Chapter 5, Part 1, pp. 67-88 Summary

The Holbrooks move into a small house in a big city. Since the slaughterhouses are the primary business in town, a horrible smell of rotting meat and death hangs over the entire town, filling everyone's lungs with a stench that makes them nauseous. There is no getting away from the smell, and the children complain that everything smells like vomit. Although the house is nicer than any the Holbrooks have lived in before, with running water and a flush toilet, the house is very small, with trash in the yard, and crowded onto a slum street. Anna tries to scrub the walls of the house clean, and make it a nice place to live, but the walls just get smokier and uglier, and in the face of such poverty and filth, she goes into a deep depression...