She breaks into tears and tells Jurgis that a foreman named Connor has forced a sexual relationship on her. Jurgis curses her and runs off to find Connor.After beating Connor to a pulp, Jurgis is sent to jail for thirty days. The judge refuses to listen to Jurgis’s story seriously. When Jurgis is released, he finds that his family has moved to an even poorer neighborhood, and Ona is in labor at that very moment. Neither the baby, nor Ona, who went into labor two months early, survive. Jurgis pulls himself together for the sake of Antanas and gets a job. When Antanas drowns in the mud-filled street, Jurgis gives up on Packingtown and his family. He hops aboard a passing train, and leaves Chicago.Jurgis enjoys a “hobo” life, wandering across the country. When winter comes, he is forced to return to Chicago. He gets into a fight in a bar and is sent to jail. In jail, he meets Jack Duane, an experienced criminal. After being freed from jail, Jurgis and Duane team up in a luxurious, but risky life of crime. Jurgis learns about the connections between criminals, police, politics, and big business. He becomes a member of this complex network and moves into politics. He runs into Connor again, and beats him to a pulp a second time. Connor’s politicalconnections cause Jurgis to lose all his acquired profit. Jurgis is back to wandering the streets.To keep warm, Jurgis walks into a Socialist meeting. After the meeting, he is introduced to a man named Ostrinski, who teaches Jurgis about Socialism. Jurgis agrees completely with the political party’s ideals, and becomes an active member. As the story ends, the results of an election are being received. The novel concludes on a positive note, showing that the Socialist party made significant progress all across the country.This book describes the horrors of the meat packing industry in great detail. People were forced to work from before sunrise to after sunset. In the m...
