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?
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