Chapter 1

In chapter 1, we meet a lot of new characters at the wedding feast, or veselija, held for Ona and Jurgis in Chicago. The characters are Lithuanian and the feast is held according to Lithuanian customs. The author seems to focus a lot on the music played in this chapter, and although the musicians aren't that great everyone seems to enjoy the music played, but he particularly went int great detail describing Tamoszius.

"Now and then one leaps up with a cry and calls for this song or that, and then the fire leaps brighter in Tamoszius's eyes, and he flings up his fiddle and shouts to his companions, and away they go in mad career."

This passage is just one of the few in this chapter that go to describing the music played. The way Sinclair describes Tamoszius reminds me much of the Tasmanian Devil. He is small and full of life and spreads energy and wildness into everyone around him, but he does so through music. He is almost like a puppeteer and he controls the other people in the room by using the energy of his music.

Despite the whole veselija being held to Lithuanian customs down to the music, the people all dance to their own liking. People do the dance that the prefer to any song. This is somewhat of a symbol of the freedom that the Lithuanian people receive by moving to America. Some people pick up American style dances but some stick to tradition.

Sinclair uses many different ways to really describe the characters and he does so in such great detail. He calls Marija a horse and we see this broad muscular woman that carries meat cans all day. In describing the characters in chapter 1, we get bits and pieces of what this book is going to be about, the meat industry.

The veselija is like a representation of socialistic ideas in this time. The idea that everyone helps out and contributes what they can to try and get the poor out of the hole they are in. The link above is a link to Socialism in America. On this site it states:
"Socialism is the belief and the hope that by proper use of government power, men can be rescued from their helplessness in the wild cycling cruelty of depression and boom."
This concept is much the same as acziavimas in this novel. Teta Elzbieta is like the government saying that each person must give what they can. "he finds himself face to face with Teta Elzbieta who holds the hat. Into it he drops a sum of money-a dollar... The guests are expected to pay for this entertainment." Each person gave what they could afford to give in return the got a dance with the bride. The small donations from each person helped to pay for the vesilja helping Jurgis and Ona out. With this in mind Socialism made little fixes that resulted in helping everyone. Like Socialism, there was no private property and Teta (the government) took up small funds to distrubute it to the poor to help.