Out_Of_This_Furnace

Out Of This Furnace Out of this Furnace Out of This Furnace, a novel by Thomas Bell, is the story of successive generations of Slovakian immigrants and the hardships they faced in coming to America, finding work, and trying to find a way out overwhelming poverty and hardships. Out of This Furnace is a story about white, European immigrants, but draws some extraordinarily close similarities to the life of a freed slave after the Civil War, similarities regarding social standing, economic situation, and quality of life. The first story in Out of This Furnace is about George Kracha, a Hungarian immigrant who came to America in 1881. After arriving in New York, Kracha walked to New Haven, Pennsylvania, to find work. He worked on the railroads, and then in the steel mills in Western Pennsylvania. After becoming tired of the confining steel mills, Kracha starts his own business, a meat market. The meat market is a great success, but after some poor investing decisions, and an extra-marital affair, Kracha’s life falls apart, and he loses everything. The second story in Out of This Furnace is about Mike Dobrejcak, who marries Kracha’s daughter. Mike works in the steel mills, and finds it hard to support his dobie, out, steel, american, after, mike, land, kracha, furnace, ex-slaves, mills, money, life, immigrants, work, way, war, detroit, civil, bell, america, wife, time, story, situation, same, parents, new, never, lives, little, julie, getting, forced, farm, family