Ona Conner Character Analysis

Ona is 15 years old when she marries Jurgis and immigrates to the United States. She gets paid less, is abused by her boss and eventually dies due to physical exhaustion. She needs to work and support the family as the money Jurgis makes is not enough. Ona, like many other women at the time, was paid less than men for the same job. There were no labor laws to protect the rights of working immigrant women and capitalists took advantage of their need to earn money to survive. Conner who is Ona’s boss at the factory, sexually abuses her. Conner represents everything evil about capitalism. He takes advantage of her helplessness and exploits Ona as he finds her vulnerable. He intimidates Ona by threatening to get her, Marija and Jurgis fired. Ona
He would hound us to death, he said—then he said if I would—if I—we would all of us be sure of work—always” (Chapter 15). The laborers like Ona are helpless and are exploited, abused and oppressed by capitalists who know that workers desperately need the jobs to support their families. When Ona is pregnant the second time, she continues to do ruthless physical work which proves to be too much and was “killing her by inches” (116). She had physical symptoms like “frightful headaches and fits of aimless weeping”
However, she had to continue to work long hours packing meat to support her family and if she took time off she would be replaced. Due to the extreme work, even in failing health, combined with lack of money and proper medical care lead to Ona and her baby dying during premature labor. This demonstrates that workers of the early 1900s had few rights and the capitalists did not provide any medical leaves. Because of the fear of losing their jobs, workers would continue to come to factories even in failing health until they could not work at all or died. In spite of the progress being made by America, the Comstock Act of 1870s outlawed buying, selling and even talking about contraceptives. Thus, immigrant woman like Ona did not have access to resources to prevent pregnancy and often they resorted to illegal abortions and died in the process. Women like Margaret Sanger promoted legal birth control and worked hard to make it available