Summary Of How The Other Half Lives By Jacob Riis

He begins by telling of peasant life in the native European land, how it began to crumble because of poverty after having obtained rock hard stability for centuries, then he follows their long, dangerous trek to America which very few could endure because ships were overcrowded and unsanitary. Handlin then gives the account of the few that lived to see land on the other side of the Atlantic, detailing their struggles with the transformation from home life of the village system, which included the hierarchy social structure, an economy relying on the land, and family-based homes contrasting to American industrial economy, multiple religions, communication, immense knowledge, democratic government, and freedom. The stress and pressure to completely change their lifestyle, traditions, morals, and standards all at once causes immigrants to feel helpless and

The book How the Other Half lives, is one of those books that definitely affects you as soon as you read it. Jacob Riis the author of the book, wrote it exactly for the purpose, to affect people and get them to realize how bad the conditions were back then in New York City. He goes into full depth, of what the living conditions were like, who lived in them, and how they were affected by them. Mostly how each ethnic group lived in the tenements, and what the city did to improve them.

These “newcomers” did not deserve to come here and steal their jobs. Mike Trudic’s account from his childhood referred to his father’s hunt in America to desperately find work, “At the end of a week he was taken ill and died. It said he died of a broken heart”(Mike, 188). There were just too many workers and not enough jobs to be filled. Another first hand source provided by Rose Cohen, called Out of the Shadow, depicts the story of a jewish girl in New York and the experiences her family goes through in order to reach a sustainable lifestyle. The struggles included descriptions of harsh working conditions and anti-semitism, which created difficulty for immigrants who were trying to assimilate into the American culture.

Riis covers many aspects of the poverty that has stricken the tenement lodgers but when talking about one end of the spectrum (poor) you also need to discuss the other (rich). With out telling people how the other half of the other half lives he’s leaving out a crucial part of how people live in New York. By avoiding, that topic he’s giving the illusion that all people in New York live in such cramped housing as tenements. When in reality New York was and is presently not composed of strictly tenement housing. There was a ‘rich’ part of town where the thought of not having any money was never even contemplated. In addition, where the industrial revolution only touched higher societies on positive outcomes such as economics the industrial revolution only made it harder for the immigrants to get ahead. By this, meaning, that they worked harder, got paid little to nothing, and still had to compensate for the short comings that where being pressed against them because they were in fact immigrants.

In How the Other Half Lives, the author Jacob Riis sheds light on the darker side of tenant housing and urban dwellers. He goes to several different parts of the city of New York witnessing first hand the hardships that many immigrants faced when coming to America. His journalism and photographs of the conditions of the tenant housing helped led the way of reformation in the slums of New York. His research opened the eyes of many Americans to the darker side of the nation's lower class. Though it seems that he blamed both the victims and the board forces of society, I believe that he placed more of the blame on the board forces for the conditions that many immigrants faced.

However persuading a largely hostile audience to take a sympathetic view point toward the immigrant was a daunting task especially since Riis was an immigrant himself. It would require not only a sophisticated awareness of the audience, especially of its ethnic assumptions, but a refined understanding of the writer-audience dynamic and how it operates-more specifically, how it might be manipulated. Therefore because of the success of Jacob Riis one has to wonder maybe he is conscious of his contradictions, maybe he is indeed brilliant.

By using technical diction, Kennedy is able to attract academic readers. In paragraph six and seven, Kennedy listed out famous industrialists that were immigrants and help build America up, and also scientists that made landmark discoveries or inventions. These list of people can be verified, and the long list helps reinforce Kennedy’s thesis by listing the immigrants and their contributions to the American society. Without these people, America will not be in its current glory, nonetheless being the global economic power and trade. Continuing, Kennedy uses numerical statistics to prove that not only immigrants help build America to its glory, they are an important part of the workforce and help change our culture significantly. By using clear numbers like “23.5 million people who came to America in this period,” and “20 percent of the businessmen, 20 percent of the scholars,…., and 61 percent of actors were of foreign births,” shows us the immense numbers of immigrants and their contributions to the American society. These numbers can be checked, which helps draw in some factual reader. Kennedy also uses abstract diction in his essay. In paragraphs fifteen, Kennedy uses abstract words with positive connotations. These words include “dream”, “confidence”, “possibility”, and “faith”. Words that Kennedy used here allows the reader to think that America is a perfect utopia for people who want to work hard and have a better life because of it. This diction is effective when it comes to empathetic and emotional people, in which Kennedy’s point can across more easily. Kennedy, in short, incorporated an excellent combination of abstract and technical diction to prove his point and also collect the same audiences like

Riis wrote about different ethnic groups when he was living in New York. He wrote about greedy Jews, drunken Irish, and sloppy Italians. Riis also wrote with Christian morality. He blamed the faults of the above mentioned people on the poor living conditions that they were in. Like any other photographer or author, Riis’s motive must be figured out. It was already clear that he wanted change for the slums but in his pictures, the authors of the passage describe some pictures having Riis’s Christian morality in play. Riis highlights the needs for stable, wholesome families. The picture of page 191 is an example of a non-wholesome family. The home is supposed to be a resting place but factory work made its way into the home, making the entire family work. Photos like these were examples of Riis’s motives behind his photos. The photo on page 193 called “Room in a tenement flat” showed a family portrait. The room that they were in was very crammed and Riis again shows a family in poor living conditions. Riis also photographed many children, like the ones in “street arabs” on page 195. The photo is heart wrenching and captivates any viewer because of the pitiful place they had to sleep in.

Immigrants began moving to the United States in the 1850s in search of new freedoms and opportunities. They were soon viewed as threats by the American people because they could potentially take away job opportunities from native born Americans. Additionally, the morality and capabilities of these foreign people were unknown. As a result, new social and economic policies that favored “real Americans” were enforced. These affected a large group of foreigners, including Jews, Catholics, Italians, southern Europeans, and the Chinese. (Fry 1)

As immigrants migrated to the United States, cities became cramp, living conditions were poor, and working conditions were careless. In document one, the image taken by Jacob Riis, in 1890, shows a group of immigrants living in a tiny and filthy room. It is clear that all five of the men live in that single room because there is a stove, pans, and a bed all in one area. It is also clear that they have a poor living condition because there are cracks in the wall and dirty clothes. Also, Jacob Riis is known for his work How

Immigrants come from different parts of the world in many shades of white, brown, and black. In extreme cases, some immigrants are stereotyped as rapists, thieves, drug dealers, etc. or at the very least seen as second-class citizens. Depending if they support the issue or not, even the red or blue side of the political party, people tend to blind themselves from the reality of why they actually migrate. Natives tend to deny seeing the humanity in immigrants’ individual stories and lives. They not only migrate to different countries for better opportunities, but to find jobs to support their families and give their children a better education than they would have had in their country. George Saunders’ short story, The Semplica-Girl Diaries, relates to immigration because the SG’s reflect the treatment of immigrant workers in our society. The SG’s display women who have lived in extreme poverty and don’t have a better choice but to sell themselves to the rich as lawn

The first reflection of the status of the transformations in the United States that is represented in the novel’s Jurgis Rudkus life is the difficult conditions the immigrants that moved to America (in Lithuania) were passing through. The physical strength of Jurgis Rudkus represented the Americas people enthusiasm about individual economic and

As for New York City, in the novel it is defined as the perfect place to live life to the fullest and not have a care of the world. As a reader, it is expected to envision this city full of lights as a bright, restless, and colorful place. Nick Carraway depicts New York City as a “...city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of

At the beginning of the chapter, the author raises questions that were prevalent a century ago and that are still important today.  The one question I found most interesting is, “Can white, native-born, economically secure Americans ever really understand, much less help, those who are struggling to survive?” (1).  Much of the prevalent political culture emphasized Aryan superiority, as well as the concern a changing society would suffer from massive immigration.  Even authors, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, recognized the oppression she suffered from as a woman.  However, she did not recognize the oppression others suffered in her embracing of anti-immigration as well as racist beliefs.  Reactionary to the massive immigration of this time, Charlotte Perkins Gilman also supported eugenics to improve the human race.  Yet Addams did not argue immigrants were inferior to the Aryan people.  In fact, three-quarters of her residents at Hull-House were first and second generation immigrants.  Not only was Addams sympathetic to the poor, but she also was sympathetic to the plight of immigrants.

Khan used an example of colonizing ship to describe her conversation in the article by showing a direct line. Furthermore, she linked the direct line with an example of branches that grew from one another. (Khan) Khan showed a logical appeal through her facts about the racial practices in Dutch during the mid-70s when the Dutch economy brought Turkish and Moroccan immigrant workers and their families to Netherland to overcome the labour crisis. “The Turkish and Moroccan families who stayed in the Netherlands continued to be treated as a threat by many Dutch residents.” (Khan) Consequently, the facts by the author about the immigrant communities made her argument persuasive. Her argument was convincing to believe that the treatment people like her were getting on the basis of nationality, race and white privilege was not fair.