As with all naturalistic fiction (writing that depicts life as it truly is, not glossing over unsavory details), Sinclair documents the unsavory side of life in Chicago, presenting both life on the streets and life in a brothel. This chapter is the low point for Jurgis and his family. Jurgis' chance encounter with the "belle" from his wedding feast, who is not married but in a "good place," enables him to locate Marija.
Marija's descent into hell is the embodiment of Sinclair's major theme: that capitalism is a horrible system comprised of those who are users and those who are used. Women are victims who are forced into selling their bodies as a means of survival.
Marija voices this theme when she tells Jurgis, "When people are starving . . . and they have anything with a price, they ought to sell it." She accepts this as a matter of course, as the way of the world. Her words express Sinclair's view of capitalism.
But Jurgis does not readily accept this. He does not like the fact that Marija feels prostitution is her only option; though, for the first time, he realizes that is exactly what he had been doing to himself. During his night in jail, Jurgis contemplates the difficult existence his family has had in Chicago, remembering lost emotions, longing for a way out of his current predicament.
