Monday, April 21, 2008
Blog # 9
Textbook: Chapter 6
1. The United States was regarding as new and rich world to those who did not live there. That is why immigrants migrated to the US. Women from all over Europe and Asia traveled to the US for better opportunities, higher wages, independence, and hopefully a chance at true love. Upon entering the Uniter States though, life was different than what the expected. Women worked in factories or as servants and still received low wages for their hard work, similar to men. Men as well traveled from all of the world to find better wages and opportunities only to be kept down under the hand of the whites. What men did not have to suffer from was the likelihood of being forced into prostitution were often forced into a life of prostitution just to make enough to survive. Men also usually came to the Uniter States to work temporarily and then return home. Wages were higher than in the countries they called home so they would make the trip to the US and work just for the money to take back home to their families. Men and women immigrants alike suffered from the low wages and difficult, harsh labor, but it was the women that suffered more from prostitution.
2. Women involved in these three movements all had one common goal but different reasons to join. They all wanted equality, but they joined the group that would help in the fight for what they most believed in. The industrial protest called for higher wages, better working conditions and a better equality in the factories. This protest included both men and women and was for the bettering of all factories nationwide. The populist movement consisted of farmers of the South that were in debt. This included white non-elite women and black women. Finally, the settlement house movement was the idea to help immigrants learn the values and culture of United States. This movement also helped immigrant women in their daily lives. All three were designed to better women and men in the whole nation and called for reforms of women's lives.
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Source Interpretation
Textbook document
3. Addams wrote about the two different spectrums which the saw: The rich and the poor. She viewed the rich as living in particular parts of town, such as the Hull House, because there were other rich people living there as well. She viewed the poor as lazy and that is why they were poor. The poor view the wealthy as the landlords and those who are charitable. They believe that the landlords unkindly ways are to just make money. The charitable wealthy people are looking down on the poor and handing out money because they feel sorry for they. Because the poor feel these ways towards the rich they are often disrespectful and cold toward them. In the act of trying to become more like the rich by wearing cheaper versions of the fancy clothes they wear, the poor lose their identities and their ethical standards. The rich are confused after they donate to the poor because the poor still view them rudely, and are not very thankful.
4. Addams realized that people were different from one another and always would be. The social structure made them different. As a settlement house volunteer she realized the ways of the social structure and that the poor was poor not because that they were lazy but because they had no choice. It was society's fault for why the rich were rich and the poor were poor. The wealthy had control of the money and they were the ones that employed the poor and kept their wages low. Addams understood better this system with help of their Hebrew religion
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4 comments:
Response #1, Erica
Hi Tyler, if I am reading your blog correctly, I think something was lost in translation, so to speak. If you don’t mind, I just want to clarify that the Hull House was actually a Mansion that was in the middle of the area where all the immigrants lived. Jane Addams was able to get the owner to donate the home for her project and got other college graduates to assist her in running the home dedicated to social reform. As far as Addams’ writings go, it is my personal opinion that she did not just believe the poor were all just lazy. She understood that many worked very hard but did not have the education to attain jobs that paid highly enough and as hard as they worked it was never enough to live as the rich did. I think part of Addams’ goal was to get others to understand that you could not just generalize why these people were poor, there were many reasons why people were not able to work or make ends meet. And it was unethical to be charitable for your own selfish purposes, whether it was to make yourself feel superior to those less fortunate than you or to pick and choose those that you deem “worthy” of being helped because of some end incentive for yourself.
Rachel R#1
Hey Tyler,
I agree with you that Addams, prior to living in Hull House, did have a pretty fixed idea of poor and rich people. She did see the poor as lazy but also as uneducated and therefore a bit helpless. She understood that those who received education were those who had money and of course the opposite for those who did not. Living and volunteering in Hull House allowed her to help immigrants, who were mainly the poor in this area, and allowed her to try to reconstruct the social structure of classes-especially between the rich and poor. I agree that it was at Hull House that she realized her thoughts to be wrong or poorly judged and thus changed. Regarding question #2…Although I do agree that all 3 causes were for the betterment of men and women, I do think that the differences involved in each cause were important as well. The industrial protest was mainly for labor causes (regardless of gender), the populist movement united white and black women together, and the women of the settlement house movement stood behind social and class reforms. Yes, all were for more rights, equality, etc, but they brought women from different classes, races, and men and women together in ways never done before. And that is what I think is most important about the differences of these movements.
Elias-R#2
response to Erica
Well, first I really do not see the importance of whether the Hull house was a mansion or a just a regular house. Anyways, in your argument against Tyler’s statement that Addams believed that the poor were lazy, Tyler’s answer to the second question of the source interpretation clearly shows that she was able to identify the fact that Addams was able to make the generalizations between the rich and poor and that it was more of a societal issue rather than an issue of an individual group of people that caused the poor to be poor in the first place. I believe that in the first question, what was meant to be stated was that Addams wrote of how society perceives the poor as being lazy.
Rachel R#2
Hey Elias,
I do see the importance in stating that the Hull House was a mansion amongst immigrant living divisions. Can you imagine what that must have looked like? And felt like for the poor women who were able to be inside such a beautiful place? The house would have given inspiration and hope for these people struggling to survive. It may have been able to show them what they could achieve with education. And it also provided the stark contrast to the ways in which the volunteers and immigrants were used to living and ultimately brought them and the community together. In reference to what you said about the rich and poor classes being a societal issue rather than individual groups that caused such classes to exist, I must say that the rich are the ones who controlled the money and work opportunities and therefore did play a large role in determining class division, and kept the immigrants poor and the elite rich.
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