In Riis’ novel “How the other half lives”, Riis intends to expose the harsh conditions that the families of New York were being housed in. While doing so, he rights all of what he finds in his journal. Riis first fills in some informational background about the history of New York tenements, which once belonged to some of the city’s most luxurious families. As industrialization increased over the course of the nineteenth century, the rising rates of immigration of both rural and urban areas that
The novel How the Other Half Lives, written by Jacob Riis, discusses the terrible living conditions in tenements in New York City. Jacob Riis was an immigrant from Denmark who came to the United States and experienced the effects of being poor himself. Later on his financial situation became more stable and he became a journalist. This resulted in him using his platform to inform the public what it was like to be poor and the struggle in trying to survive with such a limited amount of money, and
In the book, “How The Other Half Lives”, Jacob Riis explores the harshness of tenement housing through the living conditions of the lower class in New York City. Riis does this to reveal the dangers of these accommodations to the upper and middle classes who are ignorant of the cruel social, economical, and physical circumstances involved in this style of living. Although this book was written in 1890, it embodies the entire period of the 19th century, in which human life had been degraded, primarily
Essay Questions for How the Other Half Lives: The book I chose for my book review is How the Other Half Lives by Jacobs Riis. Jacob Riis was a Danish American journalist who was considered a “mudrucker” and had a hobby of documenting certain things with photographs. He is actually considered one of the fathers of photography because he incorporated flash. His book demonstrated the horrible living conditions of poor people by writing and photographing the tenements that they lived in. The purpose
How the Other Half Lives Throughout the 19th Century, New York City was transformed into a divided city. Americans who were on top were separated from the poor; those on top showed little to no interest to the ones who struggle below them. Understanding the state of poverty to the other half of people that struggled to live day-to-day is hard to fully grasp. In the Novel, “How the Other Half Lives”, Jacob Riis tells us from first hand experience about the disturbing stories and facts on the countless
Riis, Jacob How the Other Half Lives New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890. In 1890, Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant worked as a police reporter and photographic journalist in New York City. “How the Other Half Lives,” prompted legislative reforms, focused attention on the desperate lives of poor urban immigrants and left an enduring mark on the history of documentary photography.” (NY TIMES). During this time, America was going through social and economic stress due to rapid industrialization
Alexandria Ard September 8, 2015 Document Analysis How the Other Half Lives (1890) Jacob Riis Jacob Riis was originally from Denmark but immigrated to New York in 1870. Je started off doing small jobs and later caught a break and became a police reporter for the New York Evening Sun. He worked in the worst areas of the city which were the poorest and had the most crime. He brought a camera on his runs and began to document and take photos of what he saw in these parts of the cities. After he
strikes, and business failures under an economic system run on competition are immense wastes that would be eliminated under a system based on communal cooperation (Bellamy, 1996). In “How the Other Half Lives”, Riis wrote his novel to inform members of society of the terrible living conditions of more than half of New York City 's residents. He described the cheap construction of the tenements, the high rents, and the absentee landlords. He protested the city 's ineffectual laws and urged private enterprise
New York City have to live with during the 1880s and 1890s in his book How The Other Half Lives. Riis states that the greed and abandonment of the wealthier people to the tenement housing system result in the shabby unhealthy apartments with unaffordable pricing which harbor more than five hundred thousand people. Riis began the introduction by mentioning a famous quote: “One half of the world does not know how the other half lives.” That was true because the wealthy half never truly care about
Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives 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