The Jungle- Thanksgiving Break Read

A sure lot happened in this 130 or so page read we were assigned. Things looked bright at first, when they all had jobs, less the younger children and Teta, and they were making the rent and interest, and had a little left over for food, but none to spend leisurely. I found this to be saddening and hope never to live like this, but soon this life seems much better in comparison to their life a few chapters later. Events transpire and they start to starve, some characters die off, and they end up losing the house and everything they've worked for here in America.
Now that most of the characters have jobs in different places of the packing industry, they begin to piece together all the swindles and crime the industry has committed. They soon know exactly what is wrong, all the while slowly dieing inside from exhaustion. With this there are few options. The father was so worn out through this he caught a sickness and eventually died from it. Ona's brother Jonas was said to have taken his pay and left without warning, though it is possible this is the industry hiding an accident. This is how things start to go downhill and when Jurgis is sent to jail, its like an, i dunno, snowball effect.  The family has no money, no food, and when Jurgis becomes free discovers no home.
This is an awful life to live, just living to survive everyday, and I'm not sure whats worse, dieing of exhaustion and starvation, or living well knowing your loved ones are dieing. Jurgis questioned this while he was in prison.
In the final chapter, something happens that changes Jurgis' world forever. Ona, while delivering her baby, passes on and in Jurgis' arms. At this point I'm not sure what Jurgis is gonna do, since it seemed as if he was living for Ona. Also i have come to not like this story at all. Tragedy after tragedy, i cant take it. Its so sad and I'm quite sure its not gonna change. I'm still interested, just maybe a happy ending would be nice.
Questions-
1. Is there no law or safety inspector in the area?
2. Who was that lady at the end anyways? How could she have helped Ona?
3. Why did the judge send Jurgis to jail with the only evidence being Connor's word? That doesnt seem right...
4. Why on earth would Jurgis bite a chunk out of Connor's face? Thats weird..
5. How could America let people live like this? Thats rediculous.

A Farewell to Arms

I began reading "A Farewell to Arms" by Earnest Hemingway. I chose to read this novel because last trimester I read another one of his novels, and was interested to read more of his work. The story is about a war through the eyes of an American in the Italian army who drives an ambulance. I know from reading the back cover that this is taking place during world war I, but that’s pretty much all I know about the war.
The main character is an American, but joined the Italian army since he was in Italy at the time and knew Italian. He told this story to a Miss Barkley, the so called future wife of his friend and roommate, lieutenant Rinaldi. Miss Barkley was engaged to another man before, but he was killed in the army. Miss Barkley became a nurse when he enlisted hoping that someday he might come in with a bullet wound in the shoulder, saying how romantic or picturesque that would be, but he never did come home.
I thought that was a little sad and it begin to shows how war hurts people. At least Miss Barkley has found someone else, but he is enlisted as well as a surgeon, so things might not change, but get worse. The book has a slow beginning but once it gets started I think it will be interesting and I look forward to that. I also think war stories are interesting to read about, because with action usually comes with war as well as drama, which both are very interesting to read about. So good book I think. Also I like Hemingway, so yea, its going to be good.

The Jungle ch. 4-7

I thought that at the beginning of this reading, that things were going good for the family. They now had the necessary jobs to sustain themselves and own their own house. They were upset that the deed said rental, but if they make their payments the house will be theirs nonetheless. Their jobs bring home the bacon, but it doesn’t seem that anyone enjoys them other than Jurgis. He spoke with others who have been working harder that said that they hated their jobs and their bosses, and therefore life for them was miserable. That’s too bad for them, but at least Jurgis is content. He shows up, does his work, gets paid, and goes home, minding his own business. This is a quality that he thought would get him places in America and so far has, but later he begins to realize that his type doesn’t move up in the world at all.

                Not only are their jobs not what they were cracked up to be, but their house deed and something in it that they did not discover until it was too late. Interest was to be paid and resulted in Ona and one of the children to get jobs. The agent didn’t tell them about this, which was wrong and was another way to swindle these people. That’s how you move up in America, and the characters are soon learning this.

                Generally stories only get worse at this point, and seeing as new things keep arising, I predict more will soon. Mr. J mentioned that some characters die, which means things definitely will be getting worse for the family as Sinclair describes the evil of the meatpacking industry and begins to bring in the idea of Socialism.

Questions/Comments

1.       Why did Antanas, being an older member of the family, buy in to hating his job much faster than younger Jurgis?

2.       Was there a “minimum wage” back then?

3.       How did the health inspectors miss how unsanitary the plants were? Or was there a different definition of sanitary back then?

4.       With little money they’re making, how do they even afford food for everyone living in that house?

5.       Comment: I don’t think it was right for the real estate agent to not tell them there would be interest on the house.