Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite, a
young man and woman who have recently immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania,
hold their wedding feast at a bar in an area of Chicago known as
Packingtown. The couple and several relatives have come to Chicago
in search of a better life, but Packingtown, the center of Lithuanian
immigration and of Chicago’s meatpacking industry, is a hard, dangerous,
and filthy place where it is difficult to find a job. After the
reception, Jurgis and Ona discover that they are more than a hundred
dollars in debt to the saloonkeeper. In Lithuania, custom dictates
that guests at a wedding-feast leave money to cover the cost, but
in America, many of the impoverished immigrants depart from the feast
without leaving any money. Jurgis, who has great faith in the American
Dream, vows that he will simply work harder to make more money.
Jurgis, who is young and energetic, quickly finds work,
as do Marija Berczynskas, Ona’s cousin, and Jonas, the brother of
Ona’s stepmother, Teta Elzbieta. The family signs an agreement to
buy a house, but it turns out to be a swindle; the agreement is
full of hidden costs, and the house is shoddy and poorly maintained.
As the family’s living expenses increase, even Ona and young Stanislovas, one
of Teta Elzbieta’s children, are forced to look for jobs. Jobs in Packingtown
involve back-breaking labor, however, conducted in unsafe conditions
with little regard for individual workers. Furthermore, the immigrant
community is fraught with crime and corruption. Jurgis’s father,
Dede Antanas, finds a job only after agreeing to pay another man
a third of his wages for helping him obtain the job. But the job
is too difficult for the old man, and it quickly kills him.
Winter is the most dangerous season in Packingtown and
even Jurgis, forced to work in an unheated slaughterhouse in which
it is difficult to see, risks his life every day by simply going
to work. Marija is courted by Tamoszius, a likable violinist, but
the couple is never able to marry because they never have enough
money to hold a wedding. Marija’s factory closes down and she loses
her job. Distressed about the terrible conditions of his family
members’ lives, Jurgis joins a union and slowly begins to understand
the web of political corruption and bribery that makes Packingtown
run. Hoping to improve his lot, Jurgis begins trying to learn English.
Marija regains her job, but she is fired when she complains about
being cheated out of some of her pay. Ona is now pregnant, and her
job has become increasingly difficult for her. Her supervisor, Miss Henderson,
oversees a prostitution ring, and most of the other girls at the
factory are made to be prostitutes. Ona gives birth to a healthy boy,
whom she and Jurgis name Antanas after Jurgis’s late father, but
she is forced to return to work only seven days later.
In Packingtown, any mishap can bring ruin upon a family.
Jurgis sprains his ankle and is forced to spend nearly three months
in bed, unable to work. Even though poor working conditions caused
the accident, the factory simply cuts off Jurgis’s pay while he
recuperates. Unable to tolerate the misery, Jonas abandons the family,
disappearing without a word. Kristoforas, the youngest son of Teta Elzbieta,
dies of food poisoning. Jurgis at last recovers and returns to work,
but the factory refuses to give him his job back. After a long,
frustrating search for employment, Jurgis is forced to take a job
at the fertilizer plant, the foulest place in all of Packingtown.
He begins to numb himself with alcohol.
Ona is pregnant again. One night, she doesn’t return home
from work, and Jurgis discovers that Phil Connor, her boss, kept
her after work and forced her to sleep with him. Jurgis attacks
Connor and is arrested. After an unfair trial, Jurgis is sentenced
to a month in prison; the family will again be forced to scrape
by without his wages. In prison, Jurgis befriends a criminal named
Jack Duane. When he is released, Jurgis discovers that his family
has been evicted from its home and is living at the run-down boardinghouse
in which they first stayed when they arrived in Chicago. When he
enters the boardinghouse, he finds Ona screaming; she is prematurely
in labor, and the effort of giving birth kills her and the child.
In agony, Jurgis disappears on a drinking binge.
At last, Teta Elzbieta convinces Jurgis to think of his
son, and he again begins searching for a job. Through the philanthropy
of a wealthy woman who takes an interest in the family, Jurgis finds
a good job at a steel mill. He dedicates himself to Antanas and
feels renewed hope in life. But his hopes are shattered when Antanas drowns
in the mud-logged street. In despair, Jurgis abandons his surviving
family members and wanders the countryside as a tramp.
In the winter, Jurgis returns to Chicago, where he finds
a job digging freight tunnels. After injuring himself at work, he
is forced to spend some time in the hospital. When he is released,
he has no money and cannot find work, so he becomes a beggar. One
night, a wealthy young man named Freddie Jones gives him a one-hundred-dollar
bill, but when Jurgis asks a bartender to change it for him, the man
cheats him, giving him ninety-five cents back. Jurgis attacks the man
and is again sent to jail. In prison, he meets Jack Duane again. When
the two men are released, Jurgis becomes Duane’s partner, and the
two commit burglaries and muggings. Jurgis is eventually recruited
to work for the corrupt political boss, Mike Scully. When a series
of strikes hits Packingtown, Jurgis crosses the picket lines, undermining
the efforts of the union but making a great deal of money as a scab.
One day, Jurgis sees Phil Connor again and attacks him.
He is again sent to prison and, because Connor is a crony of Mike
Scully, Jurgis’s meager political connections do not help him. After
being released, he is forced to live on charity. By this time, Jurgis
has completely lost touch with his family. One day, however, he
meets an old acquaintance who tells him how to find Marija. He learns
that Marija has become a prostitute to help support Teta Elzbieta
and the children. She is also addicted to morphine. Jurgis wants
to see Teta Elzbieta again but not until he finds a good job.
One night, his spirit all but crushed by privation and
misery, Jurgis wanders into a socialist political rally, in which
an orator delivers a speech that fills Jurgis with inspiration.
Jurgis joins the socialist party and embraces its ideal that the
workers—not a few wealthy capitalists—should own factories and plants.
Jurgis finds a job as a porter at a socialist-run hotel and is reunited
with Teta Elzbieta. He attends a socialist rally in which the speaker
sums up Jurgis’s new beliefs: if more people convert to socialism,
the speaker declares, then “Chicago will be ours!”
