eat preserving plants, the floors were never dry. The workers would catch horrible foot diseases, causing them to loose toes andeventually entire legs. The butchers would be forced to move at a blinding pace, often cutting themselves and others. They would still have to work though, or loose their job. Often, the wounds would become infected, and the butcher would die of blood poisoning.The book discusses all the things that were being shipped out to the civilized world as “meat”. Sausages were not really made of sausage meat. They were mostly composed of “potato flour”; an odorless and tasteless potato extract with almost no food value. There were the cattle that had been fed “whiskey malt”; the refuse of breweries. These animals would become “steerly”, or covered with boils. “It was a nasty job killing these, for when you plunged you knife into them they would burst and splash foul-smelling stuff in your face,” (The Jungle, page 99). According to law, diseased meat could not be sold out of the state. However, there were no laws restricting it’s sale inside the state. As a result, the tuberculosis-infected hog meat never left Packingtown. It was sold to the meat workers at inflated prices.There are many characters in The Jungle. These characters vary widely in their professions, social status, and economic status. The main character in the novel is a Lithuanian named Jurgis Rudkus. I think he was an O.K. guy, but in the end, I can see what he did. His wife is Ona Lukoszaite, also a Lithuanian. I thought she did the right thing, about the problems with Connor. They have a son named Antanas. Mike Scully is a powerful political leader in Packingtown. Phil Connor is a foreman in Packingtown, “politically connected” (through Scully), and a man who causes much trouble for Jurgis. I didn’t like him because of what he did to Ona. Jack Duane is an experienced a...
