The chapter "The Down Town Back-Alleys" in Jacob Riis' novel "How the Other Half Lives" focuses on the plight of the poor on the lower east side of Manhattan. The novel focuses on what Riis calls the "other half," indicating the division between the poor people he writes about and his audience. The chapter emphasizes the unfortunate living conditions in tenement housing. He details the gruesome day-to-day lives of the poor, and he stresses how dissimilar their lives are compared to his audience. Riis describes social divisions amongst people, and at times uses offensive writing against certain groups in order to further his thesis. His writing could be construed in two very different ways. Was Riis being racist and prejudicial or were his racial comments necessary to create a connection and gain trust from his audience? It is interesting how as an immigrant, Riis made disparaging comments towards others like himself. Riis' use of unethical writing and the overt stereotypes portrayed helped him achieve his real goal, social reform. .
Riis creates many divisions in his writing. He mostly discusses the major divide between the rich and the poor. On the bottom of page 294, he writes, "Leaving the Elevated Railroad where it dives under the Brooklyn Bridge at Franklin Square, scare a dozen stops will take us where we wish to go. With its rush and roar echoing yet in our ears, we have turned the corner from prosperity to poverty. We stand upon the domain of the tenement." Riis is specifically describing the divide, going down from the "Elevated Railroad," and "Dives under the Brooklyn Bridge." The "Elevated" image symbolizes the rich and upper class, and going down, "from prosperity to poverty." Riis is imparting the idea of descending to the lower class. Going from rich to poor, from light to dark, reminiscent of descending to hell.
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. He was a Danish American journalist and a social reformer. ... Jacob Riis had a great impact on the United States of America. ...
Progressives and the Industrial Movement The early progressives did not agree with Social Darwinism in which William Graham Sumner supported. ... They believed that government could be tool for change, but most progressives thought of fixing social problems in different ways. ... The first progressive is Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis believed that the industrial movement brought forth terrible, poor tenement living. ... He states that conservatives are being threatened by progressivism and it must not last and there is the difference between modern progressivism and old reform. ...
They believed that government could be tool for change, but most progressives thought of fixing social problems in different ways. ... The first progressive is Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis believed that the industrial movement brought forth terrible, poor tenement living. ... He states that conservatives are being threatened by progressivism and it must not last and there is the difference between modern progressivism and old reform. ... Progressives were what Croly and Riis were called because progress meant to change. ...
The decades in history where the progressives and the government took up goals that would end the abuse of power, reforming social institutions, monopoly, inefficiency, social injustice, better living and labor conditions was called the Progressive Era. ... These muckrakers, whom President Roosevelt named, were writers like Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell who wrote long, detailed articles and entire books exposing fraud, waste, corruption and other evils in government, business and social conditions, such as How the Other Half Lives. With this article Jacob A. Riis wanted to s...
As they became to be known as muckrakers these reporters, authors, and critics sought to expose the evils and injustices of Gilded Age society, hoping to expose such social ills before they strangled democracy. ... Muckrakers like Jacob Riis would write books about how people lived during this time in order to get the conditions fixed and shown to government. ... Some famous muckrakers of the progressive era were Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, David Graham Phillips, Jacob Riis, Ray Stannard Baker, Samuel Hopkins Adams, and Upton Sinclair. ... Ray Stannard Baker focused on the social and politi...
Jane Addams was a social reformer during the Progressive Era, during which, she created the Hull House. ... Another hero of the Progressive Era was Jacob Riis, who, through his photography, revealed the horrible living conditions of the urban poor to the public. ... Riis went on to influence tenement housing reforms, better education, and the establishment of more public parks and playgrounds. ...
They questioned laissez faire and Social Darwinism, and believed that government, with influence from Progressives, could make positive and powerful reforms. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant and renowned journalist who's influential book How the Other Half Lives uses photography and statistical data and observations as instruments of reform, was distinctly progressive. ... Riis set a precedent for social consciousness. A wave of middle- class social reformers followed Riis, namely Jane Addams, leader of the settlement house movement who founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, Florence Kelle...
Frances Kellor- lawyer turned social reformer, believed poverty and inequality could be eliminated and that if Americans heard truth about millions living in urban slums, they would rise up and change things. ... Not all were reformers, some wanted to profit from scandals. ... She was persecuted to separating sex from procreation in her magazine The Woman Rebel and Family Limitation Jacob Ris- How the Other Half Lives (1890) horrified reformers. ... Wanted to replace NY slums with parks, while reformers worked for tenement house laws. ... Teddy influenced by Jacob Riis, deeply affected by so...
The main goals of the Progressives, as they were called, were to improve the quality of life and the standard of living, to get people more involved in democracy, to change societal problems which were desperately needed, and for the government to correct social and economic reforms. To say that, "The Progressive movement resulted in a series of lasting reforms and influenced U.S. government for much of the 20th century- is an accurate statement. ... Jacob Riis' articles on tenement life were published in How the Other Half Lives in 1890. ... It influenced the developments in psychology, ...
