Jurgis Rudkus Chapter Summaries

This story follows the journey of Jurgis Rudkus, his new wife Ona, and her family in the Packingtown district of Chicago, Illinois. Arriving from Lithuania, Jurgis imminently finds himself a job in one of Chicago’s meat packing factories where he was happy working on one of the killing floors. With the help of an agent, they were able to get a loan and use the money that they saved in order to buy a house. Seeing how none of them knew much English they were swindled into agreeing to a loan without knowing the meaning of a loan. The children had to leave school to get a job so that the family could make ends meet. Although they were near poverty, Jurgis was still able to smile. He was around his family and his precious Ona. He and the rest of them were lucky enough to still have their jobs. Jurgis was even beginning to learn English from his some of the union members. More importantly to Jurgis, Ona gave birth to his first son, Antanas. …show more content…
Jurgis sprained his ankle at work, forcing him to stay in bed for three months. After he recovered from his injury, Jurgis found that his job on the killing floor was no longer available to him. Forcing him to take the most vulgar and sickening jobs in Packingtown, in the fertilizer plant. After taking this job Jurgis began drink alcohol to numb his body of the smell. Just as things began to look up for the family, Jurgis learned that Ona was forced to have sex multiple times with one of the bosses at the meat factory, she even got impregnated by him. This caused Jurgis to go into a frenzy, and attack the man. Resulting in Jurgis going to jail, the family losing the house because they could no longer afford it, and Jurgis was blacklisted from the meat factory. But worst of all both Ona and Antanas died, Ona died giving birth and Antans died playing in a flooded