nds through all levels as each tier of workers feeds off the tier below, leading inevitably to the corporate owners who feed off all the workers. Jurgis's sense of the wonder of the job is tarnished as he meets more and more workers who hate their job and hate the plant he finds so poetic.
As presented by Sinclair, the owners care not at all for the plight of the workers and only want to work them as hard as possible. In the meat packing plant, the work is often horrifying. Sinclair emphasizes the terrible smell of the place, and this world of horrible odors extends to the region outside the plant where the streets have standing water emitting the same odor. The entire neighborhood is filled with these odors, with the horrible, thick black smoke from the smokestacks, with the sounds of the animals penned
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