The Jungle

Once Jurgis is inside his cell, the full magnitude of the situation dawns on him: “[T]hat he had nearly killed the boss would not help Ona—not the horrors that she had borne, nor the memory that would haunt her all her days” (173). He spends a sleepless night blaming himself for what happened and worrying that his entire family will end up on the streets.

The next morning, Jurgis is brought before the notoriously corrupt Judge Callahan. Unable to pay the $300 bond, Jurgis is returned to jail, washed, and put in a small, filthy cell. He passes another agitated night, his agony only increasing when he realizes from the ringing of the bells that it’s Christmas Eve. For the first time, he blames the system in its entirety for his plight: “He had no wit to trace back the social crime to its far sources […] He only knew that he was wronged, and that the world had wronged him; that the law, that society, with all its powers, had declared itself his foe” (180).

The next day, Jurgis gets a cellmate: a handsome, well-dressed young man who exchanges friendly commiserations with Jurgis and introduces himself as