Literature Log for Chapter 9
Chapter nine is a chapter in which a lot of the
meat packing plants hidden practices are revealed. The chapter started
off with Jurgis wanting to learn English. This was a result of him going
to the union meetings. He also learns about democracies and elections.
This was one of the best chapters in the book because
of the depth the Upton Sinclair goes into while describing what goes on
in the meat packing factories.
First he describes “Bubbly Creek.” “Bubbly Creek
is an arm of the Chicago River and all of the drainage from the packing
houses empties into it. He says that what it really is is “a great open
sewer a hundred or two feet wide.” Sinclair goes on to describe the
gasses that rise from it and the “grease and filth” that occupy its boundaries.
The words that he chooses to use are so descriptive that the reader feels
as if he can see and smell the creek.
After describing the creek, Sinclair goes onto the
factory. This is where it gets really interesting. When reading the first
eight chapters one thinks that the packing houses are just operations that
aren’t kept up condition wise by the owners. However, upon reading the
ninth chapter, the reader can see that there is really a criminal-like
genius behind the whole operation.
The one hundred and sixty meat inspectors that were working were appointed
by the packers and were paid by the United States to keep all of the diseased
meat in the state. The majority of the steers that were brought into the
building had some sort of problem. Some of them were covered in boils,
some had tuberculosis, and some of the meat that was sold had been sitting
in cellars for years! As bad as that is, it gets worse. The men that worked
in the pickle room had to be extremely careful as to what they touched
because if they so much as pricked their finger, there was a great possibility
that they would lose their life because of the amount of germs that infested
that room. The beef boners and trimmers were in even worse shape. Most
of them didn't have thumbs and all of them had a multitude of cuts and
slashes mapping their hands. Fingernails were a scarcity because most of
them had been worn off pulling hides. The wool pluckers could only keep
a job for a limited amount of time because the wool that they were supposed
pick off was painted with acid so that it would come off easier and that
would eat through the worker's hands until there was nothing left.
The list goes on and by the time one finishes the
chapter, they have a new found respect for the people living back in those
days. The reader can see that the hardships came from every single direction
and that there was barely any time to enjoy the "great" world that the
characters thought they were going to be living in.