Jacob Riis’ How The Other Half Lives intensely depicts the reality of the extremely indigent population of New York City slums in the late nineteenth century. During this time thousands of newly arrived immigrants began to overcrowd American cities in pursuit of betterment and equal opportunity. Numerous amounts of people had traveled to America to escape the detrimental reality of their own country only to find that America offered nothing better for them. The same people that suffered famine or
achievements derive. How the Other Half Lives by journalist-photographer Jacob A. Riis explores the streets of New York, using “muck-racking” to expose just how “the other half lives,” aside from the upbeat, rich, and flapper-girl filled nights so stereotypical to New York City in the 1800s. During this time, immigrants from all over the world flooded to the new-born city, bright-eyed and expecting new opportunities; little did they know, almost all of them will spend their lives in financial struggle
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
Jacob A. Riis' How the Other Half Lives This book talks about the immigrants in the early 1900’s. The book describes how they live their daily lives in New York City. It helped me a lot on Riis photographs and his writings on to better understand the book and the harsh reality this people lived. This comes to show us that life is not that easy and it will cost us work to succeed. Riis talked about all the immigrant major groups that came to the United States during this time period. Riis
on the brink of reformation but the remnants of a societal barrier between different classes, and races of people is still very prominent. Jacob Riis the Author of “How the Other half lives” approaches this issue in an expose that literally sheds light on the darkness of poverty as well as the tenements the lower class is forced to live and in most cases die in. Riis can be seen as a forerunner of progressivism as he uses photojournalism and his firsthand personal involvement, to pinpoint causes of
In the passage “How the Other Half Lives” Jacob Riis makes a very accurate account of what life is like in tenements of New York City. He describes the challenges facing the mostly immigrant population that inhabited the slums and how the societal view was largely inaccurate. His observations however, are slightly marred by his own preconceived notions and prejudice. Riis gives what he believes to be the cause of the squalor and subsequent effect which was the then current state of affairs. He then
The book "How The Other Half Lives" written by Jacob Riis, sheds light on the living conditions in N.Y. city of the poor throughout the Progressive Era in tenement housing. Jacobs publication was meant to show the "other half" or "upper class" how bad it really was. Between 1869 and 1890, tenement housing almost tripled to 37,000 tenements in use. This over population was caused by the uproar of immigrants moving to America to start a new and better life, and almost all of the time starting at the
There were many similarities and differences between the lives of immigrants in the 1890’s and modern day travelers to America. In the book, How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis explains and delves deeply into how different types of people were treated, for example: men, women, African American people, etc. But in this, he also expresses how the immigrants of this time period were treated. To be quite frank, they were treated horribly back then and modern immigration has greatly improved, but here’s
Riis that took it upon himself to bring attention to the plight of the poor through documenting “how the other half lives” in photography and journalism. Although Jacob Riis began as a writer, the plight of the poor influenced Riis to learn photography, realizing its potential as a tool in his eventual goal of enacting social change. In this paper I will analyze photographs from How the Other Half Lives, approaching Jacob Riis as an artist and photographer rather
Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant to New York City in the late 1800s, was a photographer that documented the harsh conditions of the working class in the late 19th century. He released a photo-journal book in 1890 entitled How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York. He illuminated the dark, cramped quarters and incredibly dirty conditions of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The publication invigorated social activism and pushed for improved housing legislation and standards. Riis’
The novel How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis shocked middle and upper class Americans when it was published in 1890. Riis created a sensation when he revealed to the world, combining detailed written descriptions with graphic photographs, the horrific conditions of New York City’s tenement housing. How the Other Half Lives raised many questions, such as how and why the poor are subjected to such terrible living conditions and how that environment affects them. Riis also reveals his fears and
Jacob A Riis said “one half of the world does not know how the other half lives” (1) in the introduction of his great book How the Other Half Lives, which was published in 1890. It was simply because the one half did not care how the other half lived. Although unknowing how the other half lives had not been a matter, it brought into relief the gap between people over middle-class and the poor around 1900s in New York City where was the youngest city in the world. After the Civil War, America developed
American History II A Reflection on "How the Other Half Lives" by the Other Half The author of "How the Other Half Lives", Jacob Riis, inscribes on the deplorable living conditions of the Progressive Era from a first-person perspective. Riis, an immigrant, police reporter, photojournalist and most importantly: a pioneer and social reformer, tells a very captivating yet appalling experience of the lower class life in New York City beginning in the 19th century. Migration and the standardization
Riis overcame many obstacles to produce his book How the Other Half Lives which contains the struggles of poor people living in New York. Through his book Riis wanted to bring to life the suffering of these people. He wanted the upper classmen or someone with power to do something about the poverty in this great city. Riis knew of the poverty and wanted everyone to be aware of it. He did so through articles, newspapers, and his book which contained pictures and stories about mothers who were forced
destruction of a nation. Inspired by Lowell’s poem and convicted by his Christian morality, Jacob Riis, a late nineteenth century social reformer, published How the Other Half Lives (1890) so that he might expose the plight of the weak and encourage reform to the living conditions of New York’s poor. Replete with biblical imagery, How the Other Half Lives refers back to the Genesis account of creation from the very first chapter, “Genesis of the Tenement.” Initially a “blessing” for New York’s working
that the “slum” landlords of these tenements exploited immigrants by charging them more rent than they could afford. As a result, every member of the family had to work—even young children. Subsequently, in 1890, Riis wrote a book entitled: How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, which included his horrifying photographs and sketches, as means to expose to the middle class the chaotic environment of tenement living. Although Riss’s book exposes a myriad of social and economic
Ethnic Groups In the book, How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, the living conditions of the tenements in New York, in the late 1800’s. It discusses the poverty and terrible conditions in which the people had to live, and talks about the acts that were passed to try to improve the conditions. It shows that even though acts were passed that it took many many years for the regulations to actually be upheld and abided by. Tenement owners would charge double the value for half the space of a tenement
The word tenements means shanties, or dwellings where people of low income in a community lives. In the book, “How The Other Half Lives” the author begins by showing the worldview of riches and poverty. In the introduction of the text, the author indicates that people from rich places shunned tenements. Tenements have numerous problems. They were over-inhabited; people lead awful lives, poor sanitation, and general low living standards [1]. Jacob Riis in this text indicates that there was a time
In 1890 Jacob Riis, a Danish migrant and New York Times reported introduced the immigrant problem to Americans using photojournalism in his book How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York. This book provided insight into the harsh lives of the immigrants living in the slums of New York by giving photographic evidence that spoke to the hearts of many Americans. At the time many were unaware of the difficult challenges many immigrants faced and Riis brought up this social issue
How truly grateful are we for our possessions and what we have earned from the work we have done? Are we thankful for what we possess, or are we still jealous of that one friend, colleague, coworker, or even extended family member that has nicer belongings than we do? Jacob Riis opened our eyes and gave us a true, vivid description and idea of how American families in New York during the late 1800’s lived and worked. This eye opening account shows us today that we should be grateful for what we have