Characters at Work
He works in the meatpacking plants and repeats "I will work harder."
Who is Jurgis?
Term for the business of purchasing property with monthly payments.
What is a mortgage?
This object symbolizes the family’s hope for stability and success in America, even though it becomes a financial burden.
What is the house?
Workers in the meatpacking plants often face this type of physical threat from machinery.
What are cuts and amputations from sharp blades (will accept: dangerous machinery)
Immigrants like Jurgis come to America seeking this broad idea.
What is opportunity / prosperity? (will accept: a better life)
She works wrapping meat for hours each day.
Who is Ona?
Term for immigrant areas of Chicago where workers lived.
What is Packingtown?
This recurring theme shows how capitalism forces families to sacrifice childhood, comfort, and health for survival.
What is exploitation? (will accept: the cost of survival under capitalism, industrial exploitation)
Stanislovas is terrified to work in the winter because this happens to his body.
What are his joints freezing/stiffening? (will accept: frostbite or limbs freezing)
The house represents this ideal of success, stability, and belonging.
What is the American Dream?
He is a child forced to work despite freezing weather.
Who is Stanislovas?
This means to take advantage of someone unfairly.
What is exploit?
Stanislovas’s frozen joints and fear symbolize the destruction of this aspect of life for immigrant children.
What is childhood? (accept: innocence, youth, freedom)
The speed and intensity of factory work lead to this type of accident-related theme.
What is injury due to unsafe/rapid labor? (will accept: workplace accidents)
This painful reality contradicts the family’s belief that hard work guarantees stability.
What is exploitation / low wages / layoffs / debt?
He gets injured on the job, causing the family to lose income.
Who is Jurgis?
The industry term describing unsafe, rapid factory work.
What is industrial labor / meatpacking?
Jurgis’s mantra, “I will work harder,” represents this belief system that hard work alone can overcome structural oppression.
What is the American Dream? (will accept: self-reliance, meritocracy)
Jurgis temporarily loses work because of this job-related event.
What is an injury?
Name one way Sinclair shows the family’s dreams are undermined by circumstances.
Injury, housing scam, child labor, job loss, debt, illness
She manages the home and eventually enters wage labor as finances collapse.
Who is Teta Elzbieta?
Sinclair was known as this type of journalist.
What is a muckraker?
Explain how Sinclair uses the house purchase as a symbol to undermine the myth of the American Dream.
The house represents supposed success and ownership, but hidden fees and predatory contracts reveal the dream as a trap rather than an opportunity.
Explain how Sinclair uses workplace injury and cold exposure to critique industrial capitalism.
He shows that the system sacrifices workers’ health and safety for production and profit.
Explain how the housing contract symbolizes the illusion of the American Dream.
It promises ownership and success but hides predatory terms that trap immigrants in debt and insecurity.