was a blessing" (45). Yet the American Dream is nothing more than an illusion to gouge more profits from the workers. Jurgis eventually learns that "from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie" (82). Sometimes Jurgis had his hours cut dramatically without warning, and his wages would then plummet. An agent sold a house that was old and decrepit to Jurgis's family, having them sign a contract that they did not understand. The agent made no mention of interest on the amount owing for the home, nor did either of the two lawyers that Jurgis and his family consulted. After months of Jurgis's family struggling to meet payments, the agent evicted the family and sold the home again, to a new family. Every time Jurgis dared to hope that success was obtainable, another pitfall would spring up and send him further into poverty. The American Dream, of fair reward for hard work and determination, was no more than bait in the Capitalist trap.
Capitalism led not only to the mistreatment of the workers, but also to the exploitation of the consumers. Jurgis and his family learned about the multitudes of ways in which the meatpackers would save money through disgusting, unsanitary means. The packers reused canning chemicals continually, no matter what refuse and filth it met with. Between uses, workers dumped the chemicals into a sink where a trap would catch bits of meat and whatever happened to be on the floors. Sinclair tells the reader about this and that "every few days it was [Jurgis's father's] task to clean [the traps] out, and shovel their contents into one of the trucks with the rest of the meat" (67). Even the packaging of meats from diseased animals and unborn calves was common. Sometimes, "slunk" (unborn) calves end up on the floor where Jurgis shovels entrails. Jurgis would then "slide them into a trap . and on the floor below they took out these "slunk" calves, and butchered them for meat, and used even the skins of them" (69).