28 && 29

Chapter 28:
In this chapter, thankfully Marija and Jurgis get freed from jail. And then we discover that Marija is addicted to morphine; I can't believe this! How can she even afford to be addicted to a drug. It's really sad that she resulted to prostitution. Eeeew. Marija then gives Jurgis Teta Elizabeth's address and he will go visit her when he finds a job. He comes to realize that he is afraid to go see Teta because he abondoned the family after his sn died. As he is pondering this in a politacal meeting room, he dozes off. But then a women urges him to listen to the speeches. While listening he is happy to hear that this is a good political speech, and the party agrees with all of his views! He is so elated! Yay
Chapter 29:
After listening to this Jurgis finds someone to ask about the political party. The man explains that party has two economic classes. He also explains that the workes must gain workers consciousness. Ostrinki explains socialism as well, and explains it as the "new religion" of humanity. This chapter is just Jurgis learning of this new political party in his life and he is happy to know there is something that he agrees with completely!

26 && 27

Chapter 26:
In this chapter a strike begins at Jurgis's job. This amazes me because he is recieving three dollars a day, wich means he's doing nothing and he argued to receive that wage. In this chapter descrimination takes place against the union leaders, which causes another strike. Jurgis is the boss of the killing beds, which is suprising.
Later on Jurgis come upon a man Phill Connor in Packingtown, and attacks him. Jurgis is a violent man. He has changed so much from the beginning of the novel. He goes to jail to find that connor is one of Scully's favorites. UH OH. Jurgis pays his pail, is poor, and moves to the other end of Chicago.
Chapter 27:
Jurgis begins begging for a job. Its hard for him to live in such run down places because he had previously had much money and he wenty from all, to nothing. I bet that would be really hard if I was in his positing as well. He finds someone that he knew before, and she gave him the address to see Marija. This made me very excited for him to go see his family finally! Sadly, the family ends up having a horrible story, which should be no suprise, and Jurgis once again spends another night in jail.

23, 24, 25

Chapter 23:
Jurgis goes back to Chicago in the fall, and finds a job. It is digging underground tunnels. I bet that must have been a very scary and challenging job. Jurgis didn't even realize the purpose of his job, until a year after working at it. The purpose was to break the power of the teamster's union. Jurgis broke his arm during an accident at work and spent his Christmas in the hospital. After he was permitted to leave the hospital, Jurgis came to find is was the middle of Winter, and he attended a religious gathering just to keep warm. His life is pitiful, and sad.


Chapter 24:
The same winter, Jurgis is hiding in saloons, searching and competing for a warm place to stay. The competition for a job had never been more extreme, and as Jurgis is at a saloon, he happens upon a very rich young man, named Freddie Jones. Jones invites Jurgis to stay at his place and gives him a 100 dollar bill for the cab, and tells him to keep the change. After eating a hearty meal at Jones' place, he realized his father was the owner of Jurgis' very first job at a factory. He also comes to find that Freddie's father is known as "Jone's the packer". Freddie falls asleep and just as this happens, the butler tells Jurgis to leave, because he doesn't approve of him. I wonder How Jurgis felt seeing the life of a man completely on the other side of the spectrum.


Chapter 25:
In the beginning of this chapter, Jurgis is wanting change for the hundred dollar bill he acquired. He takes it to a saloon and the man cheats him and takes all of his money. Out of anger, Jurgis attacks the bar tender, then gets sent to prison for ten days. The judges find his story comical and do not believe him. In jail he realizes that the life of a criminal is the way to go, so Jurgis begins doing many crimes, that including political schemes. Near the end of the chapter, it tells that Jurgis now has a job, as a hog trimmer. When the Republican candidate is elected, Jurgis becomes 300 dollars richer and guess what he does? Goes on a drinking binge. Very intelligent of you Jurgis.

20, 21, 22

Chapter 20:
In this chapter Jurgis begins looking for a job, for his son's sake. The book then reveals that he is not capable of receiving a job any where in Packingtown because he is blacklisted. This family just cannot catch any good luck, is what I was thinking, until Jurgis found a job two weeks later. Thanks to his acquaintance,  it was at a factory with MUCH better conditions than previous work. After reading this I was so pleased and excited for Jurgis, for him getting a job and beginning to learn English, until the section of the factory that Jurgis worked in was about to be closed down until further notice. How devastating.


Chapter 21:
Because of Jurgis' lack of job, the children's income must keep the family from starving. I can't imagine what it would be like if my family's survival depended on me working. That is just crazy. Things begin looking up once again in this chapter, only to end horribly again. The crippled child goes to the dump in search for food, where he finds a rich lady that is curious about his life style. She graciously write Jurgis a letter of recommendation for a job at a steel mill that her fiance owns. Because the job is far away, he must only come home on the weekends to spend time with his baby that he loves so dearly. One weekend he comes home, only to find that his child had died. It really is appalling how terrible these people's lives are and how that can just continue to get worse and worse and worse.


Chapter 22:
Jurgis is devastated at the death of his son, and at the first glance of his dead body, he leaves without one word. Jurgis goes to the country by train. The air, and calmness is just a breath of fresh air for him. He cleans his clothes in a near by stream, then finds a farmhouse and tries to buy food, but the owner refuses to sell food to a "tramp". Jurgis finds a kind farmer that gaurunteed him a job till November and let him sleep in the farm, but Jurgis takes down the offer because he wants work all winter long. He then explains the struggle of finding a job in the city during the winter season. Later on, Jurgis works for two weeks, and receives a considerable amount of money, that previously, would have meant a fortune to him. Sadly, he spent it all in one night on alcohol, and women. This is so incredibly frustrating to me, because he finally had a chance to do something good, and he caught a stream of good luck, but he just wasted it.

Reading over Turkey Breakkkkk

After reading the section that we were assigned of the Jungle, I am a bit overwhelmed because of all that happened. At first, everything was going really well for the family, which made me pleased because in previous chapters they had been so devestated, but then things took a turn for the worse. The family began comprehending the evil doings of the factory, for they all worked in such varied areas they could see all the crime being done. Jurgis was sent to jail, grandpa dies, and they have no money, nor food. It explains the terrible things happening to the women as well. This reading fooled me at the beginning thinking things were going to be okay, but in the end everthing is just going terribly for them. It was really sad to read this and I can't imagine what it would be like to be in this family's position. I get hungry going from breakfast, to sitting in school waiting for the clock to strike 11:15. I truly can't imagine what it would be like to be poor or starving and I feel so terrible for this family. It saddens my heart that all of this is true. Reading sad strories is one thing, but reading novels based on true events that are sad is very depressing, and I don't like what I'm reading. I really don't. :(

Moby Dick: Chapter 1

After reading Moby Dick, I regret picking this book. I feel as if this is going to be a very dry and boring novel about a man named Ishmael. He feels as his its going to be a freezing November so he is going to sail from New York to New Bedford, in search of a great adventure. I feel as if Ishmael and all of the other men are going to die or go through many hardships on their adventure. I’m hoping that maybe Mr. Boyd would possibly let me switch books. I am interested in reading The Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Blake and Jenny are reading that and it looks very interesting and I would like to buy that book. I am not expecting Moby Dick to be very exciting, because what I have read is very lengthy and does not tickle my fancy. During chapter two the book mentions Ishmael stumbling into a church full of weeping African Americans. I wonder if the sermon being preached about the blackness of darkness, was a bit of foreshadowing that during Ishmael’s voyage, he will stumble upon something dark. Not only does he stumble into this, but an inn with an ominous name, “Spouter-Inn” owned by an even creepier name, Peter Coffin. I feel that there is about to be something bad to happen. I really don not like reading this book it is sooooo incredibly boring. If you are reading this Mr. Boyd, please let me switch books!

The Jungle; Chapters 4, 5, & 6

Reading chapter four was exciting. I enjoyed seeing Jurgis so proud of himself for obtaining a job. He was a sweeper in the killing beds. It is a simple job and Jurgis was very jubilant to begin work. In chapter four the family also made a very big decision. They decided to buy a house that they saw on an advertisement. Although the house was very different than the paper illustrated, they bought it. They weren’t sure about the decision they had made and were very frightened it was a scam. This chapter amazed me at how fast they began their lives in America.

Chapter five begins with the family beginning to furnish their new home. I noticed in this chapter that the picture advertisements were very smart and successful for immigrants, and was a smart business trap. I liked in this chapter how the book described to the reader what they ate. That amused me, because I was pondering their diet, while reading in earlier chapters. This is the chapter where Jurgis discovers that good people fail in life, and the evil prevail. It is eye opening to Jurgis, and he doesn’t like being apart of the bad people. I feel bad for him because he was so excited about getting a job, and he now realizes that it is in a way, very bad.

Chapter six begins with telling us that Jurgis and Ona are very in love. This is about the only content statement in the chapter. Sadly, a woman from the neighborhood tells the family that the house was meant to be a scam, and they are going to begin to charge interest on top of the monthly rent. Because of this, Ona must get a job as well as the child. It was very depressing to see how disappointed the family was, but they all found jobs, and they will be okay, money wise.

This reading was very easy for me to understand, and it really suprised me how much they had to walk, and carry all of their new things for miles on foot. I can't imagine what that would be like.