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Examples Of Poverty In America

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Recommended: Immigration late 19th century america

Under the capitalist hand
Poverty in America stomped over immigrants in the 1900’s like a herd of elephants roaming through the African savanna. The tremendous effect of the American dream was shown as thousands of immigrants came into the US. Little did everyone know that making money, living a warm life, finding a stable job, and hope for a better life was all a lie. In fact, poverty was so bad that “by 1904 one in three people living in the cities was close to starving to death.” Just imagine that, the population of major cities pulling in immigrants where New York and Chicago, and according to a census by infoplease the population of New York in 1900 was 3,437,202. That’s over one million people starving to death! And the cause of everything, capitalism. Imagine being an incoming immigrant who speaks a foreign immigrant who doesn’t speak the language, who doesn’t know what to do or where to go. Nor know why the boss enforces an extensive, never ending job that pays barely enough to live on. Or why it is necessary to force the hungry and starving children and the child bearing women to work in the same or worse conditions. Where an immigrants hard work never seems to pay off, like it was promised a long time ago a time where capitalism hid in between the words of the promised wealth and …show more content…

Jurgis, the protagonist, being a labor worker himself states that there “were managers and superintendents and foremen, each one driving the man next below him and trying to squeeze out of him as much work as possible” (70). Upon reaching America he quickly saw the hand of capitalism in every corner in and in every person, even among poor laborers themselves. Upon seeing the hand of capitalism Jurgis quickly went downhill, he lost his job, he turned to alcohol, and even crime. All because capitalists always had the upper hand and cared only about what benefitted

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It would not be strange that this ideology takes an important role in the outcome of the story, as part of Jurgis’ “solution” and new source of hope. For the writer, of Socialist roots, the American Dream was just a mirage, directing millions of immigrants into poverty and oppression. As in most industrial cities, workers had a very tough life. They mostly lived in tenements, small flats that could hold several families, located in very poor places, and holding unsanitary conditions. This was not their only threat to their lives.

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