Book Review of The Classic Slum Essay

“The home is the wellspring of personhood. It is where our identity takes root and blossoms, whereas children, we imagine, play, and question, and as adolescents, we retreat and try. As we grow older, we hope to settle into a place to raise a family or pursue work. When we try to understand ourselves, we often begin by considering the kind of home in which we were raised” (Desmond 2016, 293). Evictions! The root of poverty? Matthew Desmond’s novel “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in America City, portrays the lives of tenants, landlords, and house marketing on the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee. Desmond gives the reader overwhelming evidence and revealing testimony illustrating the major impact of inadequate housing on individuals, local, and national level. Desmond’s analysis and observation of his case study enables him to portray the reality of poverty, and to persuade the readers that evictions are a major consequence, and primary contributors in the relentless cycle of poverty. Desmond build his argument using two Aristotelian rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and inductive reasoning to illustrates the importance of ending the cycle of poverty.

Jacob Riis’ book How the Other Half Lives is a detailed description on the poor and the destitute in the inner realms of New York City. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the ‘eyes’ of his camera. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the ‘other half’ is living. As shocking as the truth was without seeing such poverty and horrible conditions with their own eyes or taking in the experience with all their senses it still seemed like a million miles away or even just a fairy tale.

The term ghetto, originally derived from Venetian dialect in Italy during the sixteenth century, has multiple variations of meaning. The primary perception of the word is “synonymous with segregation” (Bassi). The first defining moment of the ghetto as a Jewish neighborhood was in sixteenth century Italy; however, the term directly correlates with the beginning of the horror that the Jewish population faced during Adolph Hitler’s reign. “No ancient ghetto knew the terror and suffering of the ghettos under Hitler” (Weisel, After the Darkness 20). Under Hitler’s terror, there were multiple ghettos throughout several cities in numerous countries ranging in size and population. Ghettos also differed in purpose; some were temporary housing

Economic Pressure was used in the speech regularly to show the large division between the rich and the poor. The speaker refers to ‘the rich unnaturally elevated’, ‘weight of taxation, misrule and oppression’. ‘Destitution in horrid form stalks through street, lane and thourghfare’ ‘emaciated frames’. The terminology reflects on the economic pressures that the poor endured, high tax and poor working conditions that often led to illness and death. He emphasised how the richer of the society, the aristocracy, were ‘in exclusive possession of power’. This speech would have stirred the emotions of the crowds as they heard how hard their lives were to those belonging to the upper classes. The speaker creates horrid, desperate images of the poorer classes ‘insufferable despair,’ toll of the death-bell’ to highlight how hard their lives were. (Briggs, 1959, P.50) a secondary source reflected how Chartism ‘seems to have been strongest in the two kinds of places… centres of decaying or contracting industry’ and ‘new or expanding single industry towns’. Briggs ‘s writing shows that Chartism was prominent in only certain areas such as those of industry. Whereas, ‘almost non-existent in completely agricultural villages’.

he also talks about the problems with crime, alcohol, drugs, and gang violence. In Chapter 18 " The Reign of Rum" shows the reader just how bad the alcohol problem was in these slums. to every one church there was 10 saloons. One would think that this would not be a problem with the poor. one would think that since money was so scarce during these times no one would waste their money on the poison. This book does an excellent job of showing just how bad it was. People tried to escape their problems through the alcohol just as people still do today. Another major problem for this city was the gangs and the violence and theft that surrounded them. Gangs would start in the tenants when young boys and sometimes girls thought that the only way to get through life was to take what they

People that don't make the most such as middle class citizens are constantly pushed and involuntary forced out of their city because of gentrification. Gentrification is the process of renovating and the economic redevelopment from one culture to another using a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. In Downtown Eastside gentrification has been occurring for the past years. In Vancouver DTES gentrification would be doing more harm than good. The effects gentrification would leave in Vancouver DTES are unimaginable. Leaving many homeless, in poverty, culture clashing and with struggles for the low income the middle class people earn. Vancouver is already known as “poorest postal code in Canada. How will the people survive this new modification being done to their beloved DTES?

A main factor in the storyline is the way the writer portrays society's attitude to poverty in the 18th century. The poor people were treated tremendously different to higher classed people. A lot of people were even living on the streets. For example, "He picked his way through the hordes of homeless

Homelessness and poverty are no strangers to any United States citizen. On any day you are almost guaranteed to see a homeless person, whether it be a trip to a local Walmart, or a coffee shop in the city, the poverty-stricken are everywhere and completely unavoidable. In the United States there are some sobering statistics on poverty and homelessness. According to an article by Alana Semuels entitled “ The Resurrection of American Slums” the author talks about poverty in the United States. “The number of people living in high-poverty areas . . . nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013, to 13.8 million from 7.2 million” (Semuels, Par 2, 2015). When people think of homeless people they think drug-addict, or mentally insane. What they don't think

Gentrification. More than a word but a statement that there is something new in town. A statement that allows one to see that there would be changes that will tear some families down but build some up. It had originated during times where blacks had been moving up on the ladder and was not wanted. Around the 1960’s there had been powerful upgrowing black businesses that many do not know today due to gentrification. Many things have kept culture alive in the district during the times of gentrification such us the music but things that people love. Teenagers and adults all over the globe, but mainly in the district have felt the empowerment and movements of Muhammad Ali. A man who had been more than a boxer, someone who fought in the ring and his people.

Throughout history, the poor and undesirable classes of societies were always placed in separate living areas. For the undesirable poor and African Americans of America, the ghetto was created to keep them out of certain settlements. In his book, Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power, Kenneth B. Clark describes the ghetto as having an "invisible wall" that surrounded it. People who live in ghettos have their social dynamics, behaviorism, and overall health negatively impacted by racism and segregation. Life in the ghettos is considered to be both harsh and dangerous due to the high crime rates and violence.

In his book, The Condition of the Working Class in England, Engels gives a much more objective and expansive view of the conditions facing the working class poor than Gaskell does in Mary Barton. He takes his reader on a journey through the miserable living and working conditions of the lower classes in what he calls the great towns of England, such as London and Manchester. Engels begins with the great towns by saying that the city is so impressive that “a man cannot collect himself, but is lost in the marvel of England’s greatness before he sets foot upon English soil” [Friedrich Engels, The Condition

Video Response Worksheet SOCI 101 CCBC / Fall 2015 SECTION 03 / Daley, Caitlin The Real Slumdogs a. Language/ pg. 42: A system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways and can represent not only objects but abstract thought. Language was represented mainly in Lamxi’s story during the short film. Laxmi worked very hard in order for her daughter, Sheetal, to receive an education. In the scene that showed Laxmi is helping her daughter study her school material, I found it interesting that Sheetal was studying English. Even in the heart of India’s busiest city, and thousands of miles away from the United States, her curriculum still consisted of being fluent in our language. This will be very important for Sheetal, given that

Gentrification can be defined as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle class taste.” This topic stood out to me because I 've witnessed a great deal of gentrification in my District over the past year. I 've seen increases in rent, new restaurants, hospitals and changes in my district 's culture overall.

Although written long ago, before the twentieth century, London echoes a theme recurrent in present history. Poverty is still shared

He uses information gathered by journalists, doctors, coroners, and public health officials to reinforce his observations of this decay and degradation that receives little attention otherwise. Along with his clear self-accreditation as a well-read, knowledgeable, experienced surveryor of the urban world, these data support his argument. In addition to this widely gathered English professional evidence, Engels makes it clear that he is physically in these slums, talking the citizens who live in the “shacks” and entering the buildings. “The foregoing description furnishes an idea of the aspects of the interior of the dwellings.” He covers various categories of everyday life in these communities and the conditions of the working men to make his argument in the style of a “social scientist.”