In chapter three, Jurgis goes to get a job at a slaughterhouse. Fortunately, he is able to get his job almost instantly. When Jurgis is being showed around at the slaughterhouse, he sees that all workers seem to act like "zombies." The workers would be known as zombies because they continuously work at the same tasks everyday which causes them to not have very much enthusiasm at their jobs.
The workers seemed to not care about the animals they were butchering, just as they did not care about the new workers who were trying to get a job at the slaughterhouse. The workers lack of concern for both the animals and the new workers was shown because they had blocked a lot of things out of their lives just so that they could continue to do their jobs.
Upton Sinclair portrayed the factory conditions as unsanitary and dingy because people weren't doing a very good job at cleaning up their work spaces.
Noelle, you did an excellent job considering both the seemingly brainless nature of the work being done, thus meriting the name "zombies." However, your analysis of the inhumane treatment of the animals brought a unique perspective to the interpretation of the term and why it is befitting.
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