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Babbitt By Sinclair Lewis And How The Other Half Lives

Decent Essays

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. GIVE HISTORICAL CONTEXT. Both Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis and How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis expose injustice in society; however, Lewis establishes a connection between the unfulfilling American dream and hypocrisy of society in the 1920s in the middle class, and Riis exposes the gap between the impoverished and dangerous conditions of the poor and the uncaring or uneducated middle- and upper-class in the context of New York. Set in the 1920s, Babbitt captures both political and personal unrest, as well as social rebellion. Written in third-person narrative, Babbitt's characters include political extremists and those with overt mistrust of the opposing political party: how Seneca Doane, a radical lawyer, is treated by society embodies this notion. In fact, most men that influence society blacklist Doane; men like William Enthrone and Virgil Gunch view Doane as a “communist threat,” and when Babbitt suddenly defends Doane and "radical" politics, these men are caught between complete disbelief and threatening mistrust. QUOTE. How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis is a nonfiction story that recounts Riis’s life after immigrating to the United States from Denmark in 1870. When Riis first immigrated to the United States, he took low-paying jobs, and during this time, he experienced the utter poverty in New York City. After rising in social standing, Riis found work as a police reporter for the New York Tribune; his work frequently brought

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