Corruption  Theme Analysis

As he moves throughout the slums and tenements of the city, Riis draws on his experience as an investigative reporter in uncovering the relationship between money, power, and poverty in and beyond these areas. Indeed, in addition to simply recounting the sights he sees, Riis exposes the underlying connections between the shocking conditions of New York’s poor as well as the complex, subtle manipulations that often work to keep them in their place.

For instance, Riis lingers over the relationship between saloons and political leadership: many of the rum shops crowding the tenements, which he contrasts with the coffee shops, parks, and libraries that could ideally take their place, are actually owned by some of the most powerful political leaders in the city—leaders who turn a profit off of the alcoholism of a population deprived of other cultural or social entertainment options. Rent gouging is another way the poor are exploited, according to Riis’s account: again, it is the most vulnerable populations who are the most likely to pay exorbitant prices on their rundown or even dangerous tenements, as landlords grow wealthy off of them.

Much of this is allowed to carry on, Riis argues, because of the relative neglect that characterizes the slums. Because policemen tend to turn a blind eye, and because more privileged people can easily forget that these places even exist, corruption can continue unchecked. Just as diseases like scarlet fever spread from block to block among the tenements without medical authorities taking action, so too do fraud and financial abuse snake their way through the alleys Riis explores. The graphs and tables that supplement Riis’s narrative are meant to provide evidence for these arguments, adding a quantitative claim of authority to the more descriptive, humanizing portrayals of life in the slums.

By analyzing the causes and sources of corruption, Riis aims to expose the way in which the city’s most vulnerable residents are taken advantage of by the more powerful—and are trapped in a cycle of poverty that becomes self-perpetuating, even if ultimately resolvable through reform.