The Reality of Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives Jacob Riis’ book How the Other Half Lives is a detailed description on the poor and the destitute in the inner realms of New York City. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the ‘eyes’ of his camera. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the ‘other half’ is living. As shocking as the truth was without seeing such poverty and horrible conditions with their own eyes or taking in the experience with all their senses it still seemed like a million miles away or even just a fairy tale. The reality of this book hit the people of New York right between the eyes. Riis was once ascribed the label of lower class society, but worked his way up the ladder of success and entered into a higher class among humanity. Riis tried to write this book with pure objectivity but given his background and emotional connection to the tenement dwellers it was hard to keep that objectivity throughout his book. The references he uses to describe some of the immigrant live-ins were negative and very much stereotypical. For example on page 92 when he’s referring to Italians and their ability to speak, English. “Unlike the German, who begins learning English the day he lands as a matter of duty, or the Polish Jew, who takes it up as soon as he is able as an investment, the Italian learns slowly, if at all.” By referring to Italians in such a way gives, the effect that he holds a personal grudge against them. He makes it seem like they have personally offended him by not knowing the English language, when in reality I don’t think he cares at all about what they have to say or what they think about him. He feels that if they (Italians or any of the minority groups) come to the United States they should be well briefed enough know the basic communication needs of his language or don’t come at all because your wasting his time and frankly just being a pain in the ass. He refers to all the immigration groups in a judgmental way. He complains about the intelligence levels of the Italians, how dirty and deceitful the Jews are, and even the immaculate cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry that boarders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with th... ... middle of paper ... ... them enough to care how they live. Once that was done you could take the care they discovered for those people and use it to better their homes. And the city would well be on it’s way to improvement. Riis writes his book effectively and manages to grasp the attention of the nation with his exposé of real life stories and his snap photography of the tenements of New York City. His point of view wasn’t always objective and he had many stereotypes burned into his brain, but at the same time without some of those preconceived ideas I don’t think his writing would have been as effective as it was. There were real emotions and deep feelings that went into his work. Without his connection to the poverty stricken, he would not have an understanding of where those immigrants were mentally, the pain they were going through and the ‘rough road’ ahead of them. The main purpose of his book was to try to help open the eyes of the people in New York to the conditions in which the immigrants are living. By opening their eyes, he hoped that there would be compassion growing in their hearts and maybe open up to that community and aid in the reconstruction of the tenements in which they resided.
Riis believed that the tenants had no choice but to behave as they did. The persons Riis holds responsible are the landlords. Riis believed the landlord dictated the tenement environment. Riis describes the Italians as: “Slow, stubborn, and content to live in a pig – sty.
Riis talked about all the immigrant major groups that came to the United States during this time period. Riis was a bit prejudice and stereotyped the people he wrote about. For example he talked about he Italians as being gamblers and being slow learners. He criticizes them as being dumb and that is the reason they were cheated on their pay roll. They were told that by coming to America they would get pay...
As teenagers, we feel like we know all the complexities of life, and that the changes we experience during puberty are the ultimate variabilities of our lives, but the irony of this is that they still have so much more to learn. The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by Joyce Carol Oates, an influential, feminist author in the 1960s. The story was inspired by the real-life serial killer, Charles Schmid, also known as the “Pied Piper of Tucson”, who like the antagonist in the story, Arnold Friend, preyed on young girls as his victims (Sharma 5). An important element that influenced the story is that it was written in the 1960's, a period known as the Second-Wave of feminism, this was a time when women across America began to break free from the patriarchal system and assert their rights as citizens outside of the home (The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers
One of his main points and I believe to be one of the central reasons behind him writing the book, is to state his harsh yet rightful opinion on bilingualists. Rodriguez states, "The bilingualists insist that a student should be reminded of his difference from others in mass society, his heritage. But they equate mere separateness with individuality" (27). Because he has personally been through that situation, he wants people to understand and support his opinion and possibly persuade them to have a certain opinion on bilingualists.
A European Jew and an Italian were brought together by the idea of a new life. Epstein journeyed to America, just as his father did previously, while he was at a young age because the choice was between “prosperity and poverty, freedom and oppression, shtetl and tenement, democracy and autocracy… life and death” (Laskin 2010, p. 2). Pierro, who voyaged to America just as his father did like young Epstein, “trudged through Ellis Island in the company of hundreds of other southern Italians” (Laskin 2010, p. 41) through the malaria infested Italian slums in hope for new opportunities. These brave men took it upon themselves to leave their families and homes to start new in such unfamiliar
The author distinguishes white people as privileged and respectful compared to mulattos and blacks. In the racial society, white people have the right to get any high-class position in a job or live in any place. In the story, all white characters are noble such as Judge Straight lawyer, Doctor Green, business-man George, and former slaveholder Mrs. Tryon. Moreover, the author also states the racial distinction of whites on mulattos. For example, when Dr. Green talks to Tryon, “‘The niggers,’., ‘are getting mighty trifling since they’ve been freed.
In the story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the main character, Connie, experiences life not having an actively participating mother or father. Most adolescents struggle with the transition from teen-age years to adulthood. For many, this is where the parents step in. Parents are meant to support and help an adolescent when needed, especially during this difficult transition; however, this is not always true. In Connie’s case, her parents allowed her to make the change alone and endure hard times. As a result, she lacked the values needed to survive. Such values are used to equip a young person for the real world and the tragedies that come with it. As seen in “Where are you going, Where have you been?”, Connie was a victim of poor guidance and empty judgment. The dysfunctional family’s behavior was reflected in Connie. Her mother envied her, and her father was not an active figure in her life. Connie 's
He portrays the racist tendency of people to assume black men are potentially violent and dangerous. He describes about a white woman’s reaction when she and him were walking on same street but on the opposite sides during the night. He says that women seemed to be worried, she felt uneasy and she thought that he was ‘menacingly close’. He even shares his experience on how he was taken as a burglar, mistaken as a killer and forced out of a jewelers store while doing assignment for a local paper. The reason behind being kicked out of the jeweler store and women running away was because he was a black man. During that period black men were stereotyped as rapist, murderer, and gang members. These names upon a person’s personality can hinder ones feelings and can also affect ones confidence level. Thus stereotyping can cause a person to miss opportunities and the person might face difficulties in building relationships with specific types of people. (Brent
Not only does he negatively connote the white way of life, he blatantly threatens them by saying “ those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual” and that “there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights”(2). By basically stating that there will not be peace until Negros get rights, therefore threatening the white way of life. Outright threatening the audience would make them not even listen to one’s argument, even if it were supported by
...ying they are a “good croup”; rather than thinking of them as people, he thinks of them as things. Through such bolds words, the power of racism is expressed.
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. Riis himself however has some bias and delineates these people into groups of the “deserving poor” and “undeserving poor”. Despite his muckraking skills and attempts to reveal the hostile conditions of immigrants Riis has some racial prejudices
Gillis, Christina “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: Seduction, Space, and A Fictional Mode.” Studies in Short Fiction. Vol. 18 Issue 1, (Winter 1981): 65 Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 November 2013.
History textbooks seem to always focus on the advancements of civilization, often ignoring the humble beginnings in which these 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, poverty, and crowded, disease-ridden tenements. Jacob A. Riis will photograph this poverty in How the Other Half Lives, hoping to bring awareness to the other half of New York.
Rudy symbolized the immigrant’s child and he also demonstrated how one’s language may become obscured with another. Cheech Marin brings awareness of the dangers an immigrant may go through and also to the lives of an American born child to Immigrant parents. This film is not only relatable but a call for an awakening to ignorance. Many people are able to watch this film and laugh, but behind their minds they are brought to acknowledge and correct the stereotypes and wrong perspectives that one may have about
When he finial find the elephant Orwell say “I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” But when he lays his eyes on the crowd he changes his stance to “but I did not want to shoot the elephant.”(Orwell 199). He felt guilty for shooting the elephant when he describe that the elephant worth more alive than dead, but despite the many reason not to shoot the elephant, he took a shot. Orwell describes “when I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick …I fired again into the same spot…I fired a third time. That was the shot that did it for him.”(199) the shooting of the elephant represent the Burma people trying to stay alive and over powering by the