Welcome to the Jungle

Jurgis wasn't intimidated by all the the talk about breaking men down in the stockyards of Chicago, he actually laughed about it.  Jurgis was the type of boy that the bosses wanted to get a hold of...trouble. One day he met Ona at a horse fair who he married later on.  Jurgis hadn't thought he would get married, in fact he laughed at the idea.  When Ona's father died they decided to all go to America because Jonas said he heard one of his friends became rich there.  They decided to leave the following spring.  When all twelve arrived in Chicago they walked around utterly lost the first day.  They avoided the police as much as they could, but when nightfall hit they were taken to the station where an interpreter taught them the word stockyard and off they went. On the way to the stockyards they noticed several changes like the grass wasn't as green and it grew darker and darker outside.  What were they getting into? Jurgis began working in a slaughterhouse and when he first walked through it he didn't wince or anything.  I'm sure he just looked at the slaughterhouse as a job and a way to bring in money.  I couldn't imagine working in slaughterhouse especially on the super hot days like Jurgis described.  I admire the family so far in the fact that they have remained somewhat positive with the whole situation especially since there home has already been broken into twice.  Also, I was a bit surprised with the overall tone of the first few chapters.  I thought for sure that the family would show more emotions then what they had so far.  But hey their positiveness is probably what is keeping them going.  I look forward to hearing about the rest of the book from the class besides the part that my group is going to read.  I hope that the rest of their time in America is what they hoped it would be.