Jacob Riis: A Brief Biography

Imagine coming home to a house that has no warmth or food. Constantly feeling like you are in a place you can’t get out of. This is how poverty may feel to others. The expeirences from the author Jo Goodwin Parker in the story “What Is Poverty” and the McBride family from the novel “The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute To His White Mother” show that there are various effects of living in poverty that include emotional problems, adolescent rebellion, and

Jonathan Kozol’s Fire in the Ashes is an honest depiction of the hardships and triumphs of families in the South Bronx, New York. In this book, Kozol introduces us to several Hispanic and Black families that he originally met in the Mott Haven/Martinique Hotel in the 1980’s and allows us to view their trajectory in the proceeding 25 years. By allowing the reader a look into the lives of these families, he provides us with a realistic depiction of the disadvantages families living in poverty encounter despite interventions from charity organizations and philanthropic donors. Kozol identifies that without “systematic justice and systematic equity in public education” (Kozol, 2013, pg 304) students in these impoverished neighborhoods will continue to lack the same economic opportunities that may potentially lead them out of the welfare system. Kozol emphasizes lack of stable housing, and unequal educational opportunities, as primarily conditions to perpetuating poverty. Despite the challenges that the families endure, Kozol is able to show that they are resilient.

Chapter 1, “Intimate Apartheid”, introduces one to the group of homeless people living on Edgewater Blvd. It dives into the racialized micro-geography of homeless encampments and how segregation plays a key role within the lumpen. However, the authors do reveal moments where the racial hierarchy is trumped by the “moral economy” of street life.

The portrayal of Jacob Riis’ views through his book ‘How the Other Half Lives,’ is conveyed by storytelling and is largely made of logos, however the key component is actually ethos, like a politician running a campaign, Jacob Riis’s uses logos and pathos to create a persona of authority on the topic of the poor in New York City. I am going to look in depth on how Riis uses different approaches to convey his views to his audience: why does do some of Riis’ key texts contradict each other? Is he conscious of if? Is it brilliant?

According to the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” means pictures convey information more efficiently and effectively than words do. Many people believe this to be true because pictures display concrete evidence of events that happen, they are able to “see it to believe it.” They believe that since they can see it with their own eyes, everything in the photograph must be telling the true story. On the contrary, pictures can be just as biased as textual sources of information and the photographer may not be providing the viewer with the whole story. Knowing this fact, Oliver Wendell Holmes describes this phenomenon in the following way, “The photograph is an illusion

Poverty is a main part of life for many people in the world, more importantly the United States. Jeanette Walls shows how big of a problem poverty is in her memoir “The Glass Castle”, with her stories of how she grew up and her family’s struggles. How her family was treated along with what the people living around them found important clearly shows their economical class. The problem of food scarcity, or not having the bare necessities are some of poverty’s main problems. In “The Glass Castle”, the issues of poverty are displayed through not having the basic necessities, not being able to provide for children, and how there is not always enough food to feed everyone in the family.

many of the wealthy families although aware of the reality most ignored it. The new incoming immigrants were not as aware of the actuality of western life. Despite their lack of knowledge, in their native countries their lives apparently were much worse when compared to America. There were many reasons that native Europeans left, the lack of democracy was one. As stated earlier a majority of Europe was a monarchy at the time; the commoners had no free will basically. An insignificant amount of people who left for religious freedom. This book shocked society into facing these problems. The fact that Riis did not paint some pretty story for the reader to read and be happy; he stated the facts. He did this to clarify the need for reform throughout the city. Although Riis showed prejudice against certain members of the slums. Riis’s novel sparked interest in the readers the nation called for reforms. His book was written near the start of the Progressive Era. New reforms for the betterment of society were being made. One that helped tenements was the Tenement House Act of 1867 which clearly defined what a tenement must and must not have. Riis’s friendship with Roosevelt helped him to bring upon changes like the park that is now named after him; he said that crime would drop if only the kids who lived in the slums were able to have fresh air away from temptation. With Roosevelt’s

Jacob Riis deserves a place in history because of the many astonishing actions he did for

Go to Chicago, New York, Paris or Madrid, on every street corner you see a person less advantaged, poor, and desperate. Then go in a store, see others carrying expensive bags, swiping their credit card left and right. We live in a world of extreme poverty, balance seems nonexistent. Poverty can result in broken homes and in turn, broken lives. In the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Walter Mcmillian’s adult life, Trina Garnett’s childhood and Antonio Nuñez’s domestic life show that poverty was the cause of their incarceration and determined the success of their lives.

“The reality is that if you are poor in a fast, cold city like this, they don't care how you live so long as you are not out on the streets worrying people,? 83 year old Maria Pagan told The Times. Mrs. Pagan lived for a decade in a Bushwick building that was crumbling around her ?the landlord, the City of New York, only began making improvements when her bathroom ceiling collapsed. In comparison, Riis’s description of his photograph of Baxter Street in The New York Sun, “At 59 Baxter Street . . . is an alley. . . with tenements on either side ?so close as to almost shut out the light of day.?

Throughout “Flavio's Home,” Parks effectively informs the reader that the issue of poverty is ignored by those who have the power and resources to make a change. By appealing to the reader's emotions, Parks uses ethos to encourage the reader to want to stop such tragedies from occurring. He is also credible, by being a well-known photographic essayist who has grown up knowing the struggle of poverty

First, being a police reporter had allowed him to see the poor living condition and made his goal of being a voice for them. Riis decided to enter the New York Tribune to get further information to help those in need. He was able to travel through rough neighborhood with policemen and detectives to write about the poor people like others were already doing. Though the only difference was photographs to with it. He learned how to do photography to demonstrate the striking events that happens in the lower class. His images captured many details which lead to many great impact on society. His picture were able to capture children going through malnourishment, the dangerous characters, garbage in alleyways, and household conditions. He was able to publish a book called “How the other half lives” documenting the working people and very poor. Thus, helped spur social reforms and influence american to help with the problems of the cities. The book inspired campaigns for better housing codes to prevent crowded tenements. Alway education to improve and see a greater future in people’s lives. This end child labor and made other social improvement to have a society be greater like others see it to be. Riis was able to raise money to create institutions to help poor children and was able to help thousands. Jacob Riis was one of those to use his talents to the less fortunate than in something everyone does. Riis

Through his brilliant journalism and striking photography, Jacob Riis exposes the horrifying living conditions of the New York tenements in How the Other Half Lives. With the excess inflow of immigrants into the United States in the 19th century, New York City (a very popular port) became tremendously overcrowded. The city did not adapt well to the increasing population and thus warehouses and homes meant for just one family were often divided into numerous rooms for dozens of people. These impoverished families were forced to live in dark, unventilated, and cramped rooms for unreasonably high prices set by the wealthy who saw it as a great business opportunity. The author is attempting to make the wealthy

Sylvia never truly realized how poverty stricken the area she lives in was until she got the opportunity to venture into Manhattan. Sylvia describes the area around the neighborhood she lives in:

Multiple studies have been completed to show that people from all racial groups and ethnicities are negatively affected by poverty. Those in the lowest social class, while a mix of ethnicities, are predominantly minorities and affected the most. What stood out about Philippe Bourgeois’ is that he not only studies the people and their culture but he lived it with them. Mr. Bourgois spent two years with his wife and child living with the Puerto Rican’s in East Harlem, NY. He lived with them and became a friend to many of them with the hopes of providing an accurate analysis of their culture. While living there he encountered all of the barrios social problems; from gender inequality to drugs and illegal activities to racial segregation.