How the Other Half Lives Essay Topics
1.
Where does Riis place blame for New York City’s tenement problem, and why?
2.
How does Riis use images, especially photographs, to build his case for tenement reform? How do you think these photographs might have been received by the 19th-century audiences and readers who first viewed them?
3.
Riis often relies on “racial” generalizations common to the era in which he lived. Why did Riis believe that these generalizations supported his argument for tenement reform? How might those same generalizations in fact undermine his argument?
