What a sad, sad ending to a sad, sad book. Jurgis cannot work because he is crippled and weak. Having not read the previous chapters, I do not know exactly what happened to him. (I hate skipping around in books, especially ones that are quite so dramatic!) He turns to begging, but has little success. Jurgis is not the only one struggling in this economy. Many people are out of work and out of food - it was a harsh time in Chicago. He caught a glimpse of hope when he was hired off the street one day. Then, like always with Jurgis, his hopes were crushed when he was fired for being too weak to complete his work. How does one live on with such a depressing life? Jurgis searches for Marija and finds that she has become a prostitute addicted to morphine. Her addiction is so strong, that she is convinced she cannot leave her new profession because she does not want to go without her drugs. She will be a prostitute for the rest of her life. Prostitution and drug addiction go hand in hand, and both are very cyclical hardships.
Stanislovas dies by being attacked my rats in an oil factory. So disturbing. Just like the rest of this book, I suppose.
Politics become a major idea in the end of this story. Jurgis is extremely interested in listening to speakers at political events. He lands a job as a comrade with a man named Ostrinksi. They talk about capitalism and revolution. In the end, he hopes for socialism.
"CHICAGO WILL BE OURS!"
It is crazy how much Jurgis lost by moving to "the land of the free." SPOILERS: his wife dies, his baby son drowns in the street, his friends are run out of town, and now all of this. And he kept going to find a job a live. What a crazy man...or determined.
ReplyDeleteI read the last part of the book also and I was all sorts of confused. I didn't like reading the end because I missed out on every other part of the book.
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