The Lives of Others

Imagine living in an environment where you have no human rights. An environment where the people of the shadows dictate your every action. You would be living your life without freedom. In the movie “the lives of others” the story being told is one of change and tragedy. The movie follows a man who is considered to be a watcher. This man goes from being stonecold to striving for his heart. Only after seeing the affects the satzi have on regular people is when this man is forever changed. He…

The Lives of Others (von Donnersmarck, 2007) explores the concept of the surveillance society and its effects on the surveilled. Surveillance has a sinister way in which it changes the way we think and act and has several psychological consequences. The Lives of Others follows the story of Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler and his mental anguish as he spies on artist Georg Dreyman and fellow girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland. The film explores the idea of understanding humanity in an intimate nature through…

There was never a rich baby left out on the streets, only those who came from an extremely poor mother. Most babies come from the East where their mothers were not married and had no name other than their own to bestow upon the baby. In most cases, mothers would only wrap the innocent babies in newspaper. In rare occasions, they were some found in a clean slip and a little message pinned onto their diaper. The messages would be a note for…

was not until he became a police reporter for the NYPD that he discovered the true suffering. Citizens living in extremely poor conditions. He felt compelled to find a way to expose this to the other prosperous side of America. Later on he took photos and published many book eliciting the images to other fellow Americans. Riis was part of the gilded age era. This meant industrialization was at its peak in America's history. Many ''skilled''workers such as women who sewed were no longer needed…

The full title of this book is “How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York” and it was first published in 1890. Jacob A. Riis was a journalist and a photographer that focused mainly on the environment of the poor neighborhoods and slums in New York City in the second half of the 19th century. This essay deals with the motives behind Riis’s work and the importance of photographs for achieving his goals. At the beginning it is important to look at the life of Jacob A. Riis…

The film, The Lives of Others, portrays an example of how human beings are in conflict with other human beings simply because they have no understanding of the lives of others. The main character of the movie, Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, seemed to change his views throughout the film constantly simply because he became aware of the lives of others. There are many scenes in the movie in which Wiesler’s actions would be considered moral on Kantian grounds. For instance, Wiesler’s character starts…

Riis How the Other Half Lives is constructed of 25 chapters that mainly talk about the problems in faced mainly in New York tenements. The chapters are each focused on a varying topic or of different types of people. Riis focus as a muckraker is to expose the living conditions of those living in the tenements concentrated mainly in lower New York. Most of these tenements are home to a diversity of people that are usually segregated by national origin, ethnicity, or race. Some of the chapters…

Through the use of symbolism, characterisation, allegorical depiction of sceptical archetypes. Animal Farm, a tale written by George Orwell and, The Lives of Others directed by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck both explore the, dangers that are inherent in a totalitarian and socialist regime. Each texts demonstrates that hope for change is needed in a totalitarian society however come to different conclusions. Through these texts we see that the totalitarian government has no conscience about…

Jacob A. Riis’s informative book How The Other Half Lives overall summary is the exposing to readers the ignorance and disingenuous conditions endured in New York’s slums. He includes history about the tenements which belonged to the city’s wealthiest families and as industrialization increased it attracted many immigrants in the 19th century and the buildings were divided into overcrowded apartments for arrivals. Additionally, he mentions that cholera epidemics led people to desire reform.…

This source is an excerpt from the book How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis was born in Denmark and grew up there. He emigrated to the United States in 1870 at the age of 21. Being like most young men of 21, he had high hopes of the future and excitement about what was to come. He held quite a few odd and undesirable jobs during the first few years in the U.S. These jobs and the way of life he led while looking for his niche in the world, opened Riis ' eyes to the poverty of the…