4+Plot

Young man J urgis Rudkus and young woman Ona Lukoszaite immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania. In Chicago, they held their wedding feast in bar in the area where their relative had recently moved called Packingtown. There, they and their relatives had come to search for a better life but Packingtown, The center of Chicago's meatpacking industry, was dangerous and filthy and to top it off, it was difficult to find a job there. After having their reception they are more than a hundred dollars in debt to the saloon keeper (In Lithuania, the wedded usually left money to pay but in America some just left without paying). Jurgis works harder to earn more money and keeps his faith in the American Dream. Jurgis, Marija Berczynskas, Ona’s cousin, Jonas, the brother of Ona’s stepmother, Teta Elzbieta all find jobs to make money. They sign an agreement to by a house but its fraud, full of hidden costs and is also filthy and grimy and as their cost rises, Ona and Stanislovas, one of Teta Elzbieta’s children are forced to also look for work. In Packingtown, the jobs are hard to come by and if you do get one, it is hard with low wages, horrible conditions and often for immigrants full of fraud and maltreatment. Jurgis' father, Dede Antanas, finds a job only by agreeing to pay one third of his wages to the man and is actually killed because the work is too hard for the old man. Winter in Packingtown is harsh and Jurgis is risking his life going to work at his dim lit, cold slaughterhouse job. Marija is courted by Tamozius (a nice violinist) but they never marry due to lack of money to have a wedding. Jurgis joins a union because Marija's factory shuts down and she loses her job and he fears for the conditions of his family. He tries to improve his luck by learning English too. Marija gets and loses her job again because she was complaining of unfair treatment. Ona gets pregnant and her job becomes more difficult. She bears a healthy boy (whom she names after Jurgis' late father) then is forced to return to her job only 7 days later. When Jurgis sprains his ankle he spends 3 months in bed unable to work and the factory cuts his pay. Jonas abandons his family because he can no longer take the misery. Kristoforas, the youngest son of Teta Elzbieta, dies of food poisoning. Then Jurgis heals but the factory refuses him his job back. He finds the job at the fertilizer factory, the worst place to work, after a long frustrating job search. He starts to take up alcohol as a numbing agent. Ona becomes pregnant again but her boss, Phil Connor, forced her to stay after work and sleep with him. Jurgis becomes enraged and beats up Phil and is arrested. His trial was unfair and he was sent to jail for a month. There he makes friends with a criminal, Jack Duane. When he returns, Ona is giving birth prematurely and the miscarriage kills her and her child. Jurgis becomes so depressed and in agony, he goes out drinking and disappears. Eventually, Teta Elzbieta convinces Jurgis to search for a job because of his son. He finds a job at the steel mill because of a kind philanthropist woman who had taken an interest in the poor family. His job and life are going well until his son Antanas drowns in the muddy streets. He abandons all hope and his remaining family and wanders the countryside as a tramp. By winter, Jurgis returns to Chicago and gets a job digging fright tunnels but then he injures himself and spends time at the hospital. A kind man, Freddie Jones, gives him a $100 bill but then when he asks the bartender to change it, the bartender beats Jurgis and only gives him 95 cents back. He fights back and attacks the man and is again sent to jail where he meets up with Jack again. When they are both released, he begins to commit burglaries and muggings as Jack's partner. He eventually gets work for a corrupt political boss whose name is Mike Scully. He does get good money working as a scab when a series of strikes occur. One Day he again sees Phil Connors and attacks him once again. Because Connor is working for Scully, he cannot use his weak political connections and he is sent to jail for a third time. He is forced to live on charity once he is released. He has, by this time, lost contact with his living family. He then meets an old acquaintance who tells him how to find Marija. Marija has become a prostitute to support the family and is addicted to morphine. Jurgis decides to go see Teta Elzbieta but only after, he has found a job. Eventually his spirits are nearly all crushed until he wanders into a socialist political rally where he is inspired by the orator. He joins the socialist party and embraces the idea that workers should own the factories not rich capitalists. He gets a job at a socialist hotel as a porter. He is reunited with Teta Elzbieta and attends another rally, which sums up his beliefs:

If more people convert to socialism, then “Chicago will be ours!”