As I read the first few chapters of the Jungle I was
surprised to find that the tone of the book is not so negative and critical as
I thought it would be. As they toured the slaughterhouse, Jurgis didn’t seem to
mind anything he saw that much and saw it as simply a job. I thought the part
where they were getting a house was very interesting, they all were so worried
of getting scammed and it reminded me of my parents, and their strong distrust
in anyone when we first moved here.
Their hesitation did make sense though, since they had already been
robbed twice when they had first arrived in America. I found the part where he
talked about the smell of the blood on a hot July day to be really disturbing
and hard to stomach. I could never imagine working in such bad conditions
everyday, and it is so heartbreaking that this is what a lot of people were and
continue t
I also wonder what awful
details we will read about the slaughterhouses in the next few weeks. With
things not really being that great in the current time, I can only imagine how
bad they were before.
o be subjected to in order to try and survive this capitalist word. The
family so far has such a positive outlook on their situation and I’m curious to
see if their outlook will change as they work at the slaughterhouse for a longer
period time.
I agree, I also expected a very negative tone to the book. It caught me off guard.
ReplyDeleteI too thought the optimism in which the first few chapters were written was interesting...
ReplyDeleteI think in chapter 5 we are already seeing Jurgis slowly give more thought to what his job is all about as the veil is slowly opened and he sees more and more of how things are.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see how the visit to the slaughterhouse in Plainwell went. I also wonder if these people ever felt it possible to move out of Chicago to find work elsewhere... though, I feel big cities back in those days were the places to be to find jobs.
ReplyDeleteI had to read chapters 14-20 and the details about the conditions of the work place and the meat that was still being sold even after it has spoiled is horrible. The family became too poor and could not afford rent and were eventually evicted from their house
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