Young Girl Jane example essay topic

Jane Addams founded Hull House in 1889, along with her friend Ellen Starr. Jane had a very compassionate heart from the time she was a young girl. Everywhere she went, Jane had a desire to help people less fortunate than herself. Jane's father helped shape her to become more charitable to others less fortunate. Even as a young girl Jane wanted to know why all people did not live in nice homes with yards like her own. One day she saw a part of town that was run down and she could hardly believe that people could live in such 'horrid little houses.

That day Jane decided that she wanted to live in a large house in the middle of an awful place as she had seen. Jane wanted to do this so she could make a difference in the lives of people who lived there. Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois. One year later the War between the North and the South started. That same year the telegraph lines reached coast to coast. While Jane was a young girl, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Jane had the opportunity to go to Rockford Female Seminary at the age of seventeen. It was there at Rockford that Jane decided she wanted to be a missionary in the United States to help the poor. Jane went to Rockford for four years and was an excellent student. She received the highest grades out of every member in her class. Jane enjoyed having fun but was also of a serious nature.

After Jane graduated from Rockford, she decided she wanted to be a doctor and work among the poor. Jane went to Philadelphia to go to medical school and because she worked so hard, she became ill and a pain in her back, from her childhood returned. Jane ended up having to stay in bed, strapped to a board, for six months so her back could heal. After Jane recovered from her illness, she still had to wear a tight brace to stop the strain on her back. This brace helped Jane so she was not in pain all the time. Her doctor thought a trip to Europe would help her recover, therefore in August 1882; Jane went to Europe for a vacation.

In Europe Jane visited many places, including Ireland, Scotland, and different cities in England. Jane enjoyed London and particularly enjoyed a wax museum called Madame Tussaud's waxworks. One Saturday evening in London Jane and her friends were in a poor part of town, and someone told them they would see the late Saturday evening food sale if they stayed. It was a law that food could not be sold on Sunday, so Saturday evening the peddlers would auction off the fruits and vegetables that were left over. It was there that Jane saw a sight she would never forget. The poor swarmed around the peddlers offering every penny they had for the left over food.

The peddlers were selling food that was moldy, bruised, and dirty, but the people did not care, many of them sat right there and ate it anyway. Jane wondered if there was anyone around to help these people. While in Europe Jane studied the German, Italian, and French languages. While Jane was in Germany, she saw women carrying large beer canisters on their backs across snowy walkways.

The beer was steamy hot and would splash onto the women's faces and hands. Many of the women had scars on them from the burns. Jane could hardly contain herself, ran to the brewery, and yelled at the owner. The owner did not care, and told Jane to mind her own business.

After several years in Europe, Germany, and Spain, Jane decided it was time to do the dream of her childhood. She would return to Chicago and open a large home in an impoverished part of town. At last, her dream would become a reality. In September 1889, Jane and two of her friends fixed up an old house on Halsted Street. Gardens and oak trees once owned by a Charles Hull had surrounded the old home. Now the home was surrounded by some of the worst slums in Chicago.

Jane considered all who lived around her new neighbors and wanted nothing more than to help each of them. From the beginning Jane invited women over for tea, the boys and girls in to paint, act out plays, write stories, play games, and sculpt with clay. Jane felt that everyone enjoyed beautiful things and doing things, they were just not always giving the chance to do so. Jane learned much from the people who came to Hull House. Immigrants would come and talk with Jane and Ellen because they could speak their own language. There was one Italian woman who got very excited to see a vase of roses on the table because she had not seen flowers in America.

She thought they were fresh from Italy. Many immigrants thought America was like their neighborhood. They did not understand there was something else out there. People who came to Hull House considered it their home, and they would walk in as if it were their own.

In the first year that Hull House was open, fifty thousand people visited there. In the second year, two thousand people visited every week. As people learned about Hull House, they wanted to help. Some would send money while others would come and teach or set up clubs.

Jane and Ellen delivered babies, set up a day care for young children, took care of the sick, and counseled people with problems. They also taught English classes so the immigrants could become citizens and helped find relatives of new immigrants who simply stopped at the door. Jane and Ellen would not just stay in their nice home. They were often out helping their neighbors with anything they might need help with.

While helping with her own neighborhood, Jane fought for the child labor laws to be changed. She helped with the law that women could only work an eight-hour day, helped set up the first juvenile court, and helped to change the housing for the poor. They even started the first public playground in Chicago. In 1931, Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as president of the league from 1915 to 1929.

Over the years, Hull house expanded to be a full block. Jane influenced many people. On May 1, 1935, when Jane Addams died, a large number of those people were there to say good-by. Jane had given her life and all she had to make the lives of the less fortunate better. Blackstock, Josephine. (1950).

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The new Grolier CD ROM encyclopedia. Grolier Electronic Publishing Co. Addams, Jane. (1991). World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago, IL.

World Book Publishing Co Hull House. (1991). World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago, IL.

(1993). Nobel Prizes. (1991). World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago, IL. World Book Publishing Co.