement worker listens to the family’s woes and offers them a basket of food and a job opportunity for Jurgis at a steel factory. (Chapter 21)

Chapters 22-26

Reading Check

1. He fell off the sidewalk five feet down into the street. (Chapter 22)

2. In the hospital with an injury from his new job (Chapter 23)

3. Because they had not received a “decent existence for their bodies” (Chapter 23)

4. Both the barman and the owner pay off the police and do favors for local politics. (Chapter 25)

5. Three dollars a day (Chapter 26)

6. The journalists (Chapter 26)

Short Answer

1. He becomes a “tramp,” wandering among farms for food and the occasional work. He purposefully does not accept long-term job offers, and he is now “a free man” who is in charge of his own life, whereas prior, he was a servant to other men. (Chapter 22)

2. He returns to Chicago before the fall so he can find work again. He finds a job within a month by lying and saying he is not from the area. (Chapter 23)

3. Jurgis begs for money from a stranger, who turns out to be a drunken, wealthy college-aged boy named Freddie. In his stupor, Freddie gives Jurgis $100 and invites him back to his mansion, where he gives him a tour and feeds him before falling asleep. The servants quickly kick him out on the streets after Freddie passes out. (Chapter 24)

4. The “high-class criminal world of Chicago” translates to the businessmen and political elites that work together to continue the corrupt political machines, particularly by bribing elected officials and swaying votes. Jurgis is better able to understand the criminal justice system that he was unfairly tried in. (Chapter 25)

5. Before, Jurgis needed work in the stockyards for his livelihood; now, he is placed as a mole to spread positive information about a specific Republican politician (who the Democrats are trying to get elected) to sway the workingmen’s votes ultimately. (Chapter 25)

6. The Beef Strike leads the packing companies to import labor from other parts of the US, primarily “negros” from former slave states. During this period, there was an increase in riots and brothels to accommodate the new labor force. (Chapter 26)

Chapters 27-31

Reading Check

1. A weather storm (Chapter 27)

2. Rats killed and ate him (Chapter 27)

3. Morphine (Chapter 28)

4. That his boss is one of the state organizers of the socialist party (Chapter 30)

5. “Chicago will be ours!” (Chapter 31)

Short Answer

1. In Chapter 26, Jurgis is a relatively influential man working in the Scully political machine with several hundred dollars in savings; however, by Chapter 27, he is again facing hunger, homelessness, and poverty. (Chapter 27).

2. Jurgis learns that Marija works in a brothel to support Elzbieta and the children. After he visits with her, he begins to reflect on Ona and Antanas and what he could have done differently to help them. (Chapter 27)

3. He is a member of the socialist group who speaks Lithuanian. He speaks with Jurgis after the event, tells him about his history with the socialist movement, and offers him a place to sleep. Jurgis is in awe of the information he learns from Ostrinski. (Chapter 29)

4. This quote is an example of Social Darwinism. (Chapter 30)