Antanas' death is the second central turning point in The Jungle. Just when Jurgis' life appears to be back on track, just when he begins to have hope for the future, fate transforms his dreams into nightmares. Antanas is another character who dies, another victim of fate.
The settlement worker introduced in Chapter 21 represents a reversal of sexual politics — for the first time, a female controls a man based on sex and economics. Her interference, although doing nothing to help the unsafe conditions in the plant, does result in a job for Jurgis. This is the complete opposite of the abusive sexual politics that Connor exercised. Although she is the first woman to exhibit a position of power, the results are still negative. Although she enables Jurgis to find a job, the job keeps him from his family; therefore, he is unable to protect his son.
In fitting literary irony, Sinclair places the death of Antanas during springtime — typically the season of new life and rebirth — and just as Jurgis begins to have a sense of new life and a new beginning, it is literally drowned.
