Summary Of Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives

Jacob Riis was a social reformer who wrote a novel “How the Other Half Lives.” This novel was about the poverty of Lower East Side of New York. After writing this novel views about New York completely changed. Jacob himself knew how it felt to all of these poor people he wrote about because he himself was homeless, and starving all the time. At one point he considering suicide because of the awful living conditions of the city. Later on down the road Jacob Riis become a police reporter which gave him the opportunity to research and write about the city slums or Lower East Side of New York. He focused on getting everyone to actually pay attention to what is happening in their community and after his book came out they did. He also showed/ took

He talks about how people were living in just plain filth, and how it was always dark. Riis also takes pictures of all the awful areas and conditions. The one picture of the little boy standing against the wall in fifth and all by himself really hit me hard. I am an Education major so whenever I see a kid in a bad situation like that it hits my heart really hard. I am not saying that doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t matter because they do. All the pictures Riis took I feel really portrayed poverty like no other. The subject of Riis work is the poor people living in the lower east side of New York. I think Riis work helps us understand the late 19th century in a very meaningful way. I believe this because of the words he uses like “filth” and all the photos he took all of the individuals sleeping on the stairs or really wherever they could find it. I think all of this would and does hit everyone really hard and makes me really think about how it was back

There are all kinds of crimes happening including murder, robbery, grant theft auto, and rape. I live in Gardendale, AL which is about 20 min. north of Birmingham. It is a really small town and not much happens, but every day I go to school I come to Birmingham and sometimes worry about what’s going on a few streets down, off campus. Sometimes it is scary to go to Birmingham and defiantly at night because of all the stories you here about. I also think Birmingham has a lot of poverty just like in the 1890-1910 times. All throughout Birmingham you see homeless people walking around, shelters for those in need, and honestly just some really horrific places to live and be in. Just like Riis wrote the “How the other half lives” and got his community to see how the other side of city lives. I think we should all work to make our community better than what it is