Jacob Riis' book How the Other Half Lives is a detailed description on the poor and the destitute in the inner realms of New York City. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the eyes' of his camera. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the other half' is living. As shocking as the truth was without seeing such poverty and horrible conditions with their own eyes or taking in the experience with all their senses it still seemed like a million miles away or even just a fairy tale.
The reality of this book hit the people of New York right between the eyes. Riis was once ascribed the label of lower class society, but worked his way up the ladder of success and entered into a higher class among humanity. Riis tried to write this book with pure objectivity but given his background and emotional connection to the tenement dwellers it was hard to keep that objectivity throughout his book. The references he uses to......
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Approximate Word Count: 1128
Approximate Pages: 5 (260 words per double-spaced page) |