Jungle Upton Siclair

In Chicago, they live in a polluted and corrupt slum. Part of their neighborhood, Packingtown, is built upon a garbage dump, and that entire part of the city reeks of garbage and is filled with flies. Jurgis and Ona still feel as though they have much potential in this new land, however. Jurgis goes to the meatpacking plant and immediately finds a job sweeping blood and innards from slaughtered cattle through a drain. The work is very hard and the conditions are very unsafe, but Jurgis is strong and stubborn and cannot understand any man who is not thankful for the opportunity to have work and to earn a living. Many of the workers are bitter about their working conditions, however.

The packinghouses are dirty and unsanitary places where every part of the animal is used to make a profit. Often, spoiled meat will be marked as good and sent out for sale. Many of the old or rotten pieces of animals are sold, and even the refuse from drainage is thrown into the pile of meat to be canned or made into sausage. In some of the factories, dead rats are added to the meat. The workers do not care and the factory bosses do everything they can to speed up the production of the meat. Often the factories will hire extra workers just to keep wages down. There are always more men looking for jobs than there are jobs to give, so most men only make a few cents per hour.

The family sees an advertisement for a house to buy, and they decide that it will be worth their money to buy instead of throwing away their money on rent every month. The house is advertised as new, though it does not look that way, and the real estate agent is a slick man and sells it to them for only a few hundred dollars down. The family balks at the contract, however, when it says that they will only be renting the house, but several lawyers tell them that this is standard and that after seven years of payments they will own the house.