The Packinghouse Daughter

A detailed Summary of The Packinghouse Daughter


This novel tells the story of a small-town, working-class life in the mid 1900's. The daughter of a meatpacking company millwright, Cheri Register tells about the event, which divides her small town of Albert Lea during time of depression. Albert Lea, Minnesota was an industrial town of only 13,545 people. Surrounding the area was cornfields, lakes, cattail marshes, knolls, and oak groves.

Albert Lea still was in the 1950's when this story began. Cheri was an elementary student. Her school plans many field trips, which tend to be excursions in industrial technology. Cheri and her classmates visit places, which serve an entertainment and educational purpose. They have visited placed such as printing press, Coca-Cola, and egg hatching victories. Their next trip was different. Cheri and her class were to visit the Wilson & Co. meatpacking industry. This was where Cheri's father had worked since 1943. Not speaking much of his job Cheri didn't know much about her fathers work. This trip consisted of a parent's signature because of the scene it may bring to the youngsters. Each kid had the option not to participate in the activity that morning since once they entered there was no turning back. They describe the trip as


Wilson & Co. was a gigantic industrial factory in which many of the mid-class working life men supported their families by. During this time the eight-hour working day laws were supported and workers did just that. An eight-hour day at Wilson & Co. itself was extremely demanding and tiresome to the workingman. Cheri's dad at this time was in a verbatim pattern of a workday, dinner, and falling asleep attempting to relaxing. Wilson & Co. decided to demand "mandatory overtime" of two hours. This made workers furious. Cheri's dad himself would often work overtime just for the cash for odds and end payments needed around the house. Workers fought their boss in saying they didn't have to obey this demand. Wilson & Co. reacted with a "yellow-dog contract" threatening if their workers didn't sign agreeing to work these extra hours then they would be asked to leave the plant and not return. After that the situation got even riskier with the plant stating how if you slipped up somehow, or refused to do what you were asked, no matter how outrageous, they could throw you out on the spot.

The Packinghouse Daughter was a really interesting book. This book provided the reader with incredible detail you could only understand if read the book. If interested in learning about the d

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Approximate Word count = 868
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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