Summary: Chapter 3
Jokubas takes the family on a tour of Packingtown. Theyare amazed to see pens packed with tens of thousands of cattle,pigs, and sheep. The suffering of the animals, which will all bekilled by the end of the day, daunts even Jurgis’s optimism. Butthe flurry of human activity fills Jurgis with wonder. Jokubas notessarcastically the signs regarding the sanitation rules. The governmentinspector who checks the slaughtered pigs for signs of tuberculosisoften lets several carcasses go unchecked. Spoiled meat is speciallydoctored in secret before it is scattered among the rest of themeat in preparation for canning and packing.
Summary: Chapter 4
Jurgis begins his job of sweeping the entrails of slaughteredcattle through trap doors. Despite the stench, he is filled withoptimism because he earns a little over two dollars for twelve hoursof labor. There are more encouraging signs: Jonas has a lead ona job, and Marija obtains a job painting labels on cans for nearlytwo dollars a day. Jurgis refuses to allow Teta Elzbieta,Ona, or the children to work. He wants the children to go to school,especially thirteen-year-old Stanislovas. Dede Antanas has no luckfinding a job because of his advanced age, and he begins to worrythat he is a burden.
The family finds a paper advertising the sale of four-roomhomes for fifteen hundred dollars. Buyers need only pay three hundreddollars down and the monthly payment is twelve dollars. Ona, Marija, andTeta Elzbieta visit the real estate agent, a slick, well-dressedman who speaks Lithuanian. He tells them that the housesare going fast and that they must move quickly. Later, Ona quicklyfigures their budget, and it seems that they can make the payments.The entire family makes a trip to see the house. To their disappointment,it doesn’t look as new or big as the one in the advertisem*nt. Thebasem*nt and the attic aren’t completely finished. None of the otherhouses appear occupied. Jokubas later tells them the entire dealis probably a swindle.
Ona and Teta Elzbieta, accompanied by Jokubas, meet theagent to close the deal. Jokubas reads the contract and noticesthat it refers to the house as a “rental.” They get a lawyer butare dismayed to find that he is the agent’s friend. He tells themthat everything is in order. Ona and Teta Elzbieta close the deal.Jurgis falls into a frenzy when he returns from work and hears thedetails. He grabs the deed and storms out to find a lawyer, whoexplains that the house is merely a rental until the purchase priceis paid; the house is called a rental to make it easier to evictpeople who fail to make the monthly payments. Pacified, Jurgis returnshome.
Summary: Chapter 5
The family purchases household necessities and settleshappily into their home. The pace of work in the slaughterhouseis demanding, but Jurgis doesn’t mind; he even enjoys it. He issurprised to find that everyone else hates their jobs and theirbosses. Jurgis thinks that they are merely lazy and refuses to jointhe union, which is lobbying for a reduction in the pace of work.
One man promises Dede Antanas a job in exchange for one-third ofhis wages. Jurgis speaks to a friend and coworker, Tamoszius Kuszleika,about this practice. Tamoszius explains that corruption exists everywherein Packingtown. From the top to bottom in the chain of power, peopletake advantage of one another. It is impossible to move ahead withouttaking part in the web of graft and corruption. Despite having tosacrifice a third of his wages, Antanas takes the job. He informsthe family that he helps pack filthy meat for human consumption.
Marija learns that her job came at the expense of a fifteen-year employee.She also learns that Jonas obtained his job after his predecessordied as a result of the unsafe working conditions. Jurgis notesthat unfit meat, such as calf fetuses and animals that have died ofdisease, are butchered and packed with the rest of the meat.
Analysis: Chapters 3–5
This section continues Sinclair’s demolition of the AmericanDream as he builds his argument against capitalism and for socialism.Jurgis, who still naïvely holds onto the American Dream, views thefactories with undiluted optimism. Sinclair portrays him as utterly committedto the values of labor and family on which the American Dream isbased. Again, he attempts to make Jurgis appear sympathetic tothe average American reader. Unlike Jurgis, the more experienced Jokubasviews the entire process with sarcasm because he knows better. Heknows the corrupt owners of the vast meatpacking empire betray thevalues of the American Dream in every way possible.
The vast stockyards, packed with cattle, pigs, and sheep,demonstrate the marvelous efficiency of the economic machinery ofthe meatpacking industry. However, the animals packed into the stockyardsand herded into slaughter serve also as metaphors for the immigrantlaborers who crowd into Packingtown looking for the opportunityto earn a piece of the American Dream. Like these ill-fated animals,the unsuspecting Jurgis and other immigrants are herded into themachinery of capitalism and slaughtered en masse.
Sinclair’s description of the unsanitary and disgustingpractices of the meat-packing industry consists of a two-prongedattack. First, he details the lack of sanitation in the factoriesin order to garner sympathy for the wage laborers who must workthere. But the real impact of his exposé lies in his portrayal ofthe practice of selling diseased and rotten meat to the Americanpublic. Sinclair wants the reader to identify with the immigrantlaborer through their victimization by the same enemy. The factoryowners value their profits over the health of the workers and thepublic consumer.
The real-estate scam is another attack on capitalism.The agent lies when he says that the houses are “going fast” topressure the family into acting without considering all of the conditions.The flyer advertising the houses is misleading. Moreover, the deedspecifies that the house is a “rental” until it is paid for. Thepurpose is to make it easy to evict families when they start missingpayments. With its emphasis on maximum profit, the scheme prioritizescorporate gain at the expense of the consumer. A poor family isgiven no leeway for missed or late payments. Instead, the familyis thrown out of its home in times of financial crisis.
Tamoszius’s explanation of “graft” to Jurgis portrayscapitalism as a machine that encourages and values corruption—anyonehoping to get ahead must become corrupt. Therefore, capitalism attacks thefundamental moral idea behind the American Dream, namely that hard,honest work earns its just reward. Sinclair attempts to show that,within capitalist economics, one cannot advance by means of hardwork and a strong commitment to good social values. Instead, theenterprising individual must become a liar, thief, and predatorto keep from being exploited.
