es. This is terrible news, for the family has yet to pay off the wedding costs. Jurgis, always strong, is not distraught. He simply looks to the future and thinks to himself, “I will work harder,” just as he says whenever things look bad.Jurgis becomes even more committed to supporting the family when Ona and Jurgis’ first child arrives. They name the baby boy Antanas, after Jurgis’ father. Unfortunately Jurgis sprains his ankle at work one day and when he is finally able to return there is no place for him any longer. He is forced to work in the fertilizer mill, the worst place a man can work. Now that things are becoming so difficult, Jurgis begins to drink as well as grow apart from Ona. After coming home late a number of times Jurgis finds out that Ona has been raped by her boss, Connor. In a mad rage, Jurgis runs to Ona’s workplace and severely beats Connor. Jurgis is sent to jail and sentenced to thirty days in prison. This would not have been so devastating except for the fact that the whole family loses their jobs because of the word spread by Connor. There is nothing he can do but sit in his cell and wonder as the family struggles without him.When Jurgis is finally released from prison, he walks twenty miles back to Packingtown only to find that the house has been sold and Ona is giving birth two months early in a dirty boarding house. Sadly, the midwife Jurgis begs to help him can neither save Ona nor the baby. Jurgis is reminded that his son is depending on him, but he knows he has been blacklisted by Connor and cannot find work. Luckily, one of the children meets a social worker that helps Jurgis find a job at a steel mill. Just as Jurgis begins to settle into a new life, he returns home one day to find his only reason for living, his Antanas, has died in a freak accident. This is the final straw for Jurgis. Stricken with grief and horror, Jurgis jumps on the first rail car he ...
