The jungle 116-150

           The Packingtown laborers are worked at an ever greater speed only to see their wages cut numerous times.  Marija opens a bank account for her savings. One day there was a rush of people to withdraw funds from the bank, because there was a large crowd watching a police officer arresting a drunk man. The big crowd caused people to get frantic and they went to withdraw their funds. Jurgis sprains his ankle and cannot return to work for almost three months. The frustration eats away at him and he often vents his bitterness upon his family. Stanislovas suffers frostbite in his hands, and the first joints on his fingers are permanently damaged. Jurgis often has to beat Stanislovas in order to make him go to work on snowy mornings. Teta Elzbieta’s youngest child, Kristoforas, dies after eating bad meat. Marija loans Teta Elzbieta the money to pay for a real funeral because Jurgis refuses to help. In the spring, Jurgis looks unsuccessfully for work. He is worn out and unable to attract the boss’s eye. He settles for the least desirable job around, a position in a fertilizer mill. The chemicals seep into his skin, making him smell as foul as the muck itself. During the summer Teta Elzbieta takes a job in a sausage factory. The bad working conditions wear on Teta Elzbieta’s health she must stand and perform the same repetitive motion for hours and hours. Jurgis and his family know all of the dirty secrets of the meat-packing industry. The most spoiled of meats becomes sausage. All manner of dishonesty exists in the industry’s willingness to sell diseased, rotten, and adulterated meat to American households. Antanas suffers various childhood illnesses, and the measles attack him. Ona, pregnant again, develops a bad cough.

            The part of this section when there is a mad rush for the citizens of packingtown to withdraw their funds, because this could cause the bank to become bankrupt. This would be very unfortunate for those who are unable to withdraw their funds, because it no longer exists. I think that it was bad how Jurgis sprangs his ankle, because he is the one in the family that has always been working in the United States, and he is their main source of income. I also thought that it was bad how all of these people like Kritoforas are dying from the bad meat.