The Jungle

What is the nature of Ona's conflict with her forelady, Mrs. Henderson? What may this situation foreshadow for Ona in the upcoming chapters, especially knowing that Marija's experience has taught Ona not to "forget her place"?

chapter ten.

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Ona has her own difficulties with her work. Her forelady, Miss Henderson, does not like Ona because she is “a decent married girl.” Miss Henderson was given her position because of an affair she carries on with one of the other foremen. She also runs a brothel at which some of the girls from the packing plant work. Though Ona is disgusted by such places, she knows that for many of the women in Packingtown there is “no place a girl could go...where a prostitute could not get along better than a decent girl.” Packingtown is a colony of poor, starving immigrants, all under the “whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave-drivers.” One fears for Ona who is headstrong that she might fall into the same pit as many other immigrant women.

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