Both plants are egged into fierce competition by the government, though sometimes they work in tandem-when they fix meat prices, for example. The family lives in the yards.īrown's Meat : Durham's rival and engaged in the same kind of illegal activities as Brown's. A filthy, vermin-infested slum with no sewage system, no sidewalks, a garbage dump where children pick out food for meals, and a cesspool of sewage water which the plant bosses use to cut ice and sell it to the public during the winter. The Yards : The neighborhood surrounding the packing plants. The money is set aside for the couple's wedding expenses. Ona and Jurgis met and fell in love in Lithuania and the music of their homeland figures importantly into traditional festivities, such as the veselija.Īcziarimas Ceremony : An uninterrupted bridal dance, lasting three or four hours, in which male guests pay for the privilege of dancing with the bride.

Lithuania : The family's home country, idealized in their memories as a beautiful place with lush meadows and green trees and glistening lakes. Engaged in illegal labor activities as well as unsafe food handling activities. Jurgis and Ona give a veselija to celebrate their wedding but find that the wedding gifts and proceeds from the Acziarimas Ceremony are far from enough to pay for the extravagant feast.ĭurham's Meat: The meat packing plant and slaughterhouse where Jurgis and a number of family members work. Veselija : A traditional Lithuanian wedding feast. Like other Eastern European immigrants, Lithuanians were exploited for labor purposes. The central family of The Jungle lives in a Lithuianian enclave in the yards. This ethnic group immigrated to Chicago in a large wave during the first years of the 20th century.

The jungle book about meat