The Jungle Ch 6-13

I really liked that I could continue reading this book without any gaps in knowledge.
I really can't believe that the family had no idea that they were getting swindled. It took their little old lady neighbor to tell them. They now know that their rent will be closer to 20 dollars. We would kill for 20 dollar rent now a days. Jurgis and his family also find out that their new house is made of not so good materials and that it is 15 years old. The fact that Jurgis's wife and his son have to get jobs to even attempt to support the family is crazy. It is because the major wa
ge earners in past families have been killed or become seriously ill. That doesn't say good things about the working conditions in Packingtown.
You see Jurgis's family begin to get sick and not be able to take work off in the start of chapter 7. They have to keep going to work because they need to be able to afford their house. The working conditions only get worse in Packingtown because of the snow and the lack of heat. This causes so many men to become alcoholics. To me this seems like s
uch a bad idea, like why would they want to do this if they know that money is already tight for them. It makes me happy to see that Jurgis will resist the temptation so he can provide a great life for his wife.
In chapter 8 Jurgis's daughter Marjia begins to date Tamoszius, he is a fiddle player and uses his music to liven up this families life. It helps uplift the family and helps them to forget the poverty that they are facing on a daily basis. As the courtship continues, Tamoszius proposes to Marjia and she says yes. They will live with the family in the attic. I know that the time this is something that many people did, but I could not imagine being newly married and still living with my parents. What I think causes this is Marjia's factory that she works at closes down. Also Jurgis gets a cut on his hours. This is something that so many of us can relate to. It's hard when a family member goes through this. They all join unions. To me unions can be a good and a bad thing.
In chapter 9 Jurgis begins to learn english and he will then become a U.S. citizen. This is great because now they cannot look at him as an immigrant he is now in my own opinion their equal. He was before but now they cannot look down upon him, they never had that right but now they should have no excuse. Sadly they still take advantage of him and tell him how to vote and who to vote for. He get's paid two dollars for his trouble but this is not a good thing. He doesn't find out until after he goes through all the voting that he had been used and abused by the man. He learns that his company makes meat that is not healthy for the people, that they are using sick cow meat.
Chapter 10 Jurgis finally gets a backbone and goes to the land lord and asks for all the hidden expenses. He gets the breakdown of all that he spends on expenses for his house. The seasons change, all it does is rain in the spring and in the summer the factory is extremely hot. I really hate how Packingtown works because Jurgis's daughter gets her job back and loses it 2 months later. I mean what the heck? This girl is a hard worker but why not just keep her on. His wife hates where she works because she works with a lot of prostitutes. Jurgis and his wife have another child, a baby boy. They already had 12 mouths to feed, why not make it 13. Ona has to return a week after having a baby, this will kill her health and the baby boys.
In chapter 11 they learn that banks aren't always safe for their money. Marjia puts her money in the bank and then she learns that their is a run on the bank. So for her to save her money in the safest way possible she sews her money into her clothes.
I feel bad for Jurgis and his family in Chapter 12 because Jurgis sprains his ankle and can't work for 3 months, this has got to be hard on his family. He begins to take out his anger on his family. They send Jonas's little boys to go work in the newspaper areas so that they can learn the tricks of the trade.
In the final chapter I have to read, chapter 13, I think it is sad that most of the family is happy when a family member dies. Only one person is sad, I understand that this person was a cripple, but they should be sad that he has passed. Jurgis will not help pay for the funeral. I had respect for him in the beginning but slowly I am losing respect for him.