Character Analysis
Tommy Hinds is a former Union Army officer (so he must be getting on in years, since the Civil War ended forty years before this novel was written) who owns a Chicago hotel. Hinds is a socialist through and through, and he uses his hotel business to pass out socialist literature to his poor immigrant guests. Hinds also employs good socialists to work for him, and they seem to operate on a mostly collective basis. Because Hinds is such a good man and respects Jurgis, Jurgis happily works incredibly hard for him. Hinds Hotel is clearly a model of what a workplace built on mutual support should look like, in stark contrast to the packing houses where Jurgis has destroyed his health and happiness.