Out Of This Furnace Sparknotes

Amid the late nineteenth century and mid-twentieth-century, poor working conditions in numerous industrial facilities drove specialists to battle for a better working condition. One of the many fights for better working conditions was known as the 'Homestead Strike of 1892' and was one of the greatest movement for labor rights. The Homestead Strike consisted of a battle between the Carnegie Steel Company, and the Amalgamated Association. The owner of the Carnegie Steel Company, Andrew Carnegie wanted to bring down the wages of steel workers after the cost of steel dropped in 1890.However, they confronted resistance from the steel laborer's union, and a contradiction over wages turned into a fight for power between the men responsible for the

Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell is the story of a Slovak family's immigration to America. The story talks about a family struggles as they make their way from Hungary to America. The story of three generations of the Kracha family shows the first immigrant in the family, George Kracha to the third generation who is Dobie Dobrejcak. It starts with George Kracha walking from his village in Hungary to board a ship. He spends his money for a party for a woman and arrives in New York with fifty cents in his pockets.

After the Carnegie Steel Company refused to compromise with its workers on the new contract, which increased production demands and announced wage cuts, a violent conflict raged out and the workers went on a violent strike. The Homestead Strike was unsuccessful in its an attempt to unionize all iron and steel workers, but it brought attention to companies who abused power. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel workers is a union attempting to unite all iron and steel workers and help compromise with the Carnegie Steel Company for an increase in wage with the new contract. The Carnegie Steel Company had just made major technological innovations in the 1880s with help from their new general manager Henry Clay Frick.

These unions fought against the businesses, trying to get fair hours and wages for the

The Pinkertons surrendered, but as the workers left the town, they were beaten in the streets. The mill opened up shortly after. One of the sources Gillon used was David Demarest Jr.’s “The River Ran Red”. It tells the story of the Homestead Strike using newspapers, poems, and first-hand accounts of the event. It supports Gillon’s argument by showing the voices of the people involved.

How would you like to work for little to no pay and over 60 hours a week? In today's day in time some people would call that abuse or over work, but that’s exactly what was going on in the 1870s and 1880s. This is where the labor movement started, with people being over worked and little to no pay. As you can imagine people started to get upset with how things were going so that started violent outbreaks along with strikes all across the United States. In the 1880s, a group was formed to help the working man, this group was called the Knights of Labor.

The management had proposed drastic wage cuts, which the union readily refused. In response, Frick took a firm stance and adopted a "divide and conquer" strategy to break the union's strength by picking off individual workers. The escalation of tension between management and workers was disastrous, with both sides determined to stand their ground and refuse to compromise. Frick planned to enrage the workers with harsh policies to have a reason to lock out the workers and, in turn, the Amalgamated. This plan, however, ultimately backfired as it did not only serve to unite the workers and rally them together, but it also resulted in a massive rise in labor republicanism not just at Homestead but also throughout the neighboring towns.

The Knights of Labor “An Injury to one is a concern of all” The Knights of Labor was an organized secret society which begun in the 1869 composed of a group of skilled and unskilled workers In 1886, The knights flourished to 700,000 members under the leadership of Grand Master Workman Terrance V. Powderly Functioned by informing members on what to do and actions against its employers such as work strikes Also pushed for an eight-hour workday and equal pay for women

The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).

In the narrative of the American Dream, there are three main steps: starting at the bottom, working hard, and gaining successful. In “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman, “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, and “A Forest Walk” from A Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Whitman, Hughes, and Hawthorne use the motif of building and work to illuminate the mainstream and marginalized viewpoints of the American Dream’s effect on society. In “I Hear America Singing,” Whitman uses kinetic imagery with gerundive verbs and the symbol of songs to enforce the belief in America’s opportunities are available to anyone who works hard and to emphasize the strong unity of the American society. In the poem, Whitman uses enumeration and lists many occupations.

Meet You in Hell Essay Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America is written by Les Standiford. Standiford is a historian and author who lives in Miami. In “Meet You in Hell”, Standiford tells the story of two men during America’s Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, who rise to be among the wealthiest men in history. Carnegie and Frick rise to power, dominating the new found Industrial Era.

The American Dream is the belief that any person regardless of background is open to equal opportunities which allows to them to attain all aspirations and their definition of success. George and Lennie both want to own their own farm. The farm will be 10 acres with a windmill, a small shack and their own house. They will grow fruit trees, tend their vegetable patches and raise their own livestock. This will allow them to ‘live offa the fat of the lan’’ Lennie’s ultimate and persistent dream is that on the plot they can build a rabbit hutch where Lennie can tend to them.

Profits for the farmers were getting smaller and smaller due to the increase in prices for the goods to be sold. These farmers believed in many different things- they believed in rules and regulations for the road (which included the fact that the government should control the railroad), lower tariffs, and that money should be based off of silver standard. For the industrial workers, their working conditions were not ideal. Each worker did not get paid nearly enough to support them and their families, even though they worked ten plus hour days, six days a week. Workers were not paid for sick days or injury.

Eventually it got to the point where these workers were working so much, but barely made enough to support their family. The Knights of Labor was the first national labor group formed in 1869. This group wanted to gain an eight-hour workday, expel asian workers and immigrants from the far east, and stop child labor. Around the same time a new national organization named the American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed when the Knights of Labor union declined. The new organization was led by Samuel Gompers, a cigar maker that helped to form the union.

The second section of Out of This Furnace is about the life of Mike Dobrejcak, and his experiences at Carnegie’s Steel Mills. Mike Dobrejcak, an immigrant who assimilated into American culture through learning about American history and learning English, was a man who appreciated politics, and worked to keep his family alive. Dobrejcak married Mary Kratcha and had four children, which made it difficult to survive on his steel mill income. Like most steel mill workers during the early 1900s, Dobrejcak faced dangerous working conditions with little pay, he and his family had to take in boarders to be able to save money, and he eventually was met with the cruel reality of death that many faced.