The Last Blog

As this is my last post for this class I would like to initially reflect on a few things that really interested me throughout the term. First and foremost I think that coming into this class I had some misconceptions of religion as a whole and now I better understand how to take a third party, non judgmental stance on different practices so thank you for that. I also want to mention which part of the class was my favorite, it was the Jane Addams story. Not only was it my favorite read considering Jane Addams had a wonderful life story, but the message it gave (to me at least) was of great importance. I truely believe that spirituality and a sense of community can give someone a purpose for life, much like a religion can. I myself take no religious stance and sometimes I wish i could; however, the idea of sharing knowledge and helping others fully prosper makes for a fulfilling life. It is a wonderful concept and I hope that sometime in the near future I can add to someone else's life, it makes me feel like I can see the true meaning of life.

Throughout the term many things have become patterns. The most obvious and important pattern to me is the idea that religion is ever changing. We talked about this in class, the fact that there is a change in time and dynamic in religion and that we are not able at all to place any religion inside a box. I feel as though it means a lot to religions and the study of them that it is so dynamic, that evolution is obvious in all aspects of life, even human culture. I really enjoy what this class has taught me. Thanks!

Chicago's Poorest Community

The first thing I looked at from the pile of sites to read about was the nationality and wage levels of residents of the small area between Halsted and State, Polk and 12th. It seams that generally the weekly income is between $5.00 and $10.00, and the Russians are the poorest of them all. It was extremely interesting to see the mixture of races on each street. It is true that there are some areas with a higher density of Italians and others with the Russians and Polish, however the melting pot of people in Chicago at this time is quite obvious.

Each home had up to 8 people living in a single room at one time, some places didn't even have separate kitchens, but rather communal ones. A man of 21 might be supporting 6 to 8 family members all in one home. The dwelling houses towards Halsted is the most densely populated and poorest area of Chicago, and the Hull house is located in the heart of it all.

Although there are penny arcades and movie theatres, the majority of people are sitting on the sidewalks and visiting the Hull House as often as possible as a public space for mingling. It was said in one of the articles that "Hull House is beyond all bias, beyond all parties, and beyond all races", a large amount of communal mingling occurred in the Hull House. Although there is much interaction between immigrants, they keep their identity through church and through the different areas of the Hull House which relate to different races. It must have been incredibly difficult to immigrate to a new country and be alone in your community, however it seams to me there was plenty of interacting and aid from the Hull House and even between the races. It was said that "Friend gives to Friend: and no house is so poor but it can help an alien in misfortune".