Jacob Riis 'The Men In The Storm'

In the year of 1900, the population of New York City was 3.4 million people. Sadly, two thirds of the people were living in unsanitary and crowded tenements (Tenements). What is worse is that many people did not know the tenements. Jacob Riis, the author how How The Other Half Lives, opened citizen’s eyes about what New York City was truthfully like. Jacob Riis however has not been the only writer to write about the reality of the world. Author’s like Kate Chopin, who wrote The Story Of An Hour, as well as Stephen Crane, the author of The Men In The Storm. All these authors use Imagery, a large amount of irony, and nationalism to achieve their purpose. People are oblivious to the actuality of life. As previously stated, Jacob Riis demonstrates in his non fiction essay that citizens do not know about the living conditions of the tenements. In order to express his opinion, Riis uses imagery to display that New York City was not an ideal place to live. Riis describes “Family with borders in Cedar Street, who fed hogs in the cellar that contained eight or ten loads of manure; or one room 12 x 12 with five families living in it, …show more content…
When Crane explains “There were men of undoubted patience, industry and temperance, who in time of ill-fortune, do not habitually turn to rail at the state of society, snarling at the arrogance of the rich and bemoaning the cowardice of the poor…” (Crane 72-75). While the men without a home were trapped outside in the harsh storm, the people with hot meals and a warm house would pay no attention to the “poor” that were suffering in the snow storm. Many of these people left in the cold are despondent as well. Crane displays how the environment can destroy people while others show apathy. Unfortunately, there are people out in the world that are ignorant about what is happening to the homeless during the winter helping. Crane reveals that some care more than