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. The references he uses to describe some of the immigrant live-ins were negative and very much stereotypical. For example he refers to the Italians 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." It appears that he feels bitter towards the Italians or that they have personally offended him by not knowing the English language. I believe he feels that if they (the Italians or any of the minority groups) come to the United States they should know enough English to communicate or do not come at all. .
Riis refers to all the immigration groups in a negative way. He criticizes the intelligence levels of the Italians, how unclean and dishonest the Jews are, and even the perfect cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry, which borders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans, he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with them. However, with his sympathy comes a manner of superiority. He was once impoverished and knows with hard work, like he has done, you can "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" and make a better life which causes him to look down on the people in poverty. .
Overall he discusses the poor immigrants and how they live, but his main focus tends to be on the housing and the conditions of it. An example of the conditions in the book refers to how dusty and full of dirt the buildings are - "It [a building] caught fire six times last winter, but it wouldn't burn.
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. ...
Riis begins his analysis by describing the manner in which these tenements grew from housing the city's proud aristocrats to becoming the overcrowded homes for the industrious poor. ... He also allocates specific chapters for the analysis of each major ethnic group individually, and the manner in which they confront tenement living. ... (Riis, 133-134). ... (Riis, 121). ... (Riis, 37). ...
The persons Riis holds responsible instead are the landlords. Riis believed the landlord dictated the tenement environment. ... In the middle Riis ranks the Italians, Jews, and blacks. On the bottom of the ladder Riis places the Chinese. ... Riis used his camera to express the poor in their supposed "natural" environment but Riis actually had the people pose for the photographs. ...
Ho Chi Minh was the North Vietnamese leader during war with America. Ho Chi Minh shared the same political beliefs as his father. ... Ho truly believed that Vietnam deserved to be free of colonial rule. ... Ho Chi Minh nationalism was present after France ended the fighting with Vietman, Vietnam gained their independence from France but Ho was not finished. Vietnam was to split into two with Ho ruling the North. ...
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? ...
He was Ho Chi Minh, and I admire him because of different reasons. ... Secondly, uncle Ho was a determined man in my mind. ... In my opinion, Uncle Ho is a legend, a hero that I can follow and learn from. ... Ho soon understood the situation and suffering of the country. ... It seems similar to Uncle Ho did when he went to France. ...
