The Jungle Chapter 20

Ona will have to be buried in a Potter's Field and Elzbieta begs money from her neighbors so that Ona can have a mass. Meanwhile, Jurgis is mad with grief. Elzbieta and Marija beg him to pull himself together because the family is starving. "Elzbieta is one of the primitive creatures like the angleworm, which goes on living though cut in half; like a hen, which deprived of her chickens one by one, will mother the last that is left her." Chapter 20, pg. 234

Jurgis finds his job at the fertilizer works is gone. He soon realizes that he has been blacklisted, thanks to his beating of Connor. He has no chance at a job, his friends tell him. Jurgis moves downtown to look for a job and gets a chance through an accidental meeting of an old union buddy on his way to work at a machine factory. He says the foreman will find him a place at the Harvester Works. Jurgis quickly realizes that Harvester Works is a good place to work-an innovative workplace where workers are treated well with large workrooms, a cafeteria, reading rooms and good treatment by the bosses. Jurgis begins making parts for the harvesting and mowing machines turned out by the factory. He is paid nearly two dollars a day and after work, he re-enrolls in night school to improve his English. Things are turning up when, on the 9^th day, the department closes until further notice.