This description of the environment that these poor people had to live in was just too terrible and uncomfortable. As a foreigner, I was wrong when thinking about how fancy New York is, compared to the history of the city. I once heard this quote when researching America, “If you can survive in New York, you can survive anywhere.
” It must be true in this case.
I chose these two excerpts because they gave me interesting glimpses into the history of the United States in two famous cities in the Progressive Era. “How the Other Half Lives” is the study among the tenement in New York and “Twenty Years of Hull House” is the study among urban areas in Chicago. Two places that both Riis and Addams focused on were full of poor immigrants. Although each individual chose different ways to improve their communities, both were successful with their goals. They were able to move the government to act, and they were responsible for many important changes in the immigrants’ lives. Riis’ goal was to expose to “the other half who doesn’t know” the horrible living condition of poor people and suggested his idea to solve the tenement problem between the landlord and the immigrants. He aimed to bring up the quality of life for these people. Interestingly, he was an immigrant too and he could see the problem of the rapid industrialization. On the other hand, Addams chose to live among the poor immigrants to embrace them and help them gain access to the American Dream. She also showed how powerful a woman can be. I was drawn to these two documents because the backgrounds were nearly the same despite different locations, both Riis and Addams opened the windows into a world unknown to most people, like me. I am now clear and aware of the poverty back in that time, and the difficulties of the social workers had to deal with. Overall, these two were fascinating readings.
"How the other half lives" and "Twenty years of Hull House". (2022, May 13). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/how-the-other-half-lives-and-twenty-years-of-hull-house/