How The Other Half Lives

How the Other Half Lives
Background
Jacob Riis came to the United States from Denmark in 1870, when he was 20 years old.
He arrived in New York City nearly penniless and worked a variety of jobs before
entering the newspaper business. In 1877, Riis took a job as a police reporter for the
New York Tribune. As part of his job, he would follow the police into some of New York
City’s poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods, which showed him what life was like
in the tenements. His experiences convinced him that something needed to be done to
improve the living conditions of the poor, and he supported efforts to change the city’s
housing laws and policies.
Read this passage from Jacob Riis’ book How The Other Half Lives.
“The Italian comes in at the bottom, and in the generation that came over
the sea he stays there. In the slums he is welcomed as a tenant who
“makes less trouble” than the contentious Irishman or the order-loving
German, that is to say: is content to live in a pig-sty and submits to robbery
at the hands of the rent-collector without murmur. . . .
Ordinarily he is easily enough governed by authority—always excepting
Sunday, when he settles down to a game of cards and lets loose all his bad
passions. Like the Chinese, the Italian is a born gambler. His soul is in the
game from the moment the cards are on the table, and very frequently his
knife is in it too before the game is ended.”
Source: How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, 1890.
Answer the following questions based on the quote in a paragraph response using evidence from the
quote.
While Riis was committed to illuminating the living conditions of the working poor, what does this
passage reveal about Riis’s attitudes towards Italian immigrants? I think the quote, “that is to say: is
content to live in a pig-sty and submits to robbery.” Is saying that Italians had to get used to being
treated bad and that they were given few opportunities causing them to be rebels and become in
poverty.
at the hands of the rent-collector without murmur. . . .
I think Riis thinks that the Italian immigrants are the least liked immigrants. His word choices make me
think that they were attacked when they moved to New York and that their culture was shunned. I also
think that
Return to one of the pictures we looked at in out group activity.
Riis writes “On one of my visits to ‘the Bend’ I came

across this fellow sitting . . . and he struck me as being
such a typical tramp that I asked him to sit still for a
minute and I would give him ten cents. That was
probably the first and only ten cents that man had
earned by honest labor in the course of his life and that
was by sitting down at which he was an undoubted
expert.”
Answer:
What is Riis’ attitude towards the man in the picture?
Riis’ might think that the man never gets opportunity

and him posing for the photo wasn’t really a pose it was
how he lives his daily life, and it portrays how in poverty
he is based on his living conditions.
Based on the picture and the quote describe what you think this man’s day to day life looks like. What
does he do? How might is life be different from yours?
Based on the picture I think the man stays in his “house” all day long and gets zero work opportunity. I
think that some sort of trauma may have affected him and that he might not have the energy in his daily
life to do anything. My daily life compared to his daily life is a lot more active. I am provided with food,
water, education and health care but based on the picture it looks like the man hasn’t gotten any of
those things in a long time.
In a well organized response answer: What do you think Riis was trying to accomplish with his book How
The Other Half Lives? Do you think that he was successful?
I think Riis was trying to inform people, specifically the wealth that people in poverty do exist and that
they are truly struggling. He might want the wealth to help the poor and quit thinking that they need all
the wealth in the world. Unlike people with wealth the main things that people in poverty need is food,
water and a type of opportunity or care. These things might seem like ordinary things that wealthy
people never have to think about having. Riis was trying to prove a point through the book that wealthy
people need to be more aware that just down the block people might be living in a ditch or starving to
death. I think that he wasn’t necessarily successful because this type of poverty went on for a while but
he definitely raised a bit of awareness to the issue which was rare for that time period.

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How the Other Half Lives

housing laws and policies.

the sea he stays there. In the slums he is welcomed as a tenant who

“makes less trouble” than the contentious Irishman or the order-loving

German, that is to say: is content to live in a pig-sty and submits to robbery

at the hands of the rent-collector without murmur. . . .

Ordinarily he is easily enough governed by authority—always excepting

knife is in it too before the game is ended.”

Source: How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, 1890.

at the hands of the rent-collector without murmur. . . .

Return to one of the pictures we looked at in out group activity.

Riis writes “On one of my visits to ‘the Bend’ I came

What is Riis’ attitude towards the man in the picture?

Riis’ might think that the man never gets opportunity

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