Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. Why are Teta and Dede in “an anxious conference” during the wedding?

2. What are the first two words that Jurgis and his traveling companions learn in English?

3. What is Jurgis’s job?

4. What does the phrase “speeding up the gang” mean?

5. Which sentiment bonds the workers of the factories?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe how Dede Antanas’s work environment has affected his health in Chicago.

2. Compare and contrast the appearances of the older and younger generations at Jurgis and Ona’s wedding.

3. Describe Jurgis’s character. Why did he decide to immigrate to Chicago?

4. What does Chapter 3 focus on? How is Sinclair’s narration juxtaposed with Jurgis’s impressions of the stockyards?

5. Summarize Jurgis and his companions’ fears of housing insecurity. What opportunity do they come across in Chapter 4?

6. How does Jurgis feel about enrolling in unions? What comment does Sinclair make about Jurgis and economic systems?

Paired Resource

“The People of the Stockyards”

•  The Packingtown Museum in Chicago shares information on the different immigrant groups that worked in the stockyards outside Chicago.