The novel How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis shocked middle- and upper-class Americans when it was published in 1890. Riis created a sensation when he revealed to the world, combining detailed written descriptions with graphic photographs, the horrific conditions of New York City public housing. The way the Other Half Life raised many questions, such as how and why the poor are subjected to such terrible living conditions and how that environment affects them. Riis also reveals his fears and prejudices towards certain ethnic groups as he investigates each tenement to find some sort of solution. The miserable surroundings that Riis discusses throughout the length of his entire doc focuses on the tenement. The tenement is a building, the tenement was the greatest obstacle to the achievement of the American myth from rags to riches. It becomes impossible to move up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live beyond five years. Children under the age of five living in public housing had a mortality rate of 139.83 compared to the city's overall mortality rate of 26.67. Even if one had lived beyond five years it was very likely that he would have become a criminal, since practically everyone comes from public housing. They are forced to steal and kill, they will do anything to survive, Riis aptly calls it the "survival of the fittest". (Pg.The “new” immigrants arrived hungry for work and were willing to work for a fraction of what the “old” immigrants would have paid. The “new” immigrants arrived unskilled and unaccustomed to American society, they took the “old ” immigrants jobs and disrupted their neighborhoods; this created a lot of tension between the two groups, the Rii, like others, hated some ethnic groups more than others, and in How the Other Half Lives establishes an overall hierarchy placing the “old” immigrants at the top. Riis places the Italians, Jews and blacks. At the bottom of the scale Riis places the Chinese. Riis describes the Italians as: “Slow, stubborn and happy to live in a pig – pigsty. This man is so ignorant that, as one of the sharpeners who prayed for him once said, 'it would be a shame not to welcome him'". saying, “Thrift is the name of the game in Jewtown. It is at once their fatal strength and weakness... Money is their God." (Page.