1. Why do you think Riis cares about "how the other half lives"?
2. "In many instances the police had to drag the tenants out by force." (last line of the first paragraph) Do you think it was an effective method? Why or why not?
3."...the younger criminals as victims of low social conditions of life and unhealthy, overcrowded lodgings, brought up in "an atmosphere of actual darkness, moral and physical." Do you think this phrase is still true for our generation? Explain.
4. What shocked you most in this story?
5. If you would be in the U.S. Government during 1800-1900, what would you do to solve this problem with overcrowded tenements?
Uncle Sam - Strong Features
"Uncle Sam is a Man of Strong Features" (1898)
Response to question 3:
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I think this phrase definitely still applies to our generation. I have lived in the housing projects for almost fourteen years and it is shit, shit, shit. The projects I live in are eighteen stories, and it is definitely overcrowded. If my calculations are correct, there are about 33-38 people living on my floor. If this is the average amount of people per floor, there are about 561-646 people living in my building. Seems like a reasonable number for a building of eighteen stories, until you factor in that most apartments are only two or three bedrooms, small kitchens, with medium sized living rooms, and a decent size bathroom.
So much of what I deal with in the projects, Riis writes about. For example, the way the buildings have many reported needed repairs and how they are often left neglected. Being treated like this, on top of being consciously aware that the housing projects are a segregated community of immigrants or working poor classes--which translates to only minorities, no whites--has this affect on the tenants that they are purposely being ignored, and neglected. In my neighborhood there is a rise in gentrification (which means they’re pushing us poor folks out), rather than help or support the community that is already there. I think what Riis meant by “an atmosphere of actual darkness, moral and physical” is the way you feel when you live in poor conditions. It blurs your judgment and you sort of stop caring about following the rules, or laws, because you care more about how you’re going to pay next months rent, or where your next meal is going to come from. Even if it means having a job that is illegal.
When you live in a neighborhood that is described as a modern-day ghetto, and you see the conditions you live in, and how there are more liquor stores than there are supermarkets, pharmacies, or hospitals; where there is a high crime rate, as well as drug trafficking, where people are being arrested and imprisoned for their crimes--but it doesn’t make a difference to your neighborhood, because when one guy goes, he’s instantly replaced by another drug dealer, or would-be murderer, as Riis puts it we’ve “sunk…to the level of [our] surroundings” and after a while we’re “content to remain [here]”. Even as I type this there is a certain detachment from my experiences living in my neighborhood, because I am forced to accept that as a poor person I have no right to ask for a better living. And because I have so much working against me, even I, like most other tenants around my age, fall as victims to the low social conditions we’re forced to deal with. Which often means learning to deal with feeling like you’re inferior to most people.
---This is long. What I'm trying to get at with this is that when you are conscious of the environment you live in, it isn't just literally dark, it becomes metaphorically dark too. For example: not only is my building literally dark since most of the floors have been burned because of fires, or the lights in the hallway, elevator, or staircase haven't been changed, but also just a person's story and how they ended up in this environment, or in my building is dark. There are stories of rape, murder, abuse, assault, drug dealing, drug using, the list goes on. And when we make an environment like the tenements, or projects, we're not only cutting this life off from other people who aren't living in the projects or in the neighborhood, keeping them safe from all of this, but we're containing it within the building, passing it on to our children and neighbors. And it becomes this odd relationship where you hate living here, but you can't imagine yourself anywhere else.
The question- “Why do you think Riis cares about "how the other half lives”?” Well, I believe that he experiencing poverty first hand has a lot to do with it. It is just like today where rappers start off poor, living in the projects, and when they become successful, they want to give back to their community. This is a similar situation, but instead, Riis had a different tactic into improving the lives of the poor. He did it through writing and photography. With these components, people were actually able to see these harsh living conditions of the poor in New York City. But although, people in the 1800’s may have looked at these photos and thought “Oh my god, I cannot believe this”, I look at these photos and I am “LMAO”. I mean come on. I look at the first photo, (the three boys sleeping on a barrel), and I am just like why is the boy on the far left smiling? But then again, I think it adds to the concept that these photos are reality. You do not see them actually posing for the camera, but they are being themselves.
ReplyDeleteNothing really shocked me in the story, being that I see these harsh living conditions done today. He writes “…brick building from four to six stories high on the street, frequently with a store on the first floor which, when used for the sale of liquor, has a side opening for the benefit of the inmate to invade…” and complains about it. It was just weird to me because this actually sounds like my apartment…LOL. But this is why I say this story did not shock me; it is because I am so used to seeing these kinds of living conditions that it becomes hard to complain about it. I have seen it all- project buildings with rats the size of raccoons, apartments broken up into tiny rooms so that the landlord can rent it out to 5 different people, and people who live in basement rooms where water pipes are literally over their heads. But I have yet to see people complain about it because that is what they are used to and having a huge house with a white picket fence becomes out of the question for them. (F.Y.I I have known others to live like this, haven’t actually experienced the above mentioned living conditions personally.)
If I were in the U.S government during the 1800-1900, I do not know what I would do to solve this problem with overcrowded tenements. But that is only because I am not into politics. Hey, what can I say?!
Chereene Ligno writes:
ReplyDeleteI honestly believe the quote in question number three does not apply to our generation. My reason is today there are so many things affecting young people. Jacob Riis may very well be right about the younger criminal during that time, but if we think that the young people of today are becoming criminals only because of “over crowded lodgings” then society is blind to a lot of issues. To say that a young criminal is a victim of “low social conditions” is a typical statement that is untrue. I have lived in the urban area of Flatbush for most of lifetime, and I think this allows me to comment on what I have seen with my own eyes.
People tend to always observe the society of the younger criminal, and never observe the individual themselves. How is it possible that two people brought up in an over crowded home of immigrant parent’s in “an atmosphere of actual darkness, moral and physical” can go onto two different paths? I have seen for myself brothers from the same home and circumstances where one ends up good and the other ends up a product of his community and NOT his home. So what is the younger criminal who lives in the suburbs a victim of? My answer is not moral or physical darkness; it is a personal darkness that only they know of. I cannot say that a feeling of physical darkness does not exist for those living in poor conditions. However, living conditions in my opinion are a minor part of what makes a young criminal.