How is Ona's death significant in the book the Jungle and how does it relate to capitalism?

Perhaps the most wrenching scene in the novel is Ona’s death. Sinclair makes the connection here between the horrors of the killing beds and the horrors of natural life forced upon the residents of Packingtown. It is in this scene, following Jurgis’s moment of understanding of the way in which the natural world destines some people for lives of poverty, where Jurgis understands and comes to hate the natural systems of the world. Jurgis comes to understand the “horrible nature of nature.”

Critics have used this scene in the novel to argue for Sinclair’s gynophobic tendencies in the novel. The obesity, smell, and bad teeth of Madame Haupt symbolize the distaste for the female body. In the birth room, Ona’s body, which had been slowly breaking down since her last experience of childbirth, is tormented and broken completely. The blood on Madame Haupt suggests the horror of childbirth and the indecency of the natural bodily functions of the woman.