The Jungle (Chapters 5-8)

Chapter 5

Ona

Ona has a tendency of being soft spoken, kindhearted, and gentle. She views the world with naive innocence as she embarks on her new chapter of life with Jurgis. Her fragile soul render her an easy target in survival of the fittest. As misfortune befalls upon her, she is unable to become tough and bitter. She becomes more sick after each trial. Never steering away from her innocent purity, Ona evokes a feeling of pity and despair within the reader.

Chapter 8

• The family settles down in their new home.
• They begin to purchase furniture items and decorate the house.
• Jurgis finds a job working in the killing beds.
• Unlike most laborers, He enjoys the monotonous and grotesque job.
• Anatas finds a job working in a pickling room.
• Jurgis makes new friends.
• Maija receives a job painting cans. Jonas gets a job loading hams.

"But it is not likely that he had reference to the kind of anguish that comes with destitution, that is so endlessly bitter and cruel, and yet so sordid and petty, so ugly, so humiliating-unredeemed by the slightest touch of dignity or even of pathos (Sinclair p. 80)."

• Thamoszius Kuszleika begins to come over on Sunday afternoons to play his fiddle for Marija.
• Marija accompanies Thamoszius to his events and get along well.
• Thamoszius proposes to Marija.
• Marija's wondrous marriage arrangements are cut short when she loses her job.
• Hardship arrives when the bosses force the meat packers to arrive to work, even when there is none. However, the meat packers get paid by the amount of time they actually work.
• Consequently, Jurgis's salary is cut.
• Jurgis goes to a union meeting where the leader Tommy Finnegan yelled to him in English.
• Jurgis continued to attend Union meeting and picks up words of English.

Chapter 6

• After being together for two years, Jurgis and Ona want to get married.
• Elizabieta wants to maintain Lithuanian traditions and throw a veselija for her daughter.
• The family meets the Majauszkis, another Lithuanian family. Grandmother Majauszkis tells the family about the past tenants who lived there.
• The household realizes the fact that they are forced to pay seven dollars of interest on top of the twelve dollars rent per month.
• Ona and Stanislovas are forced to get jobs in order to make ends meet.

Chapter 7

• Ona and Jurgis have their wedding with the financial help of their loved ones.
• The family had to work the day after the event to avoid losing their jobs.
• Due to the cold and wet weather, Ona has a hard time getting to work. Since Ona can not afford to ride the streetcar, she is forced to walk in the horrendous weather.
• The family gets sick from the the highly processed food that they eat.
• Anatas gets cold sores on his feet and a malignant cough from the the plant.
• After Anatas fainted at work, he was brought home to die in bed.

The Jungle (Chapters 5-8)