USA: +1 725-224-8795 
Sign in
Micah Paulsen
History 147
03/08/19
Book Report #2
Out of This Furnace
Out of This Furnace was written by Thomas Bell in 1941, describing the lives/struggles
of three generations of Slovak, but more specifically, Hungarian immigrant workers in the
United States steel mills. The novel has four parts, each following one main character from three
generations of this said Slovak family: Kracha, Mike Dobrejcak, Mary, and Dobie. Bell begins
the story with the part one, following George Kracha. He has just arrived in America by going
from Budapest, then to Bremen, and finally ended in New York.
He was going to northeastern
Pennsylvania where his brother-in-law was working in a railroad section gang. It talks about how
he was given specific instructions to find the New Jersey ferry and purchase a train ticket, and
was scarred with the tales of murders, beatings, and thefts on Slovak immigrants the first day
they arrived in America. Bell then speaks to what Kracha has left behind, which includes: His
wife, his sister, his widowed mother and what he thought he was leaving behind, endless poverty
(Bell 3-4). He takes a job at the Braddock steel mill in Pennsylvania and works there, receiving
harsh long labor with minimum and below wages for such works. After a couple years with his
job in the mill, he opens up a butcher shop where he becomes seemingly comfortable with his
finances. But shortly, he is overwhelmed with debts in his business that he cannot sell, and since
the exposure of his affair and committed adultery he loses customers as their sign of disapproval.
Next, is Mike Dobrejcak, an immigrant also from Slovakia who travelled to the U.S. at only 14.
He worked his life in the steel mills where he, as well as the other immigrant workers were
treated with awful conditions unimaginable to endure.Mike was different from other immigrants
who came to the U.S. because he learned to speak english and actually ended up becoming a
U.S. citizen. Mike was living at Dortas and it is there that he meets Mary, one of Krachas
daughters, where he later married her and has several kids with her. Due to his higher education,
Mike is left with a neverending want for a better life for him and his family, “Nobody can help
us but ourselves, and if anything is to be done we will have to do it ourselves. That’s what I
learned. God pity me, sometimes I wish I could have gone along without learning it, gone on
talking and making plans but inside me feeling that maybe it wasn’t really true and if it was I was
somehow excepted. Inside me hoping that somehow things would change by themselves or that
other people would do what was necessary and I’d never have to risk the little I have” (Bell 194).
Mike and Mary struggled to make the money needed to support them, so they ended up taking in
people and feeding them as well as giving shelter, but when Mary was pregnant with their fourth
child she became very sick. This forced them to stop taking in these people, making it even
harder to make the money they needed to support four kids and themselves. To make the matters
worse, Mike, their source of all income, was killed in an explosion at the mill, leaving Mary with
four kids and nobody to help her, He let out his breath in a shuddering sigh, wondering why
God had chosen him to do this dreadful thing to her, Then he put out his hand to touch her
shoulder, to wake her and tell her that Mike was dead (Bell 208). Next, is Mary, after the
accident she receives money from the incident happening and decides its best to move the
family. She is struggling to be able to financially support and take the burden left of that by
Mike, and begins to contemplate taking in boarders and/or reamarrying, despite her other ideas,
she chooses not to forego those option and allows for her father to live in their home. He helps
them out financially but is described as a drunk, and brings new challenges for Mary. In this
time, Johnny begins to work selling plastic bottles and other junk until he is 11 and then joins in
selling newspapers, looking to do all he can to support the family. To make these matters worse,
Mary falls ill and is bedridden for some weeks, when the doctor is treating her she asks,
Doctor, tell me. Have I got consumption? He answered with an obvious reluctance. Your
lungs are touched. Yes (Bell 235). The doctor told her she would be okay, but she never
returned to her normal self and ended up dying at 37. Johnny was forced to move in with Frank
and Alice, where he was taken care of, it was here though that he learned about worker unions
from them. He found work and when he received his first paycheck, the birth of political
correctness was birthed inside him, they took 2 dollars from him that he didnt spend but they
labeled for purchases, But that aint right. I worked for the money (Bell 246). Dobie, the next
chapter then follows young Johnny, the third generation Slovak and final focus of the book.
Johnny moved to Detroit, leaving Frank and Alice to work at the Chrysler plant in which he then
began moving around plants since it had plentiful amounts of jobs due to the said car
manufacturing. He made exceptional amounts of money and spent it like it was growing on trees,
wasting it away on material things. But one day, the tree stopped growing, the plant cut him short
on a paycheck where his interest in unions arose again, he organized his first strike and was
kicked out of the plant along with the rest of the strikers. He got married to a woman named
Julie, in which shortly after the mills passed principles and were becoming stronger and fighting
to keep control of the unions. This was when Johnny took control and joined the A.F.L or the
American Federation of Labor, When are you going to do something like this in Braddock?
When enough men over there sign up . and that was how, after fifty years, the union came
back to Braddock. As simply as that (Bell 290) The union gained power and it unified the once
diverse agitated men, came together for one common goal which ended up leveraging them on
the power of the mills.
The industrial working- class life, was not an adequate lifestyle for anyone. From
underpaid, to overworking, to death, to inequality, and finally manipulation, it was not an
appealing or acceptable idea. First off, they worked full, extra long days while accepting pay cuts
because they simply needed to have an income to survive and they couldnt be let go or let them
close the mill. Bell says early on in the book, As time passed it became evident his manager,
Captain Jones, did not intend to reopen the mill until the men accepted wage cut and a return to
the twelve-hour day (23). The mill beat the union in the matter, and the eight-hour work day
has now ceased as well as their previous pay did, after the time that they were kept from work
and lost money already. Next, it talked about how Mike had been lucky to come to America
without hearing the spiel about the free American where all men were equal, because the mills
were not treated that way, as there was much segregation and separation between the different
ones that created tension, making it hard for the union to gain leverage without unity. Which
made it all the more easier for bosses and those in power of the mills, to manipulate the workers
to things such as less wages and more hours, reducing the cost of workers but upping profit for
the company (Bell 124). They also took money from the workers as illustrated in Dobie, when
Johnny got his first paycheck and they had taken two dollars, title as purchases, to his
confusion he had not spent anything, so he asked someone else why they had taken his money,
proclaiming, I didnt buy anything. where he replied, Neither did I, but they took two
bucks out of my pay just the same. Its their graft (Bell 246). Aside from the relationship
between the mill and the laborers, people die in the mills. Such as Mike, the husband of Mary
who is the daughter of Kracha. He died in an explosion at age 39, leaving his family struggling
with nothing. This meant for Mary and her oldest son Johnny, doing whatever it takes to make
ends meet. This was their reality.
I believe the author wrote this novel very intentionally, to inform everyone, the general
public. But more specifically maybe the government of how they were being treated in the mills
and what was happening. The purpose though, like I said, was to inform the audience, of how
awful they were being treated, and what their life was like, the struggle they went through and
the reality behind the mask of the American Dream. They endured hardships and loss, illnesses
and death, pay cuts and extended hours. The people needed to be informed, as well did new
immigrants who were coming to work and live this, American Dream. He did what was
necessary, you cant let something like this slip by the eyes of the sheltered. Something had to
change and this novel captivated everyone and ultimately gave reason for change.
My reaction was that of a similarity of my reaction to the autobiography of Frederick
Douglass, pure disgust. What this Slovak family went through, was not much better than slavery.
Sure they were paid, but they werent paid like they deserved or enough to even survive
comfortably at all. A constant struggle to keep their heads above water while holding their entire
family above them. I couldnt imagine a world where this reality used to be true. How someone
can manipulate and treat fellow human beings, immigrants or not, like garbage so they can save
and then make more money. I’m glad such a thing was brought to the attention of the world, and
Im even more glad that we read it, it was a well written novel and it captivated me in the stories
and endeavours of the 4 main characters. I felt the pain they felt, I could never imagine going
through so much sickness and death as they went through. Imagine, working overtime in a mill
for little to no pay, forcing your kids and wife to take in boarders and sell garbage for fractions of
money, just to be cut short by the boss or to die in an explosion; or to get sick and die that way,
