The book details many of the horrendous work practices of the businesses that ran the slaughterhouses and Rudkus's eventual joining of a union and the socialist party. Unfortunately, once they move there they are scammed by a real estate agent selling them a rental house and discover that, as the area is swarmed with other immigrants looking for work, finding a job is not that easy. The family assumes that they will be able to make better money working in America and move to the Chicago meat packing district. The novel's protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus is a Lithuanian immigrant who moves to America with his soon-to-be wife and her family. However, many took notice of the depictions of working conditions as well and the famous writer Jack London once referred to the novel as "The Uncle Tom's Cabin of wage slavery". The public outcry contributed to many reforms in the meat industry including the Meat Inspection Act. The public reaction to the novel was not what he expected, as most of the people seemed to be more concerned with the unsanitary conditions and health violations in the meat packing industry that he wrote about.
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