All-American Adventure

Previously when learning about Coney Island, many of the sources we read described Coney Island as a place where people felt free to relax their morals. It reflected changing relations between genders and people of different social classes. The primary source document, “All-American Adventure” was interesting because it was a real example of what we have been learning about Coney Island. The narrator, Lily Daché, was an innocent girl from Paris who entered and embraced the Coney Island culture. At Coney Island, she talked to a male stranger, and spent the day with him. This is something that would have been considered inappropriate in Paris and something she felt she should not be doing, but was swept up in the excitement and atmosphere of Coney Island.

This primary source also reflects the status of immigrants at Coney Island. Lily Daché was an immigrant, and up until the end of the document, she continuously refers to herself as an immigrant. After her adventure at Coney Island, though, Lily no longer feels like she is an immigrant. For her, going to Coney Island is an important part of being an American. She says, “when he left me at my door that night I knew I was a real American from now on. I had “picked up” a date at Coney Island, I had eaten hot dogs and peanuts and had ridden the chute-the chutes. It had been a holiday to match my mood, and now I was ready for the next step on my road to success For I never doubted for a moment that success was my destination.” Her experience at Coney island made Lily feel like an American. 

Amusing the MIllion pgs 55-112

In this last half of Amusing the Million, Kasson describes the creating of the three parks, Steeplechase, Luna, and Dreamland, and brings the reader to the end of Coney Island. The first half of this section seemed to reiterate what we have been talking about in class and what was in the movie we watched in class. It illustrated the rise of Steeplechase, then Thompson and Dundy’s creation of Luna Park, and finally the building of Dreamland. Kasson portrayed the competition between the parks, each one trying to out do the others. This section also repeated the discussions we have been having in class about how Coney island was a place where people would go to escape reality and experience a relaxed and primitive state, where everything was just fun.

One thing I thought was interesting was how Coney Island began as something new and exciting, but ended because “the rest of the culture was catching up” (112). Most of the rides were based off of things in everyday life, such as trolley cars and trains, but at Coney Island they seemed much more fun and exhilarating. In reading the first section of Amusing the Million, one of the things I wrote in my last blog post was that it seemed like Coney Island was a gateway into the future. It is this fact, it seems, that is what made Coney Island such a special destination. People no longer found it fascinating when everyday mass culture gave people some of the same opportunities and experiences they got from Coney Island. “The experience was less extraordinary and hence less meaningful” (112). 

Amusing the Million pgs 1-54

In this section, the thing that really stood out for me was the way John F. Kasson kept on referring to Coney Island as a place where people could stray from the binds of proper society and relax. “It broke down the sense of rigidity that dominated so much of the life of American cities at the turn of the century and lessened personal restraints” (41).  Kasson describes the social codes middle class America as formal and uptight. Even the working class “observed a strict etiquette,” (42), especially when it came to young men and women and dating. But at Coney Island “permitted a respite from such formal, highly regulated social situations” (44), which was one of the reasons the resort held such a high appeal to the masses. This element of the island must have been extremely important to the time period, because Kasson brings it up in his writing many times throughout the reading.

In reading this section, it seems to me as if Coney Island was a gateway into the future. As Kasson describes the millions of people, the shows, the rides, the food and drinks, and especially the relaxation of the public’s social and moral expectations, it reminds me of the society we have today. Now, amusement parks are common and are always filled with many people. Also, today’s culture is a lot more relaxed and it is more acceptable for people, especially women, to act the way they did on Coney Island. 

The Lost "Beautifulness"

“The Lost Beautifulness” by Anzia Yezierska was a very powerful story. It captured the reader’s attention and emotion. The reader is brought into Hannah Hayyeh’s life and really experiences at first her joy and beautiful artistry, and then later her murder and turmoil. For me, this portrayal of life in these tenements and the unfairness and cruelty inflicted on these people was more real and more powerful than Riis’s pictures or descriptions. Yezierska captures Hannah Heyyeh’s emotions and brings them to life, which makes the story seem more real than Riis’s words and descriptions, or even his photographs.

An interesting character in “The Lost Beautifulness” was Mrs. Preston, the woman Hannah Hayyeh worked for. Mrs. Preston embodies the kind of person Riis was trying to get the attention of, someone who is of the middle class and sympathizes with the poor. Riis was trying to persuade people like Mrs. Preston to bring about change. The interesting thing is, though, that like Mrs. Preston, Riis’s middle class views got in the way of his helping the poor. Mrs. Preston see’s Hannah Hayyeh’s sadness and anguish, and seems to want to help, but at the same time is unwilling to help. She makes excuses for why things are they way they are, instead of trying to change them: “these laws are far from just, but they are all we have so far. Give us time. We are young. We are still learning. We’re doing our best” (7).

People like Hannah Heyyeh were being robbed by their landlords, and many of the middle class felt like there was nothing they could do to stop it. What would be some ways a middle class person could help someone in Hannah Heyyeh’s situation? 

How The Other Half LIves Chapters 9, 10, 12, 13

In these four chapters, the thing I found most interesting was the way Riis clearly victimizes the Bohemians and the Blacks, and compares then with the “Polish Jews” and the Chinamen. Riis feels sympathetic for the Bohemians and African Americans situations. He seems to feel that it is not their fault. Those two chapters make the reader feel that the Bohemians and African Americans have been put in awful situations and are unable to get out. Riis is making the reader aware of their situation, as he does earlier in How the Other Half Lives. Riis does this by describing the Bohemians as slaves: “enforcing upon a proud race a slavery as real as any that ever disgraced the South” (109) and saying the Bohemian’s employer and landlord “reduces him to virtual serfdom” (109). Riis makes it clear that, in his opinion, the Bohemians and the African Americans have are forced into their situation: “The location of the cigar factories, upon which he depends for a living, determines his choice of home, though there is less choice about it than with any other class in the community, save perhaps the colored people” (110).  For both the African Americans and the Bohemians, “the sore grievances I found were the miserable wages and the enormous rents exacted for the minimum of accommodation” (110).

It seems that Riis especially likes the African Americans and feels for their situation. This is strange, because from these four chapters it can easily be perceived that Riis is very racist. After reading the first three chapters, some of his descriptions of the African Americans surprised me. He describes them as “immensely the superior of the lowest of the whites, the Italians and the Polish Jews, below whom he has been classed in the past in the tenant scale” (116) when speaking of their cleanliness. He also prides the African Americans for their optimistic attitudes: “Poverty, abuse, and injustice alike the negro accepts with imperturbable cheerfulness” (118) and “In the art of putting the best foot foremost, of disguising his poverty by making a little go a long way, our negro has no equal “ (118).

Riis frequently compares the Bohemians and the African Americans with the Italians, Chinamen, and Polish Jews. He always favors the former, while putting down the latter. Riis throws little comments into his writing like “It does not help the case that this landlord employer, almost always a Jew, is frequently of the thrifty Polish race just described” (109) when speaking of the Bohemian’s situation. Riis is portraying the Jews negatively, and blaming them for the poverty and helplessness of the bohemians. Why would Riis sympathize with the Bohemians and the African Americans? 

The Mirror with a Memory

This article explains the bias that can be seen in every photograph. Every photographer chooses what they decide to capture, and in many instances, the photographer poses the photograph to make it look how he or she wants it to look. This creates bias. Jacob Riis’s goal of his writing and photography was to make the issues of the poor visible to all the citizens of New York and to inspire change. He took photographs to show the reality of the lives of the poor.  But are his photographs a true depiction of the reality? Many of Riis’s photographs were posed. Riis created the picture he believed would inspire the middle and upper class to help the poor. He chose which shots to capture and which ones were not worth being photographed. Riis created the vision he wanted. Although Riis, like all writers and photographers, was biased, his pictures and words present an important message. The poor needed help. They were living in terrible conditions. Riis’s photographs effectively portray the dire situation of the poor in New York.

How the Other Half Lives Chapter 1-4

Jacob Riis used photographs and writing to effectively portray the dire situations facing New York City during this time. He discusses the overcrowding of the city, which led to sickness and unlivable housing. The people who owned the tenements only cared about making money. They didn’t want to pay to make the living conditions respectable or healthy in their tenements. Then, I found it was interesting that the owners blamed the people living in the tenements for its horrible state. “The proprietors frequently urged the filthy habits of the tenants as an excuse for the condition of their property, utterly losing sight of the fact that it was the tolerance of those habits which was the real evil, and that for this they were alone responsible” (pg 6). The last part of this quote I thought was particularly important. The proprietors, and the wealthy people of New York City, did nothing to help the poor. They ignored them and allowed the problem of overcrowding, sickness, and inhabitable living conditions to fester and grow until it started to affect them in a negative way.

         Jacob Riis is trying to make the people of New York City aware of how the poor and desperate are living during this time. I think his use of pictures is particularly effective. When people see things, they are more likely to sympathize and actually want to try and fix the problem. I know when I see these pictures, especially the ones with children in them, I can see how horrible and dirty these places are and I can’t imagine that people actually lived there. I want to help find a way to fix the problem. It seems that Riis felt it was everyone in New York’s responsibility to try and create better living conditions for the poor. Whose responsibility do you think it was to help fix this situation?