The slideshow/video "The Way They Lived" is a compendium of various moments we have seen represented in the other texts.
Were there things that jumped out of the screen and forced you to re-think, re-assess, re-evaluate the meaning of the information you had learned so far about ItAms?
Or did they just re-confirm, in starker terms, your understanding of their experience?
In your COMMENT, make specific references to one or more photos.
Reminder: short sentences, short paragraphs.
REPLY: pick a comment written AFTER yours that is particularly well written and sharp in conveying concepts and ideas.
Visually seeing the conditions in which Italian Americans for forced to endure definitely reaffirmed what I already knew from reading "Son of Italy". I remember D'Angelo detailing a time when he had to sleep on a wooden board because he had no mattress. I was only able to imagine what that must have been like, but to have a visual that corresponds to exactly what D'Angelo experienced made it seem all too real. What stood out to me the most was, obviously, the photos of the children. More specifically, however, there were a few photos of children smiling. Children are much more intuitive than we give them credit for sometimes. They know that the conditions they are living in are bad, but to see some of them with smiles on their faces puts things into perspective for me. They are making the best of a horrible situation and it encourages others, myself included, to do the same.
ReplyDeleteYou’ve got the right idea. Glass is half full as i always say and clearly the kids of poverty feel that way as well.
DeleteWatching "The Way They Lived" only confirmed for me the understanding of their experience. I've watched several movies reflecting the lives of Italians immigrating here and learning about the experience in history class. I can tell from the pictures, sleeping on the boats, having a bunch of people sleep in the same room on the floor, working in sweatshops, living in very unsanitary conditions, it was not an easy life for them to endure by any means. The movie La Vita e Bella, although it is about the Holocaust, I felt that movie showed similar living conditions as the pictures in this short clip. It puts a new perspective into thinking how immigration and living conditions have changed drastically over the years.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you related these experiences to La Vita, it's a great movie with a different perspective of Italians.
DeleteFerjana Safa
DeleteI totally agree with you. Seeing the video really put it into perspective of all the things ITAM's were going through.
Nothing from the pictures really surprised me. It was interesting to see how small the boats were and how packed the people were on them. When I pictured the boats that ITAM's came on I pictured large steamboats, but these were more like tiny sailboats with no room on the deck. The most extreme picture I saw was the one of the man sleeping on a board with two barrels. It really spoke to me about the sacrifices they made and the change in life styles they had to endure to provide for their families abroad.
ReplyDeleteBefore watching this video, I thought that Italians who came to America to settle would enjoy a happier life than when they were in Italy. But the images in the video completely changed my mind. The image of their place and their room was like a slum and very shabby. The image of men huddling together to and have to live in a cramped room made me imagine Pascall and his father also had to live in a place like that with other men, when they was in America. But I think that at that time, not only Italian Americans but also people in other countries had to live in even worse places to survive.
ReplyDeleteI had a different experience than you when watching the video, I actually was not surprised. I also thought that it was interesting that you referenced Pascal. I am sure that these were the types of conditions that he encounter as well. Similar to what you alluded to, the struggle to survive is definitely one that is universal. Overall, I think that many immigrants can relate to this in addition to regular citizens that live in their home country.
DeleteThe photos didn’t necessarily surprise me in terms of my general expectations of Italian American poverty. Since reading the book, as well as what i’ve seen in class over the years of schooling painted a full picture of immigrant life. Some pictures like the one of the boat deck with people huddled in blankets makes me think of how utterly ruthless people were to other people without a second thought. The best example of a classic image summing up a immigrants suffering would be the first picture for ‘The Men’.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures shown in the video “the way they lived” has reconfirmed my understanding of the Italian American experience. Prior to viewing the video I knew that Italians like many others immigrating from Europe viewed America as being a gold mine, the complete opposite of the place they originally left. But, in reality life in America was pretty rough and many had to work extremely hard and long hours just to still live in poverty. The photos of the tenement houses that Italian Americans lived in and their sleeping conditions show us the struggles they faced and help us visualize what Pascal wrote about during his first few months as a laborer in America.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you "The way they lived" give us better perspective and visual support on the living conditions and struggles that Pascal described in the book.
Delete"The way they lived" is a portrayal of early Italian American immigrants and their struggles. I find the video to enforce my beliefs of how people were early on as immigrants. Immigrants were often portrayed and visualized as hard working individuals and this was the same within the video. The men worked and had their caves, while women took care of the kids and family shown in the family pictures without the fathers in it. Since I wasn't born in the early times where immigrants i can only visualize what people have gone through but this video has only helped with the idea of what had happened back then.
ReplyDeleteIf im being honest, the pictures didn’t surprised me because I had a feeling thats how Italian Americans were living. Prior to the video, Italians saw America as a gold mine one could say because they thought they would live a better life leaving their home and coming to America. They then begin to realize the hardships and rough life that America brings to them. The one interesting picture was the photo of where the people were living. It showed the sleeping conditions and how they lived which indicates the struggles they face. Without these important Photos, we would only verbally hear how rough it was living in America as an Italian American but the photos definitely help us see what they saw.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. If I only read books, I cannot imagine the living conditions of Italian immigrants. The images in the video helped me to better understand the hard life they had to experience in America.
DeleteThe images that I saw just reaffirmed the information that I learned about Italian-Americans. For example, the images that showed the buildings reminded me of the tenement buildings that I learned about during middle school. I had learned that immigrants such as the Irish and Italians lived in tenement buildings in poor living conditions.
ReplyDeleteAnother image that reaffirmed my understanding is the image of the sweatshops. The image portrayed adults and children cramped in a room working. This reminded me of what I learned about sweatshops in school. I learned that children had to work there until laws were passed in the early 1900s. These conditions were not pleasant and people had to work for long hours and with little pay.
The reference to sweatshops is very fitting for these images. I did not think of that when I first saw them but after reading your comment and going back it really does look like a sweatshop.
DeleteOne image from the video that stood out to me was the woman holding the two babies in the kitchen. This picture shows one of the dirtiest and most cluttered kitchens i've ever seen and what appears to be the foot of a bed just out of frame net to the woman. This obviously was not an uncommon practice at the time but seeing physical evidence of people being forced to be crowded all into basically one tiny room for the entirety of the day is good confirmation of the tragedies that these people were forced to endure.
ReplyDeleteAnother picture that stood out to me also has to deal with sleeping conditions, the one of the man sleeping in what appears to be an overly crowded basement. The image showed a man laying on a mattress that couldn't have been more than 2 feet away from the ceiling which shows just how undesirable every aspect of their lives was. Obviously there lives would not have been much better in their home countries, which is why they are in America in the first place, but the fact that these men and women were willing to live in these conditions shows just how passionately they believed in the better life that was promised to them in America.
In the slideshow "The Way They Lived" after seeing all of the raw footage I can say that this slideshow reinforced all of my thoughts about what I have learned this semester in class. This slideshow also reminds me of "Sons of Italy" in a lot of ways and it was all I could think about while watching it. The multiple pictures of children and adults crammed together in one room reminds me of Pascal used to live with his parents in poverty, as well as the setting in these pictures. The rooms where the people were sleeping or living in looked like they were broken down just as Pascal described how water would drip from the ceiling as he slept. I can say I was not surprised by the slide show, I was expecting it more then being surprised by it.
ReplyDeleteThat picture with the men crammed in a room reminded me about the exact same thing. The book really does a good job at illustrate life in poverty.
DeleteThe slideshow "The Way They Lived" pretty much reconfirmed everything I learned about Italians Americans. Especially the part about the sweat shops the children were working in. In the book Pascal talks about working as a child and not being able to go to school and I just pictured that imagine of the family and kids all together in a room working. The beginning scenes also reminded me of my home country, Georgia, how they would be drying clothes outside in the streets.
ReplyDeleteTrue, I was imagining these poor kids working so hard instead of enjoying their childhood.
DeleteFerjana Safa
ReplyDeleteThe book had portrayed a lot of the images that were being exhibited in the video. While reading the book did give me a lot of knowledge of what the ITAM's were going through, the pictures shown helped to get a clearer image pf the situations. Just by reading Pascals book, I wasn't able to really to depict what was going on until I saw the video.
One picture that really stood out to me was the one towards the beginning. The image where everyone was crammed into the boat and there was barely any space to even move. Another image which was similar to the boat scene was when the video showed the sleeping conditions. People were practically lying packed into one room. These basically showed how bad their living conditions was.
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I had a basic understanding of how the lives of italian American immigrating here was before. I believe people immigrate to a different place for a better life and you would think coming to america they would have a better life but it was so sad how so many people were crammed into one room. These people had faith that life in America would be better than back home which is why they struggled for their better life. The working conditions were also horrible. These pictures remind us of the history before us, how immigrants struggle and work hard and make America what it is today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about how the struggles these immigrants laid the ground work for the America we know today. It is also wild looking at these pictures how this was only a little over 100 years ago.
DeleteVivica Sanchez
ReplyDeleteIn the video I felt the same message from the book and in this video is being conveyed the same. Italian Americans just as other immigrants still do come for a better life. There is always a period in time where they face rejection and hardship before they prevail.
In the comment above me by Mosammeth speaks about the working conditions and I feel the video is a great representation of how poor they were and still are. These things are continuously ignored and from the beginning has been happening. We can see the struggle of what has began to shift but not entirely. In these photos we can see what it was like every day for these people.
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ReplyDeleteThe scenes displayed in The Way They Lived do not alter my perceptions of early Itilian American life in the United States. Rather, they enhance and add greater clarity to the narrative that this course has been constructing within my mind. The slide showing what "they found (0:38)" reminds me very much of the experience that minorities endure living in "projects" buildings even in 2020. "The Home Sweatshop" photos I found the most conflicting with normative views, as they mark a departure from the notion that men work outside while women work inside.
ReplyDeleteThe slideshow of images from “The Way They Lived”, confirmed my understanding of experiences, encountered by Italian Americans. When reading “Son of Italy”, I pictured so many of the experiences D’Angelo described in his autobiography. For example, when D’Angelo described the living spaces in which he encountered as a man, I pictured exactly what was captured at minute mark 1:22, in the clip “The Way They Lived”. A tiny room with several men sleeping in any space they could find. Several moments captured within the clip, correlated with my understanding of life for Italian American men, as described by D’Angelo. As sad, and pitiful the living conditions were for men and women during this prominent time, I admit, I was oblivious to the conditions experienced by young children. I figured all families experienced poor living conditions, however, viewing pictures of children sleeping outside in the streets, sparked a stronger sense of heartbreak, for me. These families sacrificed so much, just to get a chance at a better life in America, and what they came to experience was truly devastating. Overall, the clip “The Way They Lived” was informative and insightful.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching "The Way They Lived" I was able to think back on the book in much more of a real sense. Comparing the way that the author lived in New York with in Italy and looking at the pictures, it is heart breaking to see that so many people who came to America for a better life just ended up in the same situation. The photos that really got to me were the hovels of put together wood pieces they lived in and the photo of all the men in one bedroom. It is hard to imagine anyone living like that.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading the book “Son of Italy” and watching the video clip “The Way They Lived” the image of Italians that I had in my head was completely different because I grew up on the movies with such famous actors as Adriano Chelentano and Ornella Mutty. For me, Italians are always associated with people which in spite of life’s difficulties have a smile on their faces and a good sense of humor. While I watched the video clip “The Way They Lived” I pay attention to Italian people’s faces and all these faces reflected hopelessness and disappointment. Only in one picture I noticed a smile on a child's face who sat in a dirty bathroom-like container with water. I also, in a part “The Children '' in the video clip, tried to find any toy and I didn’t find it. It is hard for me to watch the terrible living conditions that Italian children faced and that took away their childhood. These children had to work hard and instead of playing toys learn how to use different kind of tools like pick and shovel and observe how their parents each day had to deal with life’s difficulties in order to survive.
ReplyDeleteThe images in the slide show didn't really jump out to me but, it did provide solid evidence of what was described earlier on in class. In the beginning of class at one point it was pointed out that when Italians first immigrated to America they lived in poor conditions with multiple people to a bed(such as the images following the 1:13 mark) which is very sad and I wish they could have had a better experience in a new place but unfortunately no one in the old America was really willing to help out others who weren't one of their own. I wonder what kind of difference there would be now if they were given and provided respectable living quarters and if they had better experiences when first arriving in America. Would there be a drastic difference in the ITAMs community?
ReplyDelete"The Way They Lived” was insightful and honestly sad. In a part of the clip you have all the men sleeping on the floor and it drew me back to the first chapter of "Sons of Italy" where it talks about their poverty and how they all slept in one bed. Another part about that was upsetting to see was the sweat shops the children were working in.In the book Pascal talks about how he had to work as a child and not being able to attend school. It's hard to know that little children (the ones that need to form the future) are working in horrible conditions and not receiving an education.
ReplyDeleteThe photos do provide a sense of reality and reading the chapters of Son of Italy going forward I think will be even more insightful
DeleteAfter reading the chapters of Son of Italy and then going to see the slideshow, specifically the ones with the children and the sweatshops, it just reaffirms the struggles that the Italian Americans had to endure and the reality of it. I did imagine, while reading Son of Italy, the setting looking how it was but the photos brought it to life and made it feel even more devastating. The living conditions is something nobody should have to endure.
ReplyDelete"The Way They Lived" really gave me a more depth understanding of their hardships.