The tenant's behavior and characteristics reflected those of their surrounding conditions. Their housing was dark and filthy, as were their habits. The most popular hangout of the average tenant was the saloon, and conveniently enough it was usually located on the first floor of the tenement buildings. They hardly bathed or cleaned, and basically lived like animals. Riis was convinced that the nature of the poor's environment was the major factor in the development of their morals and personalities, Riis states: "An individuals future was shaped ultimately by environmental factors."(Pg. 29) Although Riis does admit some unfavorable hereditary characteristics also might attribute to keeping a man from success. The tenement was the biggest hindrance to achieving the American myth of rags to riches. It becomes impossible for one to rise up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live passed the age of five. Children under the age of five living in tenements had a death rate of 139.83 compared to the city's overall death rate of 26.67. Even if one did live past the age of five it was highly probable he"d become a criminal, since virtually all of them originate from the tenements. They are forced to steal and murder, they"ll do anything to survive, Riis appropriately calls it the "survival of the unfittest". (Pg. 40) Riis believed that the tenants had no choice but to behave as they did. The persons Riis holds responsible instead are the landlords. Riis believed the landlord dictated the tenement environment. Riis claimed landlords: "Frequently urged the filthy habits of the tenants as an excuse for the condition of their property, utterly losing sight of the fact that it was the tolerance of those habits which was the real evil, and that for this they themselves were alone responsible."(Pg. 64) The tenements were growing worse, their populations increased and their conditions decreased.
Riis creates many divisions in his writing. ... " Riis is imparting the idea of descending to the lower class. ... Riis does this by describing the racial hierarchy and how they differed. ... Here, Riis makes a point to discuss the Irish and Italian groups of people. ... It is peculiar that he makes this distinction even though Riis is an immigrant himself. ...
The photojournalism presented by Riis had a major impact on the message he was trying to get across to the public. Jacob Riis worked as a reporter and was shocked by the conditions these people lived in. ... I felt this book was very difficult to read and the message Riis was giving his readers was unimaginable. ... Riis traveled from tenement house to tenement house seeing the same conditions, if not worse. ... Riis also reported that he walked into one house and the floor was covered with hardened mud. ...
Jacob Riis" book, How the Other Half Lives, is an account on the unfortunate and the impoverished in New York City. Riis tried to write this book with objectivity but given his background and personal connection to the apartment tenants it was hard to keep that objectivity throughout his book. ... Riis refers to all the immigration groups in a negative way. ... Riis writes his book effectively and manages to grasp the attention of the nation with his depiction of real life stories and his snap photography of the tenements of New York City. ...
(Riis, 133-134). ... (Riis, 92) Chinese were looked down upon very unfavorably by Riis. ... (Riis, 121). ... (Riis, 127) The Chinese had the reputation as being the quietest people in the "notoriously turbulent Sixth Ward" (Riis, 127). ... (Riis, 37). ...
His name was Jacob Riis. ... Jacob Riis was the 3rd of 13 children in his family. ... Eventually Jacob Riis was the photographer and on the NY board about commissions. ... In older adult years Riis began to use his photo's to backup his arguments. ... Jacob Riis had a great impact on the United States of America. ...
Riis believed that landlords were to blame for most of these poor conditions. ... Riis believed that if this trend continued that there would be revolt in the city. ... Riis even exhibited much of this discrimination in his writing. ... I would like to know how successful Riis was in changing the face in Tenement living. ... What strategies did they use, were any of them Riis's ideas? ...
Jacob Riis evocative black and white photographs, taken more than a century ago, propel us both backward and forward through history. Jacob August Riis, a New York City police reporter, found his world transformed with the advent offlashlight powder.? ... Jacob Riis, the author of the bestseller How the Other Half Lives, hated poverty because it reminded him of his own tumultuous past. Riis left Denmark for New York at the age of 21. ... As Riis writes,only the poor abandon their children? ...
The first progressive is Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis believed that the industrial movement brought forth terrible, poor tenement living. ... Unlike Sumner in which he said that change is part of our imagination and not be attempted, Riis thought otherwise and thought that change was part of our responsibility as a society to improve. Riis thought that this tenement problem was under our control and therefore solve the problems it had and we could live in a better society. ... Progressives were what Croly and Riis were called because progress meant to change. ...
The first progressive is Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis believed that the industrial movement brought forth terrible, poor tenement living. ... Unlike Sumner in which he said that change is part of our imagination and not be attempted, Riis thought otherwise and thought that change was part of our responsibility as a society to improve. Riis thought that this tenement problem was under our control and therefore solve the problems it had and we could live in a better society. ... Progressives were what Croly and Riis were called because progress meant to change. ...