In class writing assessment. Please respond on the blog. Do not forget to write your name. There is no need for an MLA heading.
Respond to the following:
What specific parallels of Riis' investigative journalism report entitled How the Other Half Lives do you find in Crane's fictional novella Maggie, Girl of the Streets? Please be specefic in terms of Crane's characters.
savannah goole-
ReplyDeleteSeeing as I never read Maggie, I suppose I'll comment on "How the Other Half Lives". From a general-life standpoint, things were obviously not good. The living conditions in the industrial cities were very poor. Homes were poorly built, and were very tight and small. Tennant homes came into play here, and the communities were commonly in severe poverty and disease-ridden unsanitary conditions. After a while I think people began to accept the conditions they were living in, and accept it as the norm. As far as children were living, thier lives were sometimes worse off than the adults in the cities. Thier schooling was poor, or often nonexistent. Thier playground was the cememnt backyards and dirty street corners. Children were often orphans who's families could not afford to feed or house them. The luckier (maybe) children, however were introduced to the world of work at a very young age. People realized that factory work was done much better by the tiny hands of children. Families could make a better home for themselves if everyone in the household was bringing in money (even if only a small amount). For children, and adults alike, the lives of industrial slums was not a pretty one.
Steven Lollier,
ReplyDeleteThere are several parallels between Riis' "How the other half lives" and Crane's "Maggie, Girl of the Streets". One of with is the portrail of people in poverty. The worker girls in both books weren't taken care of at all. They worked all day for little money and no hope of supporting their families. The children were also very poor because their parents wern't around. They spent most of their time on the streets, getting into mistcheif, and stealing. The overall life of both works of literature is pretty crappy. Little food, poor living conditions, and nothing to do besides get into trouble and try and survive. Like when maggie jumped into that truck... they were just having somthing to do. They had no one to tell them not to do it and nothing else to do. People found that work was better done by little hands that could get into the small spaces. Children were lost, and life was hard and hopeless.
Kari Simpkins…..
ReplyDeleteIn How the Other Half Lives, written by Riis, the author discusses certain topics that are similar to those addressed in Maggie, Girl of the Streets. In the beginning of Other Half, the author talks about the division of large houses in urban areas. These houses were divided into tenements that were made available for the poorer residents of that time. In Maggie, she along with her family live in a tenement apartment very similar to the ones described in Other Half. Also in the Other Half, issues with the developmental and training methods for the children are mentioned. The author talks about how the children grow up without receiving the proper training and they grow up violent and angry. This is also exhibited in Maggie through her brother, Jimmy, and the other neighborhood children who often engage in street fights that usually result in bloodshed. These squabbles usually occur in alley streets with among a vast number of children. Riis also mentions how he was unable to count the number of children in a certain alley that he happened to be near. Riis then goes on to mention the working women of society. This relates to the character Maggie herself because she was one of the many females working in a factory, a fabric factory to be more specific. Riis states that women were often associated with the sewing, embroidery, and fabric industry. However, they received very little pay. As seen in Maggie, although she worked in a factory it is evident that her pay was low because she still lived in the small tenement with her parents and she often complained about not having nice clothes when it came time for Pete to take her out.
Shawn J Powell II
ReplyDeleteThe aspects of Riis investigative journalism report entitled How the Other Half Lives. These writings were created during the late 1800s early 1900s. The issues of woman’s working rights as well as the children working in factories along with hash living environments. In Maggie Girl of the streets the same issues that occurred in "How the Other Half Lives" happened like the tenement living and harsh conditions people and children had along with the long hours of work woman had to endure. Also children had to work in factories and were paid very little for there work.
Katie Quinlisk
ReplyDeleteJacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives parallels many ideas in Stephen Crane’s Maggie. In the novel Crane utilizes characters to embodie a different aspect of life during the 19th century.
In Maggie, poverty riddle the streets, and the basic neccesities were scarse. These living conditions Riis discuses in his factual report on such life. There were numerous disease spread by unsantitary conditions and mal nourishment. Crane shows this one way through the death of the little brother named Timmy and the father. Though many died those who survived were the strongest.
Survival in the slums was a race to stay alive and support yourself. Jimmy was raised by fighting and was hardened at a young age. He was already an adult befor he was past his teens. This is present in Riis' report. Children were put to work very early. The expliotation of children as laborers crippled peroples growth and inhibited their health. These children were often cast into the streets, and disregarded like the boys of the street in Maggie. They were cast out because of the complete lack of parenting. The parents themselves were struggling to become self sufficient and usually failed to parent their children like how Maggies drunken mother, not only failed to do so, but unleashes her rage on her own children.
The other aspect of Maggie that Crane utilized was the humanistic element of this horrible time period. Maggie was innocent and hopeful in the beinging of the novel. She aspiers to escape the poverty ridden life that surrounds her. When pete offeres her such a guise as wealth and happiness she accepts, though it was never fulfilled. This aspiration was within every other person living in the slums. Pete's deception and then rejection only harshly reveals the truth and eminate destiney of hose who live in it. Maggie's death was unaviodable because as she hoped for an escape she never recongnized that she was already entagled and restrained to that world.
Jaboc Rii's How the Other Half Lives is the factual substance with which Stephen Crane's Maggie, Girl of the Streets was based off. The aspects of the 19th centruy were portrayed through Crane's characters. In this time period many people experienced similar tragic conditions that those of his novel had.
There are three specific examples of the parallels between Riis’ investigation of “How the Other Half Lives…” and “Maggie, Girl of the Streets”, by Stephen Crane. In Maggie, Crane describes that the character Mary, Maggie and Jimmies mother had an awful drinking problem, and was known s the devil in the neighborhood and was the laughing stock. Maggie grew up in the lower east side with dreams of a romantic future but, when her only love Pete abandoned her she turned to prostitution in the neighborhood, she succumbs to the poverty and it changes her outlook for a better life, and at the end she either committed suicide or was murdered. Also the poverty changed people, for the worse first her mother and then Maggie, they both lost there sanity in the lower east side slums, in the same conditions Riis described in his article.
ReplyDeleteRii’s report shows the starling truths of the tenements of 19th century New York, and it is very similar to the fictional novella Maggie, Girl of the Streets. The other Half Lives describes the failed efforts of the truant officers, who attempt to keep the children in school, and the small, dirty, poorly ventilated tenements in which many children died, like Jimmy and Maggie’s 3 year old brother. In Maggie, instead of being in school, Jimmy and his friends stand on the streets and pick fights with each other when they are not buying beer for adults, which was a common practice back then They all lived in tiny rooms in the tenements, and oftentimes more than 100 people would share a small 12X12 ‘yard’. The character Maggie epitomizes the ‘working woman’ described in “How the Other Half Lives”. She sews collars onto shirts in a factory where she is paid no more than $3 a day working in terrible conditions, and earning barely enough money to survive. Women were not guaranteed a minimum wage, but men were. Maggie is set in an Irish ghetto, which was very common for immigrants to form their own communities within the cities they lived in. The residents of the tenements often suffered from many diseases, such as dysentery and influenza and they lived in filth often among swine. Although Maggie, Girl of the Streets is a fictional story, the investigative report “How the Other Half Lives” shows concrete evidence of the realities of the poor immigrants who lived there.
ReplyDeleteSarah E. Mullen
ReplyDeleteRiis’ How the Other Half Lives explains the troubles that working girls, street urchins and general poverty. In both Maggie and How the Other Half Lives there is an obvious lack of proper English. From the first lines said by Jimmy says at the beginning of the novella there is an obvious lack of English grammar. The education is lacking in the streets in both works. Also, the children in Maggie, Pete, Jimmy, Maggie, etc. are out in the streets on their own. Their parents are irresponsible or working all the time, so their children run free in the streets, even in the night. They were in gangs, like the one Pete was in. Most women in the poor area worked in sweat shops and mills weaving. They tried to make the best for their families, but end up neglecting them. Money was hard to come across in the slums, so there were many homeless, even children and many hungry and poor. Maggie tried to escape from the poverty she was raised in by forming a relationship with Pete. But Pete is with other girls and ends up making her lose control and become cheap at the end. Women are treated with little respect and this makes it difficult for them to move up in life.
It is hard to trust anyone in the slums, as it is expressed in How the Other Half Lives.
Both works express a dirty, uncivilized and terrifying environment in the slums. Women are treated with little respect, but still manage to work in seat shops to try to support the family. Maggie is deceived by Pete and the end of the novella gives the impression that she died after her career of selling herself. This kind of behavior, along with bad living conditions and little food led to a great amount of sickness, like the sickness that killed Maggie's father. Children were roaming streets, which were sometimes their only homes, without supervision. They ran about like ragamuffins. The poverty in the streets was everywhere and very difficult to escape from, as Maggie learns.
Both Maggie and How the Other Half Lives express great poverty and sickness.
Michael Radney
ReplyDeleteIn Stephen Crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Streets and Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives talk about life in the big city (New York City) is similar to each other. In both novels have the same setting in the slums of New York City in the 19th century. They describe the hard lives the poor people had during that time especially the women and children. They tell how there was child labor, the kid fought over food and everyone was hungry. The main character Maggie was surrounded by poverty. The women cooked, cleaned and worked in the factories. The men/father was usually the head of the family and did work.
Alexanderia Mewborn
ReplyDeleteSome specific parallels in Maggie, Girl of the streets by Stephen Crane and How the other half lives by Jacob Riis were that it took place in the 19th century. Each story shares the life of how people live during this time period.
In Stephen Crane there is a character name Maggie who lives in New York City. Every day she is faced with working just like most girls who had to work long hours for little pay. In this story it also revealed the tenements life.A tenement is a big buliding that has any rooms that people has to share.
Riis' uses investivative journalism in How the Other Half Lives as a parallel to Crane's noella Maggie, Girl on the Streets. Riis connects the two pieces through the general lifestyle of the tenaments, the women and the children.
ReplyDeleteThe general lifestyle of bothe pieces is that in both communities, the people are surrounded by poverty. Maggie is parallel to the women though her hard work and determination to strive to succeed. The children could be compared to the groups of children who were always in trouble, such as The Devil's Rows children. This is true because the children in Riis' document were living in poverty, uneducated, and homeless.
Leah Gardiner
ReplyDeleteIn Riis report How the Other Half Lives there are three specific issues that are parallels to that of the fictional novella Maggie, Girl of the Streets. The first of which being the extreme amount of poverty that the characters faced. In both of these the city life was dirty, poor, and filled with crime where the only type of fun they could have is playing on dirty corners and jumping in trucks like Maggie did. People lived in tenements and many lived right on the streets. The second issue addressed is how the children lived during these times. In Maggie many of the kids were in gang like groups such as Jimmie whom got in many fights with other rival groups. There was a lack of parental guidance because the kids in both stories were constantly on the street. Many children in the end wound up working in factories because they realized their small hands made it easier to work. The final issue addressed the lifestyle of the women. The main character that can directly relate to How the Other Half Lives is Maggie. She worked in a factory and but lived in a tenement and never really complained about her life. She made little money like most women did during these times.
Taaqia Morrow...
ReplyDeleteIn How the Other Half Lives, Jacob A. Riis points out several important issues within the city of New York. Throughout the story he explains the living conditions of the lower class, the lifestyle of the average working girl, and the way of living for children. Stephen Crane, the writer of Maggie, Girl of the Streets refers to some of the same issues within his story. Within Maggie, Girl of the Streets Maggie’s family faces a lot of tough situations, situations just as described in How the Other Half Lives. The children in Maggie’s family, including herself grow up in horrible living conditions and face a difficult childhood. They live in a small apartment building that is unclean and crowded. These children are constantly exposed to violence, within the home as well as outside the home. Children did not get the education they needed to grow up and be successful in life. Riis explains the same problem in How the Other Half Lives, children live in dysfunctional, small, unclean homes and deal with the many families of the many other families they are forced to live with. Riis explains that many families are crowded into small spaces and are exposed to disease and everyone else’s problems. Maggie’s family lives in a very small apartment….. UNFINISHED!
Wendy Manly
ReplyDeleteIn Steven crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Streets, the characters live in poverty on the streets. In Riis’s How the Other Half Lives, the characters are in the same predicament. In The Other Half, large buildings were separated into many tiny tenements, where people were forced to live cramped up and in close proximity to everyone else. In Maggie, the characters grew up in poverty, with Maggie’s mother Mary an extreme alcoholic, forced to grow up in the street. In Riis’s investigative journal, there is talk of how in the tenement living, there was no chance of simplicities like cleanliness. They also mention that the tenements lived a “hand to mouth lifestyle.” In tenement living, a baby dying was usually due to suffocation and toxic air. In both literary works, the characters lived in the streets on less then sufficient recourses. The children in Riis’s journal were crushed and killed, as well as put under brutal conditions, forced to live in a tiny courtyard with very little light. In Maggie, her brother Jimmy had been hardened by the poverty, causing him to grow up violent, and get in many street fights. The children in both are forced to live in circumstances that strangle and suffocate them, forcing them to grow up in struggle.
In Riis' documentary report, "How the Other Half Lives", Riis makes investigations of society of the 19th century. His investigations also make a connection to the novella, "Maggie, Girl of the Streets." In this novella, the setting also takes place in the 19th century. Specifically, Riis takes note on the detail of the lifestyles of the women, children and the general life in tenements.
ReplyDeletePoverty is the main issue seen in “How the Other Half Lives” and in “Maggie, Girl of the Streets.” Maggie can be compared to the women taken note by Riis. Self-determination enables Maggie to continue to live through the harsh environment of poverty.
Amonee Read
ReplyDeletePeriod 3
There are many parallels between Jacob Riis investigative journalism entitled the Other half and Stephen Crane’s novella Maggie, A Girl of the Streets. These two stories took place during the time of the late 19th century. In Jacob Riis The Other Half he talks about the tenement living conditions , the children , and the women of their time. He expresses these ideas in many ways . As far as living conditions he showed that the way they lived was kind of inhumane. They lived many to a house with lack of ventilation. These people slept wherever they could find room it was just that bad. They lived in an area that was full of disease and sickness so that also played a part as to why their living coditions were the way they were. The Women also had to work and as far as their working conditions they were not good at all. Just as in Maggie when she aqquired her job and had to deal with low wages.
Willie Jones thinks......
ReplyDeleteThese two stories have lots of similarity. In the other half there where many kids that lived up to being thieves and convicts in the Maggie’s story her brother jimmy was in a gang that fought other groups for respect and probably popularity. In the story Maggie and her family was struggling hoping that one day they wouldn’t have to struggle no more. Like when Maggie got a job the low wages wouldn’t help that much she still worked hoping some day the struggle would stop. In the other half it clearly shows that girls got paid less money then guys did and they did way more work most of the time. Working in these factories there wasn’t much ventilation so girls worked under hashed conditions, girls would fall out at work one at a time the work just simply wasn’t worth the wages but the ladies were the back bone of the family hands down. Girls were force to go to work at a young age before the young males were. In the late 1900 century life was hard for immigrants they came over found jobs and just dealt with the quality of living even though they were at the bottom of the class system the dealt and let there courage and love for one another and freedom drive them through what ever they were going through. Living in there tenement in the dirty environment kids running every where through out the place it was so many of them it was hard to keep track of all of them. This led to kids being abuse getting caught up with drugs and drinking heavily standing in front of saloon.
Adrianna White Eagle says
ReplyDeleteMaggie, Girl of the Streets? by Stephen Crane and How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis have many things in common. Both works discuss life of impoverished immigrants in New York City during the 19th century; more specifically, working women, children and life in tenements. Women during this time period lived with very poor conditions both at work and at home. For example in Stephen Crane’s fictional novella, the character Maggie works in a factory making collars and cuffs enduring extremely long hours. Children of the time spent most of their time in the streets often participating in fights and tormenting younger children.
The parallels from "Maggie, Girl Of the Streets" and "How the other half lives" are obvious and simple. Children and adults alike lived in severe poverty; they often lived in small apartment-like places with several other families as both adults and children worked low-waged jobs and barely ate three meals a day, they were lucky if they had even close to one meal a day. Along with these issues, woman faught for their suffrage. You could say it was the dpression before the great depression.
ReplyDeleteDamaris Says:
ReplyDeleteIn the novels "Maggie:A Girl Of The Streets" & "How The Other Half Lives", the authors explain how people were living in poverty and in the tenements which took places in the 1900's. People were paid at very low wages to do work & were treated very poorly. Riis explains how women were treated unfairly & how they recieved little to no pay to do crappy work. There was alot of suffering & it led to the Great Depression due to the fact there were a small amount of jobs, which totally sucked. The end.
Aldin Hamzabegovic
ReplyDeleteRiis investigative journalism report How the other Half Lives and Crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Streets are very similar, in that they both describe the role of woman, children and basic life style in the tenement during the late nineteenth century.
In both pieces of literature, the characters are surrounded by both poverty, and violence. They live in a society that no one cares much about, where they fight everyday just to survive. The tenement life style described in New York City at this time was horrific. Children were hungry everyday, uneducated, and homeless. Many slept on streets, fighting for themselves. Riis also reveals the child labor which is going on. Many children worked long hours under poor working conditions for very low pay, and the money they earned they gave to their parents, who spent the money on unneeded items, such as beer. The women for the most part stayed at home and some worked in factories just like the children who were forced to work.
Riis investigation is very much parallel to Maggie’s life style. She as a young women worked and lived in conditions that are unimaginable to the human eye today.
Louis "lookinlikeafoolwithyourpantsontheground" Ressel sayz:
ReplyDelete"How the Other Half lives", and "Maggie, girl of the streets" has many parrellels. The environment in both stories seems relatively similar. The housing in which the masses in that time period lived in were very inhumane, so to speak. Crowded living situations and homelessness swept the streets of New York city. In these times, many people did not attend school regularly. The individuals who were lucky enough to have a job in the factories in new york city worked long hours, many times almost 12 hour shifts earned meager wages and didn't have the money to purchase food. On top of this, men or women who worked had very big families and couldn't afford to feed the other members in their families.
liljBlake(aka. The 51tuat1on in the 585. aka Justin Joseph Blake) sez....
ReplyDeleteIn Maggie Girl of the Streets, and The Other Halfs, the authors both have similar structure in the characters they use. The Characters in each live and work in poor conditions, as well as put up with problems, which would never even be presented in modern day america.Trials of life such as, only having one meal a day, not eating some days, having to fight for themselves, and everything they need.Both settings being in the dirty streets of New York.
Maggie from Maggie, Girl of the streets, works hard for low wages, in a factory making cuffs and collars. Which parallels a life style where many women also spent most of their lifes, in a home taking care of their children. Maggies Brother was also in a gang, fighting other kids and causing ruckus. Maggies Mother, Mary, was also a alchoholic, making her life more stressfull.
Children in, The Other Halfs, died un working conditions, were crushed and harmed as well. They lived under extremely poor conditions and works under a constant surrounding of danger, often having to struggle for everything they needed as well.
-Spencer "Teh Yellow Dart" Pleninger-
ReplyDeleteSez:
Maggie, Girl of the Streets and How the Other Half Lives bear great resemblance for both are confronting the problem of poverty in their time periods, and the roles of women and children in those time periods.
Both show chilling, in depth, and realistic accounts on what poverty has done to many members of the society and reveals some of the true conditions that people had to live through such as violence, ill nourishment, abuse, and neglect. Most of the people living in this period fended for themselves and because of this self-reliant and self-preserving attitude, much unnecessary violence and hostility sprung, tearing apart the minds of the children and deeply traumatizing them.
The abandonment that the children faced greatly crippled their mindset, and led them to senseless violence which is displayed by the boys of the streets.
As a child, Maggie at first is a happy go lucky gal just out to have a good time, but soon is crushed by the industrialization and the poverty that has stricken her society, tearing away her childish spirit and destroying her as a happy human being.
Oh the sorrow.
There are many parralles between "How the other half lives", and "Maggie, girl of the streets" by the working women not being taken care of and lots of poverty. Men and woman worked but had big families, so they still weren't able to feed the family by what they were getting paid. Children were sometimes left without parents telling them what to do most of the time, so they were mostly on the streets trying to survive and getting into lots of trouble. Just like when Maggie jumped into a truck for no apparent reason. This is an example of what kind of things unsupervised kids do. So in both stories there was basically poverty, troubled kids, lost kids and sadness.
ReplyDeleteShanay Baxter says,
ReplyDeleteRii's How the Other Half Lives describes the crowded and harsh conditions of the tenements in which people lived in. There were huge responsiblity placed upon the children who were not enrolled in school, but instead worked in factories. There is also a discrimnation toward the women of this time. These women worked long hours for little pay, as the few dollars they make are used to pay off the rent for their 'shabby homes'.There is a mutual situation that occurs in Crane's Maggie Girl, which expresses the hardships in which the families faced and the unfair treatment of the women. Maggie herself faced degrading jugdements from her family, who referred to her as a "devil" child and they no longer included her in their family. The tenement that this family lived in was filthy, grimmy, and extremely crowded. Each piece of literature diminstrates the dangerous living conditions of the 19th century, and the hardships in which one experienced with money.
Shana Harris
ReplyDeleteRiis investigative journalism report entitled How the other half lives and Crane's Maggie, Girl of the streets are the same because they both discuss the sturggles that women had to go through during the 19th century time period. All the characters in pieces of literature show that they lived in poverty and they had to struugle for certain things that they needed. There were horrible working conditions that were placed on Maggie. She was forced to work and live in these conditions. The children that Riis discussed about in the literature explains that they thier pay was low, and it was not even enough to support the household. The children were obligated to give thier money to thier parents, and the parents would spend the money on wanted things instead of things that were needed. These actions that the parents were placing on the children did not support any of these childrens needs, so it left them helpless. Many people had to live in tenements and some were left homeless with nothing to look forward to in life. Food became very scarce and people would barely have any meals at all a day. In Maggie Girl Of the Streets women were pay lower than men. There was a big discrimination between both men and women. Men believed that the women role was to stay home and take care of the house and kids. People would do anyting for money just to live life without struggle.
The parallels between Riis, How the Other Half Lives and Maggie, Girl of the Streets are mostly about the poverty that they live in. In both stories the houses, or tenements, are described very similar to each other as if it was one author. The houses were divided into smaller “houses” which were then available for the poorer families to then live in. This is very similar within Maggie in that her family lives in one of those houses described in Riis’s work. In both, poverty is what most of both works talk about. Back in that time period poverty was everywhere. This led to children making friends or groups with the people around them, other poverty stricken peoples, and that group of people making bonds with each other. In both works, mischievous acts are described from these groups of people. These groups would be adventurous but do many illegal things or unsafe things like playing with fire and such. Also in both works death is always hanging around atop everyone. The main causes of these deaths were diseases being spread throughout the unsanitary slums. Throughout both, death is described in Cranes when he talks about Timmy, who died. Although many lived, only the strong survived. And to survive a mental state of mind had to be attained, although death was coming to all within the slums, the hopeful were the ones who made it that extra day. Aspiring for wealth and an outlet from this world Maggie stayed hopeful for these things that Pete had described. But as the novella went on and she realized her death was coming against her will, she gave up hope. Both the Investigative work and the Novella describe the same time period and era. Riis’s work was the facts that backed Maggie and was what Maggie was based off of in the real world.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Madison says:
ReplyDeleteIn Stephen Crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Streets, one can find many parallels between it and Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. In Riis’ piece, one can look at the similarities to Maggie on a superficial level, specifically the living conditions, as it pertains to urban life, at the time both Maggie and the report take place. Tenements were generally filthy, unhealthy, and all around horrible to live in. However some couldn't afford to live in these, some were forced to live in the streets. This poverty is a repetitive theme in Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives and in Maggie Girl of the Streets.
In addition the role of women in society at that period was examined. It was noted that, generally, men did the work and the role of a woman was to stay at home and clean. When a woman did work, they made a significantly lower wage than men. Maggie also fell victim to this on her job, however the rate of poverty was so great that it was necessary for her to work no matter how little she made.
jayshawn says,
ReplyDeleteJacob Riis How The Other Half Lives tells the story of the people who lived in the over filled, filthy tenements.Women and young girls were treated unfairly,they would work very long hours for almost no pay at all and what they do earn goes to their rent.The children were forced to work in factories instead of getting their education in school.There are very similar situations in Crane's Maggie Girl, like the unfair treatment of women and horrible living conditions the families went through. Maggie was tormented by her fsmily constantly everyday, she was refered to as the "devil" child and was exiled from her family.On top of the cruel treatment from her family the tenements she lived in were also filthy and over crowded. Both pieces describe the harsh unequal treatment that women went through in the nineteenth century and the horrible living conditions they were forced to live in with their children. They both show the struggle for money and the great poverty that impacted these people so much
Many parallels exist between Stephen Crane’s novella Maggie, Girl of the Streets and Jacob Riis’ article How the Other Half Lives, such as the treatment of tenement children, life in the tenements, and the employment of girls.
ReplyDeleteJimmie in Maggie is the perfect example of Riis’ observations of children living in tenements. He picks fights with other children and is, for the most part, left to roam about the streets for a good portion of his childhood. Towards the beginning of the novella, as observed of children in the Other Half, Jimmie stays with an old woman who sends him to buy beer for her in exchange for a brief sanctuary from his drunken mother.
Riis observes that life in the tenements is heavy with poor living conditions brought on by poverty and inviting disease. This is reflected in Maggie, as the youngest child of Maggie’s family is stricken by disease and dies early in the novella. Again in tandem with Riis’ article, Maggie steals a flower [as Riis remarked that the tenement children would frequently do] to place in her youngest brother’s coffin. The family lives in a very small space and is so poor that eventually Maggie and Jimmie have to find employment, Maggie in a sweatshop and Jimmie driving a truck, to support their drunken mother.
The employment of girls in tenements, as observed by Riis, was a rather sad spectacle. The typical job was in clothing production, under poor working conditions. While Maggie is working at the sweatshop, Crane makes a point of describing her boss’ attitude towards his employees and how Maggie worries that she will grow old before her time in such a place.
Stephen Crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Streets and Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives are very similar pieces. As supported by real observations of tenement life by Riis, it is clear that Maggie is a very accurate portrait of life in the tenements of New York.
Riis' investigative report and Crane's fictional novel "Maggie: Girl of the Streets" depict life as poverished. Tenements were usually crowded with many families living in small quarters. Many of these poverished families had to force their kids to enter sweatshops, like in the case of Maggie in Crane's novella. She had to enter work in order to support the family, which was the general case for many immigrant families during this time period (which Riis points out in his study by seeing exactly what the matter was).
ReplyDeleteIn Stephen Crane Maggie Girl Of The Streets and Riis How The Other Half Lives both parallel eachothers idea in many ways. They each talk about the lives children and women had to tolerate.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 19th century life was not easy. Families lived in small homes and the surroundings were full of violence as well as defiencey. Adults tended to be either drunks or sold themselves while children had to do dirty work. Cranes Maggie Girl On the Streets the mother was always drunk and was abusive towards her children and Riis talks about the working conditions how the children would work and give the adults money while the adults would spend their earnings on beer and such.
Shontia Myricks
ReplyDeleteStephen Cranes Maggie Girl of the Streets and Riis How The Other Half Lives both describe city life in the 19th century. Describing the roles of women and children in life and the hardships they were forced to endure.
Living conditions were hell on earth. Often multiple families were housed in two family units as described in How The Other Half Lives, such as were the conditions of Maggie and her family in Cranes novela. Children were sent off to do the adults dirty work like getting them beer and doing their laundry. Adults were either drunks or prostitutes, straggling along the dirt ridden streets, leaving the children subject to violence and danger at every turn, thus destroying their innocence, revealed in both Riis work as well as Cranes.
Non fictional and fictional stories can have similarites. Jacob Riis's Genesis of the Tenement and Cranes Maggie: The Girl of the Streets. Both vividly detail life in the slums of the city (New York City). The similarities include the labor done, life of the children, and the overall depression of city life.
ReplyDeleteAs we all know by now, life in the city was not well in the late nintenth century. Including labor, as the Age of Industialization came about. In both stories, the stories of women are told. They work, for the most part in the textile industry. As told, factory life was harsh, but becuase so many people needed money to make ends meet, they stood by it, in terrible conditions. The women of the stories work in such conditions. Basically it was thier only option.
Unfortunatly that is not the end of the misery being told. The children which should represent happiness,loyalty, and innocence. However, in the story Maggie, the children see horrifying things which alter their path in life. Kids are seen doing grown up things. All because their parent are too busy being drunk and irresponsible.
Morghann Sims
ReplyDeleteThere are many parallels of the Riis’ investigative journalism report entitled “How the Other Half Lives” that are found in Crane’s fictional novella “Maggie, Girl of the Streets.” In both works the subjects reflected on the less fortunate conditions that people encountered during 1800s. In “How the Other Half Lives”, the author describes the cramp and poor conditions that tenements houses were in. They were divided in many divisions for more than one family to share, which was very improper and caused people to live in a horrible environment. Maggie as well lived in a tenement house, where many people dwelled and privacy was not kept. This cause a regular uproar of commotion that took place in the tenement house that Maggie lived. Maggie was young and had two other siblings, and had parents who weren’t very responsible. Without the proper care of parents that children were able to do many things in their free will. Kids were found in the saloons and straying in the streets. “How the Other Half Lives” declares that fact that many children were found working at a very young age, and constantly in sight of danger. Being left to defend and grow up on their own children had to own up to the responsibility of keeping themselves alive. Maggie’s youngest siblings died, under the harsh treatment that kids had to undergo. This shows the unfair treatment that young children faced. Not only children, but women as well, were treated as the less important people of the society. “How the other Half Lives” explains how women were paid to work long hours, and received little wages. Not enough to take care of their kids, and pay for rent if they didn’t have the support of their husbands. Once Maggie’s father passed, her mother became less dependable, and became a drunk. Maggie’s older brother end up having to take the role of caring for the house, which showed the dominance and need for male service, which denounced the women dignity.
In Maggie, Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane and Jacob Riis’s investigative journalism entitled How the Other Half Lives has specific parallels between each other. One of the parallels would people in poverty. The working girls in both books weren't taken care of at all, women mostly stayed at home and did the house work. Men worked all day for little money that could barely support their growing families. Most children, abandoned by their poor families lived on the streets. The overall life of both works of literature was difficult and problematical. Workers like Maggie had jobs with low wages working and hoping that one day many in several generations the struggles would end.
ReplyDeleteMolly Howe says:
ReplyDeleteCrane's Maggie:A Girl of the Streets and Riis's How the Other Half Lives have many paralells, in specfic the similarities in describing tenements, childern, and child labor. In the short novel, Maggie:A Girl of the Streets Maggie's family are immigrants and have come to New York City to live a better life. Their home, a tenement is filthy and small. They live in poverty such as the individuals discussed in the report by Riis. The tenements in How the Other Half Lives are described as being dirty, cramped so much that diease was rampant. Maggie's youngest brother, dies because of the dieases spread throughout the tenement. Riis also observed that childern in New York City were independent, and often times slept in the streets living in more poverty than their parents.In the first scence of Maggie:A Girl of the Streets,Jimmy is shown fighting boys in the streets, which parallels the "bad influences" in the streets of New York for childern. Child labor also contributed to the terrible conditions childern were subjected to. In, How the Other Half Lives, childern are described working long hours in factors, with girls getting less wages and having to pay for their own uniforms. Jimmy in, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, works as a "truck" driver to support his drunkened Mother and Maggie. At the end of the short novel, Crane suggests that Maggie, without any other chose, goes into prostition.
Elaine C. Stewart
ReplyDeleteThere are many parallels between Jacob Riis’ journalistic report, “How the other half lives” and Stephan Crane’s fictional novella, “Maggie Girl of the Streets”. Both of the works of literature focus on the trials and tribulations of Children, Tenement life and Working girls in the 1800’s. Both works of literature tell of the awful living and schooling conditions that children lived through. Many did not go to school and became a behavior issue on the streets and even more needed to work during the day to help support there families. They lived with little to eat, very little parent/good adult interaction and in bad housing conditions. Tenement life for the people who could afford to live in any were also in extremely horrendous conditions. They were very small and often cramped with a whole family (including mother, father, children, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles). Working girls were often looked down upon and although they were very common many felt that they were untrustworthy and loose.
Taje Rollins
ReplyDeleteRiis investigative journalism, How the Other Half Lives and Crane's fictional novella Magiie Girl of the Streets are very similar. They both seem to describe poverty,violence, the harsh conditions of tenements,and women's role and society during the 19th century.
Many of the immagrants came to the states for better opportunities. However, they found themselves in a cycle of poverty. There were families with up to ten people living in a one bed room apartment.The tenements were not the best place to live. They were overcrowded places filled with violence and filth. Children who lived in the tenements lacked food and simple home training. They aggressively fought with each other very often. The city's youth was lucky to live past twenty years old.For example, in Maggie Girl of the Streets there is a fight scene with one of the main characters and it seemed as if it were a usual activity. The women during this time usually stayed home. Some were forced to work in factories so that they were capable of providing for their family. The factories were dangerous, low paying jobs, not fit for any female or child. No one in today's society would even dare to live with so many odds against them.
Danielle Ryles
ReplyDeleteBoth How the Other Half Lives by Rii’s and Maggie, Girl of the streets by Crane have specific parallels, such as the role of women, the tenements and how the living conditions affected the people and also, how the children were not really taken care of. These stories were written in the 19th century. In the Other Half by Rii he covers the living conditions the lower class faced and also the life style of the girls living during that time. In Maggie, girl of the Crane covers some of the same aspects but he also talks about how a family struggles.
Caleb Cotton Thinks.....
ReplyDeleteThere are several parallels between Riis’ how the other half lives and Maggie girl of the streets by Stephen Crane. They both describe the role of woman, their kids and how they lived in the tenement during the late nineteenth century. In both of these stories there is a lot of violence and they are very poor (poverty). The living condition for the children is what most people would be concerned about. The children didn’t have any place to sleep. They were left uncared for and homeless. They had to figure out a way somehow to survive which is very hard for some adults so you could imagine what it was like for some little children. The women at the time usually stayed home and had the food ready for the family if they had any because they were so poor.
Keyana Coley
ReplyDeleteRii and Crane Essay
There are numerous parallels between Riis' investigative journalism account entitled How the Other Half Lives and Crane's fictional parable Maggie, Girl of the Streets, especially amid Crane’s characters and Rii’s description of life styles in Hell’s Kitchen.In Hell’s Kitchen, the horrific and desolate area is imposed on the immigrants mainly children and women who fight for there lives everyday. Whereas characters in Crane’s novella such as Jimmie who can lick them “wild one han”, who doesn’t fight inanimate disease’s,cramped areas and the industrial revolution but rather the embarassment and attempts of a young boy living on the street.