1. "It is an elemental odor, raw and crude; it is rich almost rancid, sensual and strong." (Pg. 28) This book is about the working conditions in the early 20th century. The author uses very vivid descriptions to decribe what was going on in this American era. He paints a picture in my mind with a ink paintbrush that makes me get a good understanding of the atmosphere of this time period. This was a discription of the main characters Jurgis's first job sweeping the leftovers of slottered cattle through a trap door. 2. "The line of the buildings stood clear-cut and black against the sky; here and there out of the mass rose the great chimneys with the river of smoke streaming away to the end of the world." (Pg. 33) This a good discription that makes me wonder about the Earth's well being and the contribution America has had towards it. The country has been releasing fossil fuels into the atmosphere for a long time. And back then the smoke was probably more contaimanated then of today simply because of technological advancement. Either or, the contribution is shockingly unacceptable. 3. "They use everything about the hog except the squeal." (Pg. 38) This was a quote that shocked me. You never know what's going on with your food or what they do with the animal that they kill to make your food. This quote just sort of opened my eyes even though there our plenty agencies breathing down food industries due to this book. 4. "Relentless, remorseless, it was; all his protests, his screams, were nothing to it-- it did its cruel will with him, as if his wishes, his feelings, had simply no existence at all; it cut his throat and watched him hasp out his life" This is probably something that caused many people to become veggitarian. This is sad to think about when you think about the foods you eat. This discription is about the pigs that Jurgis saw being brought into the factory he worked at. It's something that one knows about, but to have a description of the process in your face is heart wrecking. 5. "It is a sound, a sound made up of ten thousand little sounds. You scarcely noticed it at first-it sunk into your consciousness, a vague disturbance, a trouble." (Pg. 29) This is a description of a working factory. During the day in a factory, there are thousands of sounds that are occuring in the factory. Various jobs around the factory contribute to one big sound of the factory. It's probably a sound to get used to reguarding this is a place where animals are slauttered. 6. "So from the top to bottom the place is simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatred; there is no loyalty or decency anywhere about it, there is no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar." (Pg. 70) I like this quote because this is what Jurgis was going through in the old days, but it is something I can relate to in this era. It's hard to work in an envoirment like this one when everybody is about there money, but envy comes when one is more successful than the other. 7. "And , for this, at the end of the week, he will carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour-just about his proper share of the million and three quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States." (Pg. 85) This put me beyond astonishment. This was the problem of this time. They went through hard work requiring days for unacceptable hours in horrible conditions for small pay. Jobs that could make you lost a leg, arm or even your life in some cases since safety issues wasn't cared about back then. The owner of the factories only cared about making money by keeping his factory running. He could always find a new worker. 8 "Here is a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation and dependent for it opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-gtime slave; under such circumstances, immorality is exactly as inevitable , and as prevalent, as it is under the system of chatetel slavery.(pg. 126) This is a description of the town Jurgis and his family lived in. A town called Packington where everybody was in need of more then a few dollars to get by. People would do anything for money, even if wasn't a conventional job. Crime and death ran high due to horrible conditions for those who wearn't living under the best circumstances. 9. "This is no fairy story and no joke;The meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one" (pg 162) After losing his first and second job, Jurgis gets a job in the meat packing industry. They found out all the nasty secrets in this field. The information is shocking. 10. "They were beaten; they had lost the game, they were swept. It was not less tragic because it was so sordid, because that it had to do with wages and grocery bills and rents. They had dreamed of freedom; of a chance to look and them and learn something; to be decent and clean, to see their child group up to be strong. And now it was all gone- it would never be!" (pg. 163) After fighting for so long, working so many different jobs(including two of the kids), all the cold winters and hard times, they lost the house they invested in when they first arrived in Packington. A couple more payments and the house would have been there's for good and they lost it. After putting so much money into the house. A very touching moment in the text. 11. " To Jurgis this man's whole presence reeked of the crime he had committed; the touch of his body was madness to him- it set eevery nerve of him a tremble, it aroused all the demon in his soul." (Pg 181) Jurgis' family struggled to get by. Everybody had jobs at one point. He found his wife staying out late sometimes and her allaby was she was snowed in. When he found out she was lying, she told him her boss made her have an affair with her or she would lose the job and he raped her. This landed Jurgis is jail. As large figure of a man that Jurgis was, he lost it, and went down to the job and pummeled the boss. 12. "He has no wit to trace back the social crime to its far sources- he could not say that it is the thing men have called 'the system' that is crushing him to the earth" A struggle that has knocked man down since the founding of this country; Trying to make it in the system. Some fail, and some succeed if you play by the rules. This was a process that was beating Jurgis, a Lithuian immagrant, to a pulp. He struggled to figure out how to keep his job, and standard of living at a steady pace. 13. "The word rang through him like the sound of a bell, echoing in the far depths of him, making forgotten chords to vibrate, old shadowy fears to stir- fears of the dark, fears of void, fears of annihilation. She was dead! She wad dead! (Pg. 227) In relation, I couldn't help but to put this quote.. 14."Ah what agony is, what despair, when the tomb of memory is rent open and the ghosts of his old life comes forth to scourge him!"( pg. 264) I like this quote because it is something I can relate to in my life right now. This is a time Jurgis left the city to make a different life for himself. He was holding up, but there are times when pastlife comes back up and breaks him back down. The author is brilliant. 15. They put him in place where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could not eat through his bones; they brought him food and drink-why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him outside- why could they find no better way to punish him than to leave three weak women and six helpless children to starve and freeze? (Pg 191) This quote makes me feel for Jurgis. Jurgis did what he had to do to protect his wife and family from harm and it landed him in jail. And while he was warm inside being fed, his family was in the harsh winter bearly getting by without his income. Very to tough to deal with mentally when isolated. 16. "There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where things are behind bars, and the man is outside." ( pg. 337) I tip my hat to the author for this book as many in history have done. First for revealing the tragic facts of the factory life. Then his style of writing and witty quotes give you something to think about aside from reading . This was about a time when Jurgis had went to jail again and the way he was sort of feeling. 17. "In a society dominated by the fact of commercial competition, money is necessarily the test of prowess, and wastefullness the sole criterion of power." (Pg 403) I found this phenominal when I defined the word prowess, meaning superior ability. What makes me like these quotes is the way the author breaks down the society we live in. He makes comparisons,analyzes, metaphorical relations, and sometimes he just makes sense of what's going on. 18. "All the these agencies of corruption were banded together, and leagued in blood brotherhood with the politician and the police; more often than not they were one and the same person" (303) This puts a feeling of "Me against the world",as Tupac would say, over me. Sometimes it feels like all the people in contradiction with your goals are all on the same team with the same common goal; making your life hell. I like this quote for that reason. 19. "When people are starving and they have anything with a price, I guess you ought to sell it, I say. I guess you realize it not when its too late." (348) Everything in this book is real. This is about real people, real soceity, real situations. It provides analysis of a time that is probably going to be relative throughout American history. 20 "To you, the toilers, who have made this land, and have no voice in its councils! To you, whose lot it is to sow that others may reap, to labor and obey, and ask no more than the wages of a beast of burden, the food and shelter to keep you alive from day to day. It is to you that I come with my message of salvation, it is to you that I appeal." (Pg 361) I like this quote because it could fit the voice of the lower class even today. It is a quote of the struggle that ones opposite of the top go threw. Sometimes those at that point don't get to voice their feelings and if they do it isn't heard/of relevance. This was a tough society then, it's a tough society now.