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How The Other Half Lives Summary

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Throughout history, there were many people who viewed the United States as a one-way boat ride to complete freedom. Freedom from their country, whether it was undergoing a depression, dictatorship or a famine. The opening of Ellis Island in 1892 was one of the most unforgettable dates in America’s history. When the immigrants came through the island, they realized that it wasn’t just people from their country, but from all around the world. The millions of immigrants who came to America were mainly from southern and eastern Europe, consisting mainly of Italians, Greeks and Jews. There were about 1,800 to 2,100 arrivals per day of people aging from babies to grandparents. It was seen that there were a great amount of immigrants from Ireland …show more content…

When the natives began to realize that the immigrants were easily getting jobs because they were willing to work for much less, they became very angry because they didn’t want to lose their jobs and also because the immigrants didn’t know the English language. What they didn’t understand was that the factory workers would rather teach someone the job, pay them much less rather than pay someone more, and hire people that don’t speak Englsih. So, they tried to shut out the immigrants, until an immigrant himself Jacob Riis, published “How The Other Half Lives”. This book soon became the talk of the city because it showed what was really going on in the alleys and closed doors of the New York, the things that the upper class native’s didn’t realize. When they invented flash photography, Riis went around and took pictures of these immigrants and poor people living in their tenements, on top of garbage cans, in tight spaces, children playing in dirty clothes, and malnourished people everywhere. He captured the real problems that were going on with these poor people. Riis wanted to open the eyes of the upper class to show them that even though they may be mad about the lower class taking their jobs, they live in the utmost

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Summary Of How The Other Half Lives By Jacob Riss

617 Words | 3 Pages

Jacob Riis emigrated to the United States in 1870. With his primal photographic skills, he worked as a reporter in "New York Sun. " Due to harsh living conditions, and tenement life, of New York citizens, Jacob Riss used his camera as a tool to bring changes. In 1890, Riss released his famous book "How the Other Half Lives," which contained photos of New York poverty life. The book had a huge impact on American people, and authorities.

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Review Of Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives

525 Words | 3 Pages

How the Other Half Lives Jacob Riis, photojournalist and author of How the Other Half Lives depicts the unbearable living conditions of the New York City tenement taken place during the era of the Progression. How the Other Half Lives was written in first person, therefore, Riis’s research and writings came from events he experienced himself living in the tenements. Jacob Riis made photojournalism popular. He was a Danish immigrant along with being a social reformer and pioneer. Migration was one of the main causes to the overcrowding living situations of in New York City.

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Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives Sparknotes

1470 Words | 6 Pages

As a muckraker, Jacob Riis wrote about his journey through the New York slums which is described in the book How the Other Half Lives:Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890). Thus, using his research and experience in New York, Jacob Riis establishes a strongly supported novel that, which is based on his first hand experienced information that he gathered while touring through Mulberry Street and several other streets, to better understand the hardship of

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Synopsis Of After The Fact By James West Davidson

680 Words | 3 Pages

How the Other Half Lives is a point by point portrayal on poor people and the penniless in the internal domains of New York City. Riis tries to depict the living conditions through the 'eyes' of his camera. He sneaks up on the general population flashes a photo and afterward tells whatever remains of the city how the 'other half' is living. As stunning as the fact of the matter was without seeing such neediness and awful conditions with their own particular eyes or taking in the involvement with every one of their faculties regardless it appeared like a million miles away or even only a fable. The truth of this book hit the general population of New York directly between the

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Anzia Yezierska's Short Story 'The Lost Beautifulness'

634 Words | 3 Pages

The life of immigrants living on the Lower East Side in the late 1800s early 1900s was tough. Coming to a new country itself is difficult. Immigrants didn’t have much to begin with. Most of them had jobs that allow them to barely live. Anzia Yezierska’s short story “The Lost ’Beautifulness’” depicts the immigration experience.

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How Did Ellis Island Contribute To The Hudson River

710 Words | 3 Pages

Ellis Island: Its History to the Hudson River and America At its inception, Ellis Island was a response to the rising number of European immigrants seeking to begin new lives in the land of promise. From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island a small island in New York Bay, served as the main point of entry for immigrants to the United States. The Hudson River was the main gateway for these immigrants and the diffusion of their culture to the Hudson River Valley, and in the end, the country.

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Jacob Riis's 'How The Other Half Life'

1399 Words | 6 Pages

The dramatic economic expansion that American experienced during industrialization led to the creation of the extremely poor and the extremely rich. During the Progressive Era, New York faced overpopulation distribution and overcrowding of living arrangements in the city due to the migration. Inevitably, the class division in terms of the economy and social amongst the people made it impossible for Americanization of becoming together as a nation. Jacob Riis, and immigrant himself, a photojournalist and most important, a social reformer exposed the abuse and poor treatment of the tenements in New York City through his work How the Other Half Lives. He utilized the use of flash photograph, allowing him to capture and communicate in a very specific

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Greek Americans In The 1800s

318 Words | 2 Pages

Just like several other ethnic groups in the 1800s, poverty drove many Greeks to emigrate to America. In their home country, agriculture paid inadequately and was long, arduous work. And those already paltry conditions turned destitute for citizens when blight struck their crops. This caused a mass migration from Greece that began in the 1890s and lasted through the 1920s (Iliou, 2007). During that time, many people from Greece sailed to Ellis Island, in hopes of a better future.

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Allusions In Otherwise There's Nothing New

937 Words | 4 Pages

Sholem Aleichem’s “Otherwise, There’s Nothing New” weaves the themes of Labor and Capitalism seamlessly into the story. The story engages the ideas of child labor and capitalism versus socialism all functioning to critique not just Jewish immigrant communities in a comedic wrapper. As one begins to unwrap the treat that is “Otherwise, There’s Nothing New”, similes and allusions are revealed to deliver the theme of unfair labor treatment, highlighting the harsh realities of not only America, but also the world for those underprivileged.

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The Role Of Immigrants In The Mid-19th Century

308 Words | 2 Pages

The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families.

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Immigration To America In The Late 1800s

261 Words | 2 Pages

Chaya, The number of immigrants spiked during this time. Some immigrants came to have a better life and some immigrants came to America seeking refuge. In the course book on page 612, it mentions how in 1888, more than half a million Europeans landed in America. New York City accounted for 75 percent of them.

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1. What Challenges Did Immigrants Face Upon Arrival In America?

1050 Words | 5 Pages

Ellis Island, “was America’s main processing station for immigrants, between 1892 and

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Irish Immigration To America Essay

943 Words | 4 Pages

Irish Immigrants in America Before the outbreak of the dread Irish Potato Famine, the people of Ireland had been a relatively small demographic in America. The immigration of Irish males had increased in the 1820 's, due to an abundance of jobs created by the building of the Erie Canal and other canal, road, or railroad projects, but when the famine struck, entire families flocked in droves to the United States. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," they heard our country call, and they came by the thousands, hoping to find, if nothing else, a decent existence. Between the years 1820 and 1930, an estimated 4.5 million Irish came to America.

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Ellis Island Immigration

868 Words | 4 Pages

Opening in 1892, Ellis Island quickly became the most active immigration station (and largest in America) for Immigrants entering the U.S.; mainly from Europe. For these Immigrants, Ellis Island was the entrance point to "the land of opportunity" and they had worked hard and spent a lot of hard earned money to get there. The immigrants that came to the America were coming partially because of the prospect and promises of prosperity and happiness and that America was “the land of opportunity”, but mainly because of drought, famine, war, and religious persecution in their home countries. From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island processed over 12 million immigrants. For most people, Ellis Island was a wonderful place that would be the entry point beginning of their new life, but for some others it was a miserable experience.

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What Changes During The Middle Ages

386 Words | 2 Pages

The more things change, the more they stay the same, an old cliché that remains true. The Middle Ages were a dark time in European history that left Europe ruined as a result of the plagues, death, and political and clerical confusion of the time. The Renaissance, which began in the 14th century after the disastrous events of the Middle Ages, changed all that. The Renaissance was an age characterized by a revived interest in ancient studies, like Greco-Roman literature, art, humanism and secularism, a vast contrast to life during The Middle Ages. The term “Renaissance” is a valid concept for a distinct period in early modern European history because it emphasized individualism, encouraged the study of secular topics, and it challenged the

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