Jurgis: A 20th century migrant worker

Chapters 21 through 26 fulfill all of the foreshadowing of gloom present in the first five chapters. Many things have changed since the innocent, naïve, Jurgis, Ona, and their family arrived in Chicago. Jurgis has lost his job at the slaughterhouse because an injury prevented him from working for three months and his employers won’t take him back. Ona died during the premature labor of their second child and Jurgis is weary and embittered. After his child drowns in the street, Jurgis deserts Teta  Elzbieta and the family, becoming a tramp. Even after everything Jurgis has suffered physically and emotionally, he is still a fine worker and the farms where he pays for meals all offer him seasonal work. Jurgis, now no stranger to the ways of the system, refuses, knowing he will be out of work as soon as the winter comes.

While Jurgis is traversing the countryside, he meets many tramps some who work, but many of whom beg or steal. Jurgis has reached the point where he knows that as an honest man and worker he will never get ahead. This point reached, he does whatever he can to survive.

The necessity of winter forces Jurgis back to Chicago where he finds work digging freight tunnels. After another injury and a hospital stay, he again loses his job and becomes a beggar. When a rich and very drunk young man gives Jurgis one hundred dollars, Jurgis can’t believe that something actually worked out. This feeling quickly dissolves when in the attempt to get change; Jurgis is swindled by a bartender. After a fine and a short jail stay, Jurgis encounters Jack Duanne again, and the two partner in a life of burglary and crime.

This leads to working for a corrupt political boss, and enables him to earn eleven dollars a week, go to music halls, saloons and to ‘wear a linen collar’. His life settles into a routine until he happens upon Phil Conner, the man who raped his wife. Attacking the man and beating him lands Jurgis into trouble again, losing his job, and all meager political connections.

In the earlier section of this reading, Jurgis’s travels through the country, encountering farms that will turn him off the minute the harvest is in is so reminiscent of migrant workers today and our class discussions. After our discussions and this reading, I think one of the greatest crimes against humanity is withholding the fruits of a person's labor and not giving them what they have rightfully earned. How horrible that this continues today.