In the 1880s, Immigrants within New York City slums had poor living conditions as depicted by Jacob Riis in his work ‘How the other half lives”. In this work, one family wishes to support another which is less fortunate than the other one. The Mullins family did not want to open their gates since they knew they had to give something back to a less fortunate family. The two families were communicating through television until the time they met in Marbella. However, the poor family noted that there was no difference between them and the well-up family. The Mullins were generous while the O’Dwyers were grateful for what they had. The book explains the poor conditions of the less fortunate people in the slums, and how they are neglected by the rich. There is a relationship between Jacob Riis’s work, and the gilded ages in America since within the gilded ages; there were progressives from the middle class; and populists occupying the lower class. In the gilded ages, the progressives and the populists advocated for government supervision and intervention, in the unregulated capitalism and urban boom. As it was stated by these groups, the government was to take charge of particular interests like railroads and trusts for the protection of laborers, women, blacks, and consumer rights. In both works, the laborers were paid less for their hard work, and children were also overworked in factories as well as in other places (Rosjord 25-50).
The book is organized in such a way that the photographs and drawings depict how people lived in the slums. Jacob Riis uses the first-person encounter to expose the other half. The Mullins family communicated with the O’Dwyers through laptops but at the end met, only to find not much difference between them. There is a dramatic juxtaposition where the rich and the poor met at Marbella (Riis 5-200).
The author wanted to point out that life in the New York City slums was not good, as could be seen by outsiders that the people there lived in abject poverty. The author wanted to expose the conditions in the slums and how the rich exploit the poor, through their labor (Riis 5-200).
The author supports his thesis by providing an observational study of the filthy conditions in New York City; especially among the working people by the use of photographs and images. He uses his journalistic skills to clarify the facts to do with the conditions he documented. An example here is the outbreak of cholera disease in 1869, due to poor behavioral and sanitary conditions of the poor as they had been neglected (Riis 5-200).
The book is convincing because the author uses photographs and drawings, in exposing the conditions of the poor in the slums of New York City. He used these photographs to educate and inform people as a clear indication for those in a position to make changes (Riis 5-200).
The sources used in the book are legitimate; as he uses seventeen photographs and six drawings illustrating the lives of the people in New York. Since Riis was a police reporter; he had collected all information about the poor people and the middle class; noting that the less fortunate families lived in abject poverty (Riis 5-200).
The book emphasizes the differences between the rich and the poor, showing how bad living conditions were among the poor. The poor were exploited by the rich in terms of labor, thus their conditions needed to be addressed. Riis supported his work with drawings and photographs giving informed information in his book. This is a clear indication that even in developed countries; some people lived in abject poverty as the book outlines the living conditions of the O’Dwyers in New York City (Riis 5-200).
Riis’s book sheds light on these conditions for the public, regarding the people living in the slums requiring those in power to address the issue. In the gilded age; workers, blacks, and women were only to be protected from special interests if the government would be in charge of railroads and trusts. Therefore the Riis’s book is a good framework for the gilded age; as it accounts for moves that were in support of the economic and population growth associated with the gilded ages (Rosjord 25-50).
Works cited
Riis, Jacob. “How the other half lives”. New York: Dover Publications. (1971): 5-200.
Risjord, Norman. “Representative Americans: Populists and Progressives”. Lanham, M.D.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (2004): 25-50.