Chapters 4 and 5

In chapters four and five, their perspective of the American Dream changes. Chapter four starts off with the family looking to buy a home to own instead of to pay rent. Chapter five explains that it was hard to find jobs and once they did, they were surprised at what was behind the doors.

"He would not have Ona working- he was not that sort of man, he said, and she was not that sort of woman. It would be a strange thing if a man like him could not support the family, with the help of the board of Jonas and Marija. He would not even hear of letting his children go to work-there were schools here in America for children, Jurgis had heard, to which they could go for nothing,"

Men were very prideful then. Jurgis could not stand the thought if Ona or the children going to work because he felt that he, the man of the house, should be able to go to work and provide for his family on his own. Jurgis says that he is not that sort of man and Ona is not that sort of woman. It is somewhat the same as current times because even though women can work, and do anything that a man can do, the man of the house feels that is his responsibility to take care of his family and be able to provide.

"'If there is anything wrong, do not give him the money, but go out and get a lawyer.' It was an agonizing moment, but she sat in the chair, her hands clenched like death, and made a fearful effort, summoning all her powers, and gasped out her purpose."

This passage includes a simile. It uses like to compare her clenched hands to death to emphasize how she feels.

" One of the first problems that Jurgis ran upon was that of the unions. He had no experience with unions, and he had to have it explained to him that the men were banded together for the purpose of fighting for their rights."

Unions are organizations within a work base that are trying to better the economy. Jurgis had a problem with them because although they promise a higher pay for those who want to join but they also lower profit.

"This floor was filthy, yet they set Antanas with his mop slopping the "pickle" into a hole that connected with a sink, where it was caught and used over again forever; and if that were not enough, there was a trap in the pipe, where all the scraps of meat and odds and ends of refuse were caught, and every few days it was the old man's task to clean these out, and shovel their contents into one of the trucks with the rest of the meat!"

The working conditions were very unsanitary and were till recently. The meat packing industry had many problems concerning working conditions of the workers and what the meat actually consisted of.