1. What is Ona’s present state of mind? What does Jurgis think about her?
2. How does Ona cause alarm in the house one night?
3. What does Jurgis discover about Ona, and how does he come to discover it?
4. What is his reaction when Ona finally tells him the truth?
5. What do you believe were Ona’s options, faced with her situation?
5. What do you believe were Ona’s options, faced with her situation?
ReplyDeleteI feel so sorry for Ona. She is married and has children she has to take care of. As a mother Ona will do anything to keep her family a floot. She really dosen't have much of an option open to her. If she says no, this man has so much influnce in the town that she would never work their again. If she says yes, which she did, she could save the family and she would have to keep such a dark secert to her self or else we all ready know what would have/did happen. I also think their was a third choice she and the family could have made, to leave and start over somewere else. The laws weren't so hard that if you left the state you couldn't get away and take what they had learned from all the swindlings they had encountered and be the smarter for it and not fall again in the same traps else were.
This is quite the chapter! I gotta say--I didn't see it coming. But it does explain her odd emotional behavior the last few chapters---added to her pregnancy and her healthy and their lack of food.
DeleteIs this type of life harder on women or men????
From BEth: Chapter 15
DeleteWhat does Ona do that causes alarm? She never returned and there was snowstorm and they were concerned that she got stuck or hurt. She in turn told them she stayed at a friend’s house.
from beth: What is Jurgis’s reaction? He goes on a rampage to Onas place of work and goes to beat the man named Conner up, he eventually ends up in jail.
Delete3. What does Jurgis discover about Ona, and how does he come to discover it?
ReplyDeleteOna does not return home one night after work. Jurgis wants a explanation why she could not make it home and Ona said because of the storm she spent the night with a friend. Again, Ona does not return home, but this time Jurgis is not concerned. Jurgis decides to stop by Ona’s friend's house only to find that Ona did not spend the night there and she never has. Ona’s fellow employees knew the truth but refused to reveal it to Jurgis. By chance, Jurgis noticed that Ona was on a streetcar and he followed her home. He demanded to know the truth about her whereabouts, and Ona revealed to Jurgis that she has been to Miss Henderson's house downtown. Ona reaches for Jurgis and begs him to have faith in her: she is trying to do the right thing. She continues to explain: her boss, Connor, warned her that he would make sure no one in her family could get a job in Packingtown if Ona did not sleep with him. Jurgis understood now, threats against his family and Ona comply with Connor’s wishes so the family would not lose employment. Connor had been blackmailing Ona into becoming a prostitute after her hours as a factory laborer so that Jurgis and Marija could keep their jobs. Ona has tried to keep it from Jurgis, but this was not the case.
4. What is his reaction when Ona finally tells him the truth?
Jurgis was on a mission and his temper got the best of him. He walked out of the house and ran to the nearest streetcar to go to Ona's factory. Jurgis finds Connor, and leaps on top of him to strangle him. He bashes Connor's head against the floor. The workers started to pull Jurgis off Connor, but Jurgis bites Connor's cheek. They managed to choke Jurgis to unconsciousness state and dragged him to the police station. The attack is understandable, but unwise.